Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1936-05-06
The Leagues Future.

While Europe surveys the wreckage of
international peace machinery symbol
lied by Italys conquest of Ethiopia,
means of Salvaging the League of Ma
tons are already under consideration.
The discussion naturally originates in
Great Britain, which assumed the lead
ership of the ill-starred collective Sc
curity program. Two schools of thought
promptly manifest themselves. The League
of Nations Union