March Toward Peace

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 694, 20 June 1929, Page 9

March Toward Peace

BRITISH PRESS LAUDS DAWES Ambassador’s Frankness GREAT TASK FOR ENGLISH PEOPLES (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) Received 9.5 a.m. LONDON, Wednesday. IN the joint hands of the Knglish-speaking peoples rests the ark of the covenant of human freedom,” said Mr. C. G. Dawes, the United States Ambassador to Britain, in his disarmament speech at the Pilgrims’ Dinner.

The British Press welcomes the frankness of his utterance on navies. Referring to suggestions in regard to a change in the method of future negotiations for an agreement on naval disarmament, Mr. Dawes said the matter must concern all the naval Powers and should have the world’s sanction. Edmund Burke once said politics ought to be adjusted not to human reasonings but to human nature, of which reason was by no means the greatest part.

The long time which elapsed before a proper method of negotiating for a settlement of the reparation problem was evolved was because the first method was adjusted to human reasoning, not to human nature. The proper method finally devised was to use independent experts whose formula was handed over to statesmen who could bring public sentiments to the acceptance of the necessary working compromise. Similarly, the problem of international naval reductions was a task the successful accomplishment of which required the co-operation of two distinctly unrelated talents —that of technical experts and that of statesmen. In the case of the technical experts the law of human nature made it vastly more difficult to reach an agreement in connection with the Navy than with the reparation problem. The proper pride of a naval officer’s life was his Navy. His whole professional career Impelled him to think of the Navy in terms of victory. He was rightly taught that he must not strive for equal navies but for a superior Navy. However, it was the duty of a statesman to remove an attack from his State. Upon him lay the duty of peace-making. He was the man to build up a new order, guided by the advice of competent, patriotic naval experts. At the beginning the naval experts should define the abstract quality byarriving at a. definition for the valuation of the fighting strength of ships. But when each Government obtained a definition yardstick from the experts the final compromise should be effected by a committee of statesmen of the nations. APPEAL TO THE WORLD

Those statesmen should further draw up for the world the terms of a final agreement upon naval reduction which should be couched in terms that could he understood by the man in the street. The document must appeal to the composite will of the peoples of the world, and in order to make a proper appeal it must be read generally and understood. The committee from the Governments whose representatives met at Geneva in 1927 to agree to naval disarmament was a mixed commission of statesmen and naval technicians. It was for that reason a failure. Under the laws of human nature 90 per cent, of Englishmen thought the American delegation was responsible for the mistake, whereas 90 per cent, of Americans thought the British commissioners were responsible. The great overwhelmingly soulsatisfying fact was that the British and American peoples were united in agreeing that whoever was responsible the mistake was made. Under those circumstances let them he hopeful for the cause of the peace of the world, because in the joint hands of the English-speaking peoples rested the ark of the covenant of human freedom. The Press welcomes the frankness of Mr. Dawes. The “Daily Telegraph” says: “British opinion has undoubtedly approved Mr. Dawes’s proposals, as agreeable to a common-sense policy supported by experience.” The “Morning Post” says: “We are particularly grateful to Mr. Dawes for realising the British as well as the American viewpoint. If there is nothing definite at present, there is at least goodwill on both sides.” MACDONALD’S HOPES NATIONS TO STUDY ARTS OF PEACE CO-OPERATIVE FELLOWSHIP (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) Reed. 11.19 a.m. LONDON. Wed. The Prime Minister, Mr. MacDonald, in a statement at Lossiemouth, Scotland, said: “I put our relations with the United States in the forefront of our national concerns. Mr. Dawes and I found ourselves taking the same view of world peace. We did not meet to threaten other nations to dominate other peoples, or to form alliances and pacts. “We do not intend to present to other nations an accomplished fact which they can take or leave. A more generous, more humane, more democratic spirit than that was in Logie House last Sunday. We met hoping that we might be instrumental in preparing a board around which other nations might sit in co-operative fellowship to study the arts of peace and to gain a sense of security by the absence of arms. ”1 hope neither the large nor the small States will have any doubt about the world-wide purpose of the Anglo-American conversations. They are not exclusive; they are inclusive. Nobody ought to suspect that America will decline to serve the common interests of peace and democracy. “There are obstacles to be sur-

mounted, interests to be reconciled, .some historical inheritance to be soothed, and legitimate rivalries to be confined to the proper channels. That is the glorious task which our conversations opened up. I pray that the whole nation will share helpfully and confidently in our labours and thus make possible their successful conclusion.”

The “Daily News” couples Mr. Dawes's speech witn that of Mr. MacDonald, in which the Prime Minister said Mr. Dawes and he took the same

general view of world peace, both hoping to be instrumental in preparing a board round which the nations might sit in co-operative fellowship studying the arts of peace. Mr. MacDonald considers that the two speeches constitute definitely the most momentous item in the direction of world peace yet undertaken. SACRED PRINCIPLE “The Times” remarks that the critical period of negotiation would he opened when the international conference of political leaders met to reduce the differing definitions of naval values to one. It adds: “The world sanction for which Mr. Dawes asks is ideally right, and, put in practice, essential. At the same time, it is the British and American people with whom the hopes of progress primarily rest, and whose responsibilities are by far the largest. They have accepted naval equality in principle. It is for both, as Mr. Dawes described it, a principle sacred and inviolate. Round this principle chehopes of disarmament revolve. It is they, first of all, who can demonstrate that the Kellogg Pact has in truth and in fact been a revolution in international relationships, and it is they who have the most reason and the easiest means to prove it.” A FRENCH SNEER “PERTINAX” RIDICULES FLOW OF WORDS (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) Reed. 9 a.m. PARIS, Wednesday. Paris newspapers give prominence to'' the speeches of Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Dawes. “Pertinax,” writing In the “Echo de Paris,” ridicules the spectacle of two pontiffs exchanging inflated phrases. He says: “We gather from all this flow of words that the United States is asking Britain to give up supremacy in battle-cruisers, on the understanding that Britain obtains all Hie small cruisers necessary to police her trade routes.” VISIT TO _AMERICA INDEFINITE POSTPONEMENT HINTED (United Service) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) Reed. 11 a.m. LONDON, Wed. "Rather surprisingly, it is hinted in official circles that Mr. MacDonald’s Washington visit may not merely be delayed, but possibly indefinitely deferred,” says the “Daily Herald’s” political correspondent. “It is now made fairly clear that Mr. MacDonald is now likely to desire that a naval agreement be reached before making the trip, in which case it naturally will not be in the August Parliamentary recess, as was hoped. The imminence of the visit was taken for granted, but actually it had not been finally arranged. No mention of an invitation so far appears in Mr. Dawes’s utterances here.” WASHINGTON, June IS. The Secretary of State, Mr. H. L. Simpson, stated today that he had received no word from Mr. MacDonald, expressing a desire to come to the United States or asking when it would be most convenient for him to come. Officials of the department, however, reiterated that Mr. MacDonald would be cordially welcomed at any time he cares to come. An interesting sidelight on the feeling in Washington about the recent conversations between Mr. Dawes and Mr. MacDonald and their addresses, is the introduction in the Senate by Senator Tydings of a motion to the effect that the President be requested to confer with representatives of the governments of the world and to ascertain if it would be possible to secure an agreement aiming at the limitation of all armaments and standing military personnels on land, sea and air.