Evening star., 1935-12-30
LEAGUE DECLARED
VITAL i. S. ISSUE
Felix Morley Points to War
News to Support Conten-
ton Before Town Hall.

War news Of today supports the con-
tention that the United States cannot
afford to remain Indifferent to world
conflicts and revives the question of
League of Nations membership, the
Town Hall was told last night by Felix
Morley, editor of the Washington Post.
The League question is far from
closed in this country. Morley declared
before an audience in the Shoreham
Hotel. The League, he said. Is COM
ing of age" AS proof, he cited its
consideration of the crises IN Man
churia and Ethiopia. ---
But non-membership of the United
States in the League has not been a
tragedy" Morley asserted. 1T has
been better to stay out of the League
than to go IN, as some nations did,
with tongue in cheek"
World peace problems concern the
welfare of the United States, the edi-
tor said. An essentially European war,
he explained, does not confine its de-
structiveness to Europe.
League Defects Criticized.
However, he criticized many Of the
defects of the League and charged
it was prematurely organized.
Morley pointed out that in Man
churia, at a time when the Leagues
membership was stronger than at
present, little was attempted for the
preservation of peace. China, he said,
lacked a strong enough nationalist
feeling to resist Japan and turned to
the League for aid.
In Ethiopia, on the other hand. he
said, a League weaker in member
ship has taken a much stronger stand.
Thus the League has shown de-
velopment in its ability to preserve
peace" Morley declared. Japan was
convicted as an aggreSsor, but was
not punished. A weaker League con-
victed Italy, and Italy is being pun
ished. The real active force behind
the League is the desire OF the people
of the world for peace"
Failure of the recent Hoare-Laval
peace proposal in the Italo-E Ethiopian
situation, he said. is attributable to
the fact Great Britain and France
placed their own national interests
ahead of the efforts for peace.
He suggested Britain and France
should have offered concessions from
their own African colonies and pre-
dicted that the new British foreign
minister, Capt. Anthony Eden, would
make such q proposal.
Senator Pope Expresses Views.
Senator Pope Of Idaho, member
of the panel, in the discussion that
followed Morley's formal address, de-
clared the only man he found in his
recent tour of Europe who believed
the kellogg BRAND pact could have
been effective in the Ethiopian crisis
was Sir Samuel Hoare. The former
British foreign minister, Pope said,
expressed the opinion that II the
United States had invoked that
treaty and called conference, actual
warfare might have been avoided.
DR.. Herbert Wright, professor of
international law at Catholic Uni
versity, brought out that from its in
ception the League was a CLOSED
military and political alliance and
not a general association of nations"
Morley replied that the League has
always been "a diplomatic congress
and not super-state or government"
Morley also warned against too
strict neutrality legislation. He as
serted that prohibition alone proved
to the United States that problems
cannot be solved by such methods.
He also argued that discretionary
power to determine the United States
policy should be left with the execu-
tive branch of the government and
not fixed in advance by Congress.
This, he said, would give the United
States the right to use sanctions"
against the aggressor, by trading
with the defensive nation and bar.
ring trade with the offender.
Raymond Clapper. news writer. said
neither discrimination In supplying
war materials to a belligerent nor
sending troops into action could be
called a neutral course.
Trading with one belligerent and
not trading with the other, Morley
answered, is definitely pacific
STEP" whereas the use Of troops is
an act Of war.
More U. s. Imports.