THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2479, 12 September 1922, Page 1

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS.

DEFENCE OF ITS WORK

FINE SPEECH BY EARL BALFOUR

LONDON, Sept. 8. 1 lie Australian Press Association’s Geneva correspondent says that Earl Balfour spoke •or an hour in defence of the League's activities in the past, in explanation of the limitations of the present, and in advocacy of increased powers for the future. Referring to Lord Cecil’s criticism of the league’s helplessness in the presence of the war in the Near East, and his demand that if the league is to justify its existence it must in future be all or nothing, Earl Balfour said the council was constitutionally incapable of intervening. Furthermore, the league possesses neither thfe money nor the ships or men. Nevertheless it has an increasing moral intluence. lie hoped that material authority would develop by the revolutionary process. Meanwhile, the league must content itself with its moral influence to promote peace. The founders of the league were concerned only in preserving the peace which they imagined had been established, not in the winding up the war of which the present Near East conflict was practically a continuation. They then thought they were removing the debris of the war and rearranging the map of Europe in conformity with tile wishes of tlte populations. Not any of the statesmen or publicists of the world then foresaw the calamitous struggle now proceeding in the Near East. The league was not united with machinery capable of ending the Great War, of which the struggle now proceeding was probably the last episode. Referring to the .Sane. Earl Balfour said the League's efforts had been greatly hamper.tl by malignant propaganda in the district by people who were mote concerned in discrediting tlte Government ihan in securing good gov eminent. Lite propaganda even extended to the League at. Geneva. The propagandists could avail themselves of the machinery which entitled them to secure an investigation of alleged grievances bv the Council of the League, but they preferred an itisiduous campaign from house to house. There was no possibility of examining or refuting the allegations. Referring to l)r. .Nansen's criticisms ot the League's inactivity during the Russian famine and plague, Earl Balfour stated that everybody, including the League Governments and the charitable public, had been hampered by live knowledge that, tlte contributions would be administered by the Russian Government, in whom nobody bail confidence. Ihe .Soviet Intel command oi gold which it could apply to the relief of its own people. lie admitted that something must be done with the Russian plague, which menaced Europe. Mr Llovd George had done everything possible and would have done more, but. the famine and plague coincided with the great coal strike in Britain, which cost the nation two hundred million pounds. Li. was impossible then to foresee the ultimate development of the strike. Since then tile Government had contributed £250,000. The British public line! voluntarily subscribed more than any other nation. The Government furthermore had offered to subscribe £IOO,OOO if the combined nations of the world agreed to contribute £200,000.—A. and N.Z. ea ble. LLOYD GEORGE MAY ATTEND. CHANGE IN FRENCH ATTITUDE. LONDON, Sept. 8. Mr Lloyd George will probably proceed to Geneva in time to participate in the closing sessions of the League Nations. The Daily Telegraph’s Geneva correspondent states that if Mr Lloyd George attends, M. Poincare also will attend, thus making the first occasion on which two Prime Ministers will have taken part in the League’s annual parliament. The most important point is an indication of the remarkable change in the French attitude towards the League, to which it was undeniably unfavourable in earlier days. “If my information is correct, the French Government is now willing that tile activities ot the League should be widely extended, thus becoming more or less tlte sole international body dealing with the world's affairs. It is even slated that France is willing to see the Reparations Commission abolished and its functions transferred to the League of Nations. France believes she might receive more reparation payments from the League than front the Commission and this would bo even more likely if Germany were admitted. The Daily News states the two Irish representatives demand the admission of Ireland to the League on the grounds that it will finally demonstrate throughout the world Ireland’s new status and her present difficulty in an unralified treaty and an informal constitution. Britain will support the demand after the treaty is ratified. Americans here declare that Ireland’s admission will do more for the cause of the League in America than Germany’s admission would do. —A. and N.Z. cable.