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League Assembly v
Squirms Under Hew
Zealander's Attack
GENEVA, Tuesday.
League Assembly today heard plain speaking,
to ivhich ii is not (accustomed even fromLitvinov of
Russia, from Mr. W. Jordan, the New Zealand
delegate. New Zealand had already demonstrated
that it ivill be a- force to be reckoned with.
British delegates moved rest
lessly in their seats as Mr.
Jordan raised one issue after
another, which Britain would
prefer to regard as closed.
Unlike Canada and Australia, Mr.
Jordan did not accept the British view
point about regional pacts, but he in
dicated that while New Zealand feared
that they would likely develop into the
old system of alliances, she was pre
pared to collaborate in the collective
system in which members agreed to
an immediate application of full econo
mic sanctions, but to restrict engage
ments to use force to defined areas.
Mr. Jordan joined issue with Mr.
Bruce, who deprecated automatic
sanctions.
Automatic Sanctions
Mr. Jordan insisted that sanctions
would be ineffective in the future as
in the past, unless they were immediate
and automatic. He added that unless
collective security were made effective
it was a waste of time coming to Gen
eva. The League had lapsed into futil
ity, however, as a result of the vacilla
tion of Governments and not the inde
cision of the peoples.
New Zealand was prepared to
take a full share of complete eco
nomic sanctions and join with other
members of the League in col
lective application of force against
any future aggressor. She would
also agree to the establishment of
an international force.
Mr. Jordan proceeded to condemn
the League's record in the Abyssinian
dispute,, but insisted that it was not
the Covenant at fault. New Zealand
suggested that Governments hold ple
biscites to ascertain whether the
peoples were willing to support the
League. New Zealand's experience in
broadcasting Parliamentary debates
suggested that the League might use
fully broadcast proceedings, and thus
it would become a living reality.
Abruptly joining issue with Lit
vinov, whose slogan was 'Better a
League without universality than a
League without principles,' Mr. S.
M. Bruce declared that a nonuni
versal League could not carry out
the Covenant.
On the contrary, the efforts of a
non-universal League to stop a conflict
might involve a danger of spreading
instead of ending it.
The Commonwealth did not pro
pose any amendment to the Covenant,
but thoroughly agreed with Britain on
the necessity for more effective inter
vention in the early stages of dis
putes.
Australia would even go further
and suggest., that in the event of
danger to world peace members of
the League should be summoned
to consider whether they were pre
pared to take joint action to re
strain the potential aggressor.
Australia also agreed with Britain
in respect of the utility of the re
gional pacts.
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