Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, JUNE 9, 1939. DELAYS THAT MAY BE DANGEROUS.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 June 1939, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY , JUNE 9, 1939. DELAYS THAT MAY BE DANGEROUS.

TTXACTLY why the negotiations between Britain and Russia should be drifting along at a leisurely pace, with no immediate prospect of being brought to a conclusion is no altogether clear. Tn a statement reported yesterday, Mr Chamberlain said:—

We have satisfied the Soviet that Britain is prepared to enter into an agreement on a basis of full reciprocity an . L,, immediately without reserve, to join France in with military support in the event of aggression involving hostilities wit a European Power.

Tn the plain meaning of words, this might be supposed to bring full agreement within easy reach, but in some rather mvo accompanying observations the British Prime Minis ei sp , amongst other things, of the impossibility of imposing guaian tees “on certain States not desiring them on the ground that guarantees would compromise their strict neutiality.

The main need, however, is an agreement between the democracies and Russia to offer united resistance to aggression should it be attempted. Possibly some detail difficulties now perceived may be overcome by the French suggestion a, in place of any formal guarantee of the security of the Baltic States, the three Powers should undertake to guarantee the status quo in Eastern Europe. With a really strong peace front established in Europe, no difficulties are likely to be raised by small States along the Baltic coasts or elsewhere. Any dislike of guarantees entertained at present in Finland and elsewhere probably is based upon a fear that in a working test the guarantees might prove to be as worthless as those that were given to Czechoslovakia.

It appears to be open to the democracies and Russia to remove that fear, but the delays now extending are not in themselves encouraging. There is, or should be, a sufficient incentive to expedition in the fact that until. they have reached a firm agreement to act immediately and in concert against aggression, the nations desiring peace will be more vulnerable than they need be to any counterstroke attempted by the totalitarian dictatorships.

According to a cablegram from Berlin, Herr Hitler is. now considering “a counterblast to an. agreement between Britain, France and the Soviet, aimed at closer collaboration between Spain and Japan with Italy and Germany.” Some colour is lent to this story by the recent utterances of General Franco, who gave the other day, in his references to encirclement and kindred topics, an excellent exhibition of a puppet speaking with his master’s voice, and still more perhaps by recent acts of Japanese aggression on the coasts and in the coastal waters of China. The latest of these acts, and one of which the full facts have yet to be brought to light, has involved the death of a British subject, Mr R. M. Tinkler, in Shanghai.

Although it is only a week or two since the Japanese Cabinet declared its refusal to convert the Anti-Comintern Pact into a direct military alliance with the Axis Powers, positive reasons already appear for doubting the sincerity and value of that declaration. The possibility has to be considered that. the Japanese naval and military authorities in China may be acting, in their blockade and other measures, in defiance of their own Government.

It is conceivable, in any case, that Germany may be able to use Japan as a pawn by playing on her fears of Russia, but no reason is thus provided for allowing anything to stand in the way of the establishment as speedily as possible of a strong peace front in Europe. If aggression can be checked and brought to a standstill in that continent, a long step will be taken towards halting it in other parts of the world as well.

Developed as they should be, the• present negotiations between the European democracies and Russia will lead up to the re-establishment of the system of collective security—the system it was hoped years ago to bring into being through the agency of the League of Nations. It has been said with justice that the so-called failure of the League of Nations was in fact the failure of the nations and not of the League. In the extent to which the nations now combine in resolute resistance to power politics and aggression, that failure will be redeemed and a - foundation will be laid upon which much may be built.

-An effective agreement between the democracies and Russia not only offers the best and indeed only apparent hope of re-establishing peace in Europe, but is capable of exercising a world-wide influence for good. Only in the extent to which some nations, or rather some dictatorships, are determined, to pursue a policy of aggression is there any question of dividing Europe into opposed factions. While the immediate objective is the establishment of a working agreement between the democracies and Russia, membership of the peace bloc of necessity would be open to all nations prepared to uphold a reign of law and good faith in international affairs. Progress on these lines, if if is made, will exercise an increasing moral and material influence in. the Pacific as well as in Europe. With so much at stake, the apparent rate of progress, if it can be called progress, in Hie current negotiations between Britain and Russia leaves a great deal to be desired.

SUBSIDIES AND CITY WORK.

A SUGGESTION that the adult apprenticeship scheme should be extended to women has been made- to the Government from Auckland, according to a Press Association message, and it, is stated that: — One group of manufacturers has proposed to the Government that it should institute a subsidy scheme whereby young girls would be brought to Auckland to learn machine work and would receive a subsidy for board and lodging However admirable and advantageous it might be from the point of view of the manufacturers concerned, a scheme of this kind may lose some of its attraction if account be taken of the interests of the girls it is proposed to employ. That varied avenues of employment should be opened up for girls, as well as for hoys, undoubtedly is desirable, but it is very far from being desirable that people should be herded into cities under the artificial stimulus of State subsidies. Taking a broad view of national interests and of those ol Ihe people immediately concerned, the Government should have no difficulty in deciding that it would be vastly preferable to open up additional avenues of employment, by encouraging the wide distribution, of industries throughout provincial areas. Members of the rising generation, of both sexes, would thus be given opportunities of taking up congenial and profitable employment within easy distance of their own homes, and so of working and living in very much better and happier conditions than are now attainable by the rank and tile of the people in any city.

Bearing in mind that the essential purpose of all industries is to serve and benefit the people, first-class reasons may be found for avoiding and opposing the further congestion of industries in the metropolitan areas of New Zealand. Our Mother Country made no greater or more deadly mistake in its national development during the nineteenth century than in massing its people needlessly into great cities and towns. This sardine packing of human beings is not demanded in the interests of modern industrial progress, as may be seen in the fact. I hat in Britain and elsewhere a considerable decentralisation of leading industries has been effected and is being extended. In New Zealand an enterprising policy of industrial decentralisation must be developed unless as a people we are to face backwards in reactionary helplessness and incapacity.