THE DISTANT GOAL

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 19878, 6 May 1936, Page 6

THE DISTANT GOAL

In view of the failure to prevent armed aggression in Abyssinia there will be a loss of prestige at Geneva, and the practical Worth of the League of Nations will be questioned. One member has ruth—lessly destroyed the independence of another member State, but that does not prove that collective action is useless. It does, however, prove that the League cannot discharge the vital duties for which it was formed until it becomes, in fact, a league of peoples. The thing that all will hope may‘ soon be ended is not collective action, but government by dictatorship, because this disregard of treaties and other agreements would never have been made by Governments directly responsible to the people. Years ago Italy did, half-heart-edly, seek to secure its position in Eritrea. but, after Adowa, public opinion insisted on a settlement of the dispute. They had never been at all happy about it. Today, by the illegal use of poison gas, Italian forces have conquered the African kingdom. The failure of thsnations in this test should emphasise the imperative need there is for greater efiorts than ever to make the collective system effective. It is the only hope of the smaller States. Without it they must attach themselves to whatever Power they deem most likely to preserve their independence, and Europe will again be a continent of armed camps. The road to world peace will be both long and hard, but it must be travelled simply because the alternative is too terrible to consider. From failure must come a renewed determination to succeed, if only because of the greatneed of the world for peace. It is greater now than ever, and that is made startlingly clear when it is recognised that, unless the forces that make for peace can act as one, then aggression such as that witnessed in Abyssinia will be repeated. And that road leads to the shambles that were once the capital of a kingdom; the other leads toward a better order in international afifairs.