COMMON WILL TO PEACE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 287, 24 February 1928, Page 9

COMMON WILL TO PEACE

INTERNATIONA!, SECURITY NO RIGID CODE OF RULES British Wireless—Press Assn,—Copyright Reed. 1.30 p.m. RUGBY, Thursday. The text of the draft of the convention on Arbitration and Security, proposed by Britain, was issued to-day at Geneva. It is as follows: — “The committee, after studying the introduction to the memoranda on arbitration and security, and the articles of the covenant submitted by the chairman, declares its concurrence in the views therein enunciated, that, Firstly, the covenant Itself creates a measure of security which needs to be appreciated at its full value, and that its articles are capable of being applied in such a way that in the majority of cases they can prevent war. That secondly, the common will to peace of the Council and the States which are its members can be exercised effectively within the framework of the covenant, all the more so because that Instrument does not provide any rigid code of procedure for the settlement of an international crisis, and that it is . therefore inexpedient to attempt to draw up in advance a complete list of measures for the preserving of international peace. That thirdly, those nations which consider that the general measure of security afforded by the covenant is inadequate for their needs, must at the present moment regard the conclusion of security pacts with other States in the same geographical area as the only practical possible form of supplementary guarantee.”—A. and N.Z.