THE PEACE TREATY.

Taihape Daily Times, 3 September 1919, Page 5

THE PEACE TREATY.

ER-ATIFIED BY N.Z. PAR-‘LIAMENT_ . -—_.._ i AIR BIASSEY R-EVIEVVS PEACE i~ CONFERENCE. ' WELLINGTON, Sept. 2. _‘ 111 the ‘BOIISO Of Representatives this afternoon, Mr Massey moved: :l“'l‘hat this House of Representatives : of New Zealand in Parliament assem- | bled resolves ‘that this House iasscnts Lite the ratification by His Majesty of : the Treaty of Peace with Germany as _ approved by Dlenipotentiaries at the _ Peace Conference.” He pmceeded to i say that the assembly of the Peace Con- [ ference was probably the most import- _ ant event of the kind in the history of I the world. It was easy to -criticise the ' tfeatylairrived at, but that was no part ' of his duty. There were some points amongst imlanyr, raised by the great pi issues on which he had his own opinlion. To those he would refer later. !The manner in which the business of C the Peace Conference was conducted . was far from satisfactory owing largely ‘to the language cliffi(s’ulty. Finally a system of ‘commissions was adopted. .These Commissions did work, then reported to the great Council of Five. (Mistakes, of course, were made, but he was convinced i7lli{lli:“i3he great mistake was that Peace was not dictated on "German soil immediately after the armistice. German p'ower Was, to some extent -broken, but he did not believe iwar was at an end. While they were sitting in Paris at the Peace Conference there were twenty-two small wars ,going on in various parts of the world . because there wer'e many people who only understand the argfiment of force, and who could only be kept within. i their own borders ‘by force. Statements i lreccntly made by Lord Jellicoe in thei Dominion were .a grave \v.arning‘,i andp worthy of serious consideration by the people of New Zéaland. I-Ie favouredg the idea of the -League of Nations, buti he did not believe it would put an endi to war, and We ‘must keep up ouri armies and navy, especially the lat-l ter, without which war could not bel won. It included, of course, the mer-i ‘ cantile marine. He said this after pay— i ing due regard to the assistance ren-1 idered by America, France, and Japan_ Our existence as a nation depended on ‘the navy, which must be maintained‘ at a proper strefi?g‘t—h. What that‘ strength was was for experts to say, and he did not pretend to be an expert. J The League of Nations was not com.-i (plete protection against war, but it I must be remembered that it was only in iits infancy, and he thought Germany was going to settle down to be a respectable nation. He considered it proved beyond all doubt that Germany ; was responsible for the war. but when lit came to deal with the heads of States he found many delegates held the View i that heads of States could not be made responsible to a. criminal court. lii was a strange doctrine to him, but {in- 3 ! ally an international court was agreed} ilupon to try certain people for cer-I Itain ofi?enccs. The case of the Kaiser (“'35 difi"er'en.‘. They had. to be guided by the opinion of the -great International Powers who were present at the Confer-cm-e. and it appeared from these opinions th:-..t the Kaiser could not be i tried for a. criminal offence. but would i be tried for a. breach of the moral law Zof nations, for which, if guilty, hei could not be subjected to capital punishment, though, strange to say, somci of the oiiic-ers who carried out hisi iordcrs could be. The question of the, iamount of: reparation which Germany iwonld have to pay was most difficulti Ito (lctnrmine, and the first commissionl ifor the purpose of fixing the amount? iliad ‘to be abandoned. because it wa-‘Si I impossible to deter-niine how much Gertnzmy could pay. Coiisequeiitly, istanding coim~nis;<ion was set up, who: ‘would have to fix the amount of Ger-i I many’s liability by May next year. At a. rough guess, he thought our share‘ would be between ten and twelve mil-\ ilions, which might take thirty years ito get. There could be no question iof immediate payment. He thought ithis money should go towards our isoldiors’ pensions’ fund. Mr Massey i explained the Labour Covenants of the 1 iTl‘(‘{li'_\'_. which were designed to uplift‘! ‘-I,a,bom- in many backward countries] to the level of those enjoying better. labour conditions. An international! collfm'(‘lic'v would s‘hol‘tly be held to: endeavour to giVe ‘effect to the terms‘ of’ the Covenant. The work of the Peace Conference would go on For‘ miany months yet. because the Austrian } and other treaties had not been com-i ]~,]ef(xd_ He referred to‘ the steps he! took to secure in the ‘Turkish Treaty! {ho (.a]-(-, of the graves on Gailipoli of‘ ;\r(.w Zealnml soldiers. He believed pale_ct,Ene would remain under the British 'l«lmpire. but while the Sultan of Tm-key would probably remain at ‘Con. Stantinople, ‘he would be shorn of most of his power and territory. The Man— ‘ dates over the Pacific Islands were ‘ next explained on lines already pub-i_ ]ishe(l_ so far as Samoa was con.corned, it came under New Zcalandl Its I revenue was sound, and though im-' provements would have to be made at. the harbour of Apia. to cope with in- ' creasing trade, the cost of that work 1 would be a charge on Samoa, not on New Zcala.nd_ 1

