PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS. The Times. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1919. LEAGUE OF NATIONS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 8, Issue 485, 28 November 1919, Page 2

PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS.

The Times. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1919. LEAGUE OF NATIONS.

"We nothing extenuate, nor let down auaht in malice."

AMERICA'S failure ro ratify the League of Nations covenant in its entirety is causing perturbation in England and France, as it well may do, seeing that the United States wishes to secure all the possible benefits of such a league without shouldering any of the responsibilities. By making this great world question one of party politics America has touched the lowest depths yet reached in recent international relationships, her attitude reminding us once again that we must not expect great broadth of view from young nations which have hardly had more than a novitiate experience in the cauldron oi war. Had America the distilled wisdom accumulated by France and England through centuries of warfare and international diplomacy, she would not now refuse to give effect to the policy put forward by her world - renowned president even though the latter may have his weak peints, being human like the rest of us. America's young blood was in he late war just long enough to participate in the flush of a victory that all authorities know could have been easily achieved by the British and French had these two possessed the invaluable assett of a united command two years earlier than they did. Let us not belittle America's effort. Her material assistance before she entered the war was a vital factor on our side, though she was well paid for it, and in any case, with a British navy blockading the Central Powers, there was no option but to sell to the Allied Powers, unless by an unsatisfactory and involved system of filtering goods through neutral nations. The United States troops in France were as gallant as the next, but their lack of training and experience prevented them from bein°' as effective as an equal number of British or French tioops, with whom they were " sandwiched " in order to gain experience of actual warfare. The British are accused of being the greatest bunglers in the woHd in the initial stages of a war. but leading American publications tell of a state of chaos and utter ineptitude of American transport and air services during their first twelve months in France that puts all records of British bungling and lack of organisation and business management into the shade. Nevertheless, America was in at the kill, and thinks she is entitled to the brush. That piece of o-ood fortune is proving her undoing, by making her more jingoistic and self-opinionated than the people of "conservative old England," or any other civilized people. But her turn will come, and by travail and anguish she will yet acquire wisdom, toleration, and a little modesty. The better type of American, the real leaven of the nation, knows these things full well: a certain American dentist practising in Auckland, when condemning the quacks in his profession, pithily commented : " Our goldarned country has more quacks and imposters than any other country on earth, but I guess that by the time we have had as much experience as you Britishers are now the inheritors of we shall know a thing or two." That is just the position all round, and it will take time for rectification. No one with any knowledge of history and human nature expects the League of Nations to prevent all wars in future, but the foremost thinkers of the age do not hesitate in expressing the opinion that wars will never cease until a centralised authority, with naval and military power to back its decisions. governs all matters of international policy. They know that the next European war will be infinitely more ghastly than the last—it was bad enough! Every soldier who was in the field during the last six months of the lata war knows that routine orders were issued from time to time, giving warning again-1 meddling with boxes having a certain < iorman marking, ihose boxes containing cultures of disease germs thai were potent to spread infection, and consequent death, in a wholesale manner over the country. And recent cables te|l us of new poison lumibs. which, if dropped an\ where near. would kill people in t he London tubes, though no structural damage was done to the tubes. The advance in aerial offense I will compel practically whole nations to provide underground shelters, and to erect all industrial and engineering works deep down tinder the the Mirlaee The destructive possibilities of science are almost unlimited, and the modem theory is that it is more important to terrify and destroy the morale of the civilian populations than In defeat armies in the field and navies on the water. fhis is

quite sound policy, since the martial services are dependant for their sustenance and munitions on the civilian population, And the more terrible the next European war is, the more it will weaken the white races, making them vulnerable to attack by countless millions of people of coloured races now rapidly acquiring western know« ledge and skill, and the greater will" be the social upheavals that are are the aftermath of war 9. The League of Nations, governing all mankind internationally— n ot internally— must be made supreme before wars can cease, even if it takes centuries to do it. In the meantime, each nation must retain sufficient national naral, aerial and military power, backed by an efficient man and womanhood, and plentiful economic resources to defend itself against aggression, and to do battle for weaker nations when the latters' causes are just ones.