W.E.A.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 128, 30 April 1940, Page 10

W.E.A.

The first talk in a series of six: public lectures under the auspices of the Palmerston North branch o£ the W.E.A., was given by the district tutororganiser, Mr A. S. Hely, on Saturday night in the Theosophical Hall. The subject matter of the address was “International Issues and War” and the speaker first dwelt upon the difficulties of a rational approach to the subject during war, the problem of the controversial nature of the subject itselt, the difficulty of obtaining reliable sources of information, and the question of objectivity and impartiality in analysis. Mr Hely went on to stress the importance of study during war time in spite of the difficulties involved, and drew attention to the responsibilities facing fhe members of a democratic community in understanding the problems involved in and arising out of war. To be effective, democracy must be an educated democracy. The lecturer dealt with certain aspects of the international situation, referring to the problem of Scandinavia, German reliance on overseas supplies ol iron ore, her inability to obtain supplies from the usual sources of Lorraine and Nationalist Spain, and her reliance on Swedish supplies. Time was devoted to the study of the Danubian area, with special reference to the racial, economic and political problems of Rumania, and the tenseness of her relations with Hungary over Transylvania, the Soviet Union over Bessarabia and Bulgaria over the Dobrudja. The internal questions raised hv the activities ol the Iron Guardist Movement were also discussed in detail. The speaker concluded with a critical analysis of the part played by the Soviet Union during recent months, and after examining the Russo-German 11011-ag-gression pact, the invasion of Boland, the agreements with the small Baltic States and the invasion of Finland, concluded that, whatever the moral implications of recent Soviet action, the evidence available did not support the theory that the Soviet had returned to a policy of national expansion hut indicated a ruthless attempt to strengthen their defensive position in the Balkans and the Baltic against a possible German reversion to a policy oi Eastern expansion.