ts:en.ucn 1-31* sin JOSEPH WARD. i Sir Joseph Ward said that before |the war very few people realised what la stupendous task the dclegatcs at the [Peace Conference had before them in endeavouring to settle peace Eterms {satisfactorily to all parties. The bulk of the great task fell upon the representatives of the five great Powers, Eaided by the best lawyers, civil servants, and internLa.tiona.l experts that- : the world could produce. There were I 32 countries represented at the Confer. [ ence, and his personal opinion was that it the greatest work done at the Confer- ! once was the lestablishment of the {League of Nations, which, in time, % would become the guid‘<’3 .and cohtroller z ofgreat nations, and lead them in the _path of peace. 1 He outlined the purl poses of the League, but declared that he thought it would never properly f fulfil tits func‘ti\{ons until Germany I and Russia were admitted as members. ‘This, he thought, would be the case ‘within two years. Coming to the ‘treaty itself, he said it afiirmed many ‘points of worldwide importance. For I instance, there were to be no fortifica- , tio-ns on the banks of the Rhine. There [were to be no preferential railway J tarift's, either to help Germany or cripI ple her opponents in trade. The restora- ‘ tion of Alsace{Lorraine was also a I great achievement, .-as was the securing of independence of Austria, and many I small nations, which cut elf so much of the fighting force which Germany enipdeavoured to utilise to her own ends. i Hcligoland, that great German fortress ' which was such a menace to the B’ri-; ‘ tis-h Navy was to ‘be destroyed by Ger-‘I man labour. That. surely was some} thing for which the Treaty was worth} lwhile. Regarding the mandate overt [Sanloa, he had some doubts. He be-: ilieved it would have been better if! [Britain had that mandate, but it wast i our duty to affirm the Treaty with the 'mandate in it, and wait‘ on time to lshow whether the opinion he hadtjust expressed was right. The -Labour Cove-3 nant in the Treaty was a fine eifort,i i for which Mr Barnes‘ should be thanked, } I but the weak point of the Labour char- , [tor was that America and Japan held, [back from accepting it, and until it, had world-wide application he thought; ’it would never be so "effective as itf }should be.’ Regarding the _ finaneialj l side of the treaty, he thought the only ‘, safe course for us was not to count on i ;getting anything. We might get the‘ ‘ten millions mentioned by the Premier, ,but we certainly would not get any—j ‘ thing for ten years. At the end of that gtimc. he anticipated circuinstancesl «will be so changed that it would not! be possible to make the necessary dc-‘ 3 mands upon Germany. LABOUR’S OPINION. Mr Holland said he proposed to give reasons why the Labour members of 1 the House could not fall in with the; View that the Treaty should be unani-" mously ratified. He complained Of‘ the manner in which the House was. being asked to ratify a Treaty which it had never seen and about which they had to rely entirely on the statements of the two gentlemen who Went from this country, statements which‘ could not be Wholly accepted, for even l they have not agreed. He favoured} the mandatory System. but thought Samoa should not have been placedl under the control of New Zealand but! under the League of Nations, which! was much more likely to treat the native race with justice. He then proceeded to analyse at length the basic causes of the war for the purpose of showing that no one man was responsible for the great war, which was due almost entirely to capitalistic . influences. So far from boycotting] German trade, we were compellig Ger-l many to trade with us. Did anyonel pretend that the Shantung settlement. under which that great maritime province was handed to Japan, was just To China, and no one else should that territory have been given, but the his-' tory of that promise was simply a ‘ sorry scramble between the trading] <3ount.l'ies of Europe. i

Mr P. Fraser declared that no one pretended that the great war was a war to end war_ Mr Lloyd Georg-1 had declared that the Allies were not against the German people or the Turkish nation, but his secret treaties made after the war started, it was shown that the Allies were prepared to carve up the map of Europe in such a. Way as gave no guarantee of security to small nations.

Mr Edward Newman said that until he heard t}lg'speec.hes of t.}l<=EfLabour memberg to-night he never hea’i'd any one express dissatisfaction at the work done by Mr Massey and Sir Joseph Ward at the Peace Conference. He theredforc :-thought those ‘members quife out of t'Ou(sh with HlO-jopinion of the people of this cquntry. Mr Wilford declared that Had the League of Nations been in existence on ‘August 4th, 1914, the great way could not have happened, because before Austria attacked Serbia Serbia could have applied to the great Allied Tribunal. .- At the SD€3.k(!l‘ put’. the qupg. tion and the motion was carried on the vodces.- . y _ A _‘A z The House rose at 11.15 till 2_30 fo—morroW.