“DROPPED A BRICK”

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 445, 29 May 1937, Page 7

“DROPPED A BRICK”

MR SAVAGE IN ENGLAND Faith In League Of Nations Christchurch, May 29. “The League of Nations is only stiiving to introduce into international relationships that sane standard o! morali'iy, order and reasonableness as we have to have in any simpleroiganised society;” said Mr. lan Don_ nelly in an address on “Collective Security” at a luncheon of the Christchurch Returned Soldiers’ Association. Mr. Donnelly said 1 that Mr. Savage had dropped a “brick” at the Imperial Conference by a li'ttle plain speaking, instead of indulging in the usual circumlocution experienced at such con. ferences. Mr Savage, he added, was merely sticking out for the rebuilding and the re-establishment of collective security. Mr. Savage and the Government of New Zealand seemed to have preserved ithe-ir faith in the League of Nations. That should not be unwelcome news in this country, and' iA was not appropriate either that seme consideration should be given to the League of Nations and whait it stood for. The alternatives were a reproduction of the holocaust of 1914-1918 and a more orderly arrangement of things. It was frequently said the the League of Nations had fallen. It had certainly failed in Manchuria and in Abyssinia, but that did not matter; it was the principles behind it 'that were important. The League of Nations was imperfect, said Mr Donnelly, because it represented one of the greatest revoof modern times It was no't a very remarkable' revolution, yet it seemed so incredibly difficult to treat the matter in the simple way in which it was treated in a simpler state of society. “IL may be fantastic; it may be idealistic, but it does not seem so to me,” Mr. Donnelly added, “aftd I don’t think it should seem so reasonable people. There is .far too much eagerness on the part of critics to say that the League has failed because it has not done this and not done that. These critics are unaware of the things the League has accomplished, because these things are not regarded as ‘front page news.’ ”