Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1919-04-11
OF NATIONS
DISCUSSED BY HOLT
Editor OF The Independent, Back
From Europe. Says League or
BOIsheVism Must Win

1.-The issue Is plainly either d League
of Nations or Bolshevism," declared
Hamilton Holt, editor of the Independ'
ent and member of the League to En-
force Peace, who returned from the
Peace Conference recently, at the final
meeting of the season of the League fol
Political Education at Carnegie Hall in
New York recently.
MI. Holt spoke on Later Impressions
of the Peace Conference and the League
| of Nations.n cambridge Colby, form
erly a member of the United States
Shipping Board, also made an address
on 1.-THE Dawn of a new Era"
| think the covenant, without a sing
le,amendment, is the greatestd ocumenl
since the Declaration of Independence
was first promulgated" said Mr.. Holt
"At the same time" he continued
amendments should be made for the
purpose of clarity. l can point out fifty
i'm Improvements that to my mind will
serve to clear its text.
"What dumfounded me since my re-
turn from abroad is that a number OF
great men in this country, especially in
the Senate, are greatly exercised over
what we can get out of the League OF
Nations instead of looking to what we
can put into it.
"When l think of the skeletons OF
our own American boys and their &C
coutrements scattered about the battle
fronts which L saw just before l depart
ed, and then come home and see the
old men of America asking the country
to play safe | am simply amazed.
81 did not meet a single man in
Europe who was not of the opinion that
the League could not succeed without
the United States. l met many who
said that without America there would
be a gradual sinking back to secret dip
lomacy and other old despised prac-
tees.
''The night before L sailed an emil
nent Frenchman, of whom you have
all heard, said to me that if our Senate
did not ratify this treaty there will be
revolt in Europe that will be akin(to q
volcanic eruption.
awhile our delegates at the Confer
ence are working hard in the interests
of the League of Nations the black
clouds Of Bolshevism are lowering over
Europe, and when l say Europe, |
mean Italy, France and England.
"There must be a determined just
peace, and woe oetide the Peace Com
missioners or Peace Conference that
does not give it,"
Mr.. Holt said that the Peace Con-
ference was being held in a hall just
large enough to hold the delegates.
Premier CIemenceau and President
Wilson, he said, sat in beautiful gilt
chairs while the others present sat IN
"plebian ebony chairs" He said that
newspaper correspondents had consid-
cradle difficulty in learning what was
going on at the Conference. They were
not permitted to be present, although
they were allowed to stand behind the
doors and peer through the openings
There were $50 members of the press
huddled up, all striving to get a "peek'
he said.
Mr.. Colby said that he did not be-
lieve that the Monroe Doctrine would
ever be menaced by the League of Ma
tions and that a new era was coming
which would do away with old time
worn systems.
"As to the idea of a League Of Ma
tions," added Mr.. Colby, mo PROPOSE
ton was ever put before the American
public when the same degree Of unan
unity was so manifest. Brooklyn
! Eagle.