WARS AND RUMOURS OF WARS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 532, 16 May 1933, Page 4

WARS AND RUMOURS OF WARS

With the postponement of the first meeting of the Disarmament Conference it seems a suitable time to. take stock of the war situation of the world as it appears. The postponement of the conference date appears to have been made necessary owing to the action of Germany in recalling her delegate. Germany, itself, to-day is rent with internal dissension and she has aggravated this by a deseent in more or less armed force upon the Free City of Dantzig, an action which ipso facto in other times would have led almost inevitably to conflict. Quite apart from this her present attitude of mind appears to be a mixture of obstinacy, Junkerism and sabrerattling such as has not been heard since the palmy days of the, Woodchopper of Doorn. The position is far from re-assuring and it is to be hoped that some means out of the present impasse will] be found lest Europe be plunged into another bloodbath such as that of 1914-18. It is significant however that there is a rise in wool prices which in the past has always preceded hostilities. In the Far East we have Japan and China at one another's throats and a thinly veiled Japanese and concerted Chinese dispute with the Soviet Russians under the guise of a threat over railway stock allegedly belonging to the buffer state, Japanese sponsored of ! Manchukuo. Apparently the pros | pects of peace and disarmament i in the Far East are somewhat nebulous. There is also fitill trouble with the Bias Bay Chinese pirates in the vicinity of the Japanese protectorate island of Formosa and this particular brand of brigand is quite impartial in his attentions, Chinese, Japanese and Feringhi all being food for his depredations. So' much for the Far East; in that locality it does not look as if the lion will lie down with the lamb for a whole. Let us turn to America and see what comfort may be obtained from that continent. Peru and Bolivia who have been conducting what was thought to be one of the more or less bloodless revolutionary ventures characteristic of South American republics in the old days are now in a definitely declared state of war and the latest despatches from that quarter reveal that there has been very serious bloodshed and that the contestants are warring in earnest with the most modern of death-dealing tanks, machine guns and 'planes that they can afford. Up to date it appears to be anybody's fight neither side being able to claim a victory and botb? having to admit to considerable losses in personnel anc. material. With the South American war in this position of stalemate it is probable that one must look further afield before peaceful signs salute the eye. The United States has its customary crop of killings which, though one can hardly dignify them as acts of warfare, are just as deadly to the persons concerned as if they had been preceded by the formal declarations of the past and the slain are just as effectively dead. Despite the re-introduction of liquor which was hailed as the sign of the cessation of the gangster war in Chicago and its . sister towns? it appears that the smoke has not yet cleared from the sawn-off shotgun and the sub-machine gun has yet some function to perform. In the Near East the annual riots in Palestine are in full swing and the position in India does not exactly presage peace. It eertainly looks as if a Disarmament Conference of some sort was due even if it may be postponed.