THE ALTERNATIVES

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 120, 23 April 1925, Page 5

THE ALTERNATIVES

ARBITRATION OR FORCE. PROSPECTS FOR FUTURE PEACE. (By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received April 23 9.15 a.m. WASHINGTON, April 21. Addressing the English - speaking Union at Princeto on the subjects or Britain’s rejection of the Geneva protocol, compulsory arbitration in internationl disputes, and the hopes of future peace in Europe by means of the security pact proposed by Germany, Sir Esme Howard, the British. Ambassador, said it was now impossible to say how the security pact discussions would end, “but we can at least all hope that they may lead to a settlement by agreement and establishment of a peace, not dependent upon huge ruinous armaments, but based on goodwill and common sense. If that comes about, the next Disarmament Conference will not be long in arriving, if, on the other hand, hope fades away and dies, why, then, 1 do not see another alternative to the maintenance of our national security—and what irony to call it security—but force of aims and military alliances, which will mean crushing taxation, financial ruin and inevitable Armageddon in the end.”

Referring to the failure of the protocol, Sir Esme Howard said: “It broke down largely over the matter of sanctions. It is obvious that the application of economic sanctions, unless supported by all the great Powers, coidd not succeed in its object, but might bring into serious conflict other States. It is possible that the other Powers whose delegates signed the protocol did not see t.iis possibility so clearly as the different parts of the British commonwealth of nations, but for the latter it was clear for the naked eye.”—A. and N.Z. cable.