Outlawed War

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 159, 26 September 1927, Page 9

Outlawed War

Geneva Declaration A Unanimous Vote REMODELLED {SECURITY PACT By Cable. — Associaiion.—Copyright The Assembly of the League of Nations with studied formality today unanimously adopted the motion moved by Poland outlawing all wars of aggression. The Third Committee considered further the proposed pact of security and arbitration. GENEVA, Sunday. I The method of voting on the outlawry motion was by a roll-call of all j the nations represented, in order to | make their unanimity more impres-; sive. This was but one item of the j business which occupied the Assembly , the whole of a wet Saturday. Even eight hours of speech-making was found insufficient to deal with the re- j commendations on disarmament, the j debate on which was adjourned until j Monday. The German and French delegates, , Herr Stresemann and M. Boncour, j were the chief speakers. The point of j view of Herr Stresemann may be sum- j marised in a sentence, namely, that ] public opinion will judge the League j by the manner in which it deals with disarmament and if it succeeds in every other aspect of its work but fails in this, it will be deemed a complete failure. In the course of his speech Herr Stresemann said that as Germany, once the greatest military Power in the world, had been able to disarm, the other Powers could follow her example. M. Boncour devoted hours of eloquence to emphasising that the Geneva Protocol was not acceptable in its complete form. The League could not afford, he said, to fold its arms and accept checkmate. The Earl of Onslow (Britain), in addressing the Third Committee of the League, emphasised the point that the mere fact that a member State specified the fighting forces which it could bring to the aid of the League on the outbreak of a war did not imply an automatic and binding undertaking to employ those forces, which he claimed must always remain within the discretionary power of their own State. AMERICAN CO-OPERATION The committee considered the report dealing with security, arbitration and disarmament, and the shape in which it will be presented to the Assembly tomorrow or on Monday. It did not attempt to alter the terms of the resolution as adopted by the committee. However, several amendments were made, with the object of not overlooking the move from the United States for the outlawry of war, without offering offence to America by appearing to betrying to induce her to take part in a new branch of League activity. Eventually the report was so worded as to make it clear that membership of the new committee would be open to States which are not members, as well as to members of the League, as is membership of the Preparatory Com- I mittee on Disarmament. TOWARD THE GOAL Dr. Benes (Czecho-Slovakia), the chairman, summed up the work of the committee as follows: It has taken the principles of the Geneva Protocol of 1924 one by one and has adjusted them to the existing conditions. The result has been satisfactory all round and has given a programme of simultaneous inquiries regarding disarmament and security which offers a good chance of progress toward the goal all have in mind. The committee recommended that the new Security Committee should take into consideration Dr. Nansen’s proposal for an optional International Arbitration Corivention, adding that the committee ought to study how to stimulate acceptance of the optional clause regarding the Hague Court, as well as the mediatory activity of the Council of the League . The members 6f the Assembly applauded an announcement made bv trie president that: Germany had signed the optional clause.