OPTIONAL CLAUSE

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 245, 14 September 1929, Page 9

OPTIONAL CLAUSE

POWERS’ ATTITUDE. NEW SPIRIT IN EUROPE. BRITAIN’S RESPONSIBILITY. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) (Australian Press Association.) GENEVA, Sept. 13. Professor De Madariage, formerly head of the disarmament section of the League of Nations, and now Piofessor of Spanish, at Oxford, contributes a notable editorial to the Journal de Geneve, a newspaper that has extraordinary influence in Europe. The editorial states: “What a wonderful spectacle it is to see the Grea.t Powers rushing to sign the optional clause. Why has this act, which was regarded as folly in 1924, become wisdom in 1929? The circumstances have certainly improved in the interval, thanks to Locarno, the Kellogg Pact, and The Hague, but undoubtedly the real explanation must be attributed to the changed attitude of Britain. Her obstruction under the last Government was responsible for a period of stagnation. “The new spirit brought by the MacDonald Government explains the movement in which wo are rejoicing to-day. This must make British people understand their responsibility. If they stop, the League stops. If they advance, the League advances. “From this present Assembly shine out two great hopes—the conversations with the United States, and a great reduction of armaments. The League is delivering the goods. Mr Ramsay MacDonald may find that the best route to Washington is through Geneva. “By her situation and contemporary history Britain is forced to be a leader of nations, and is therefore a servant of the international community.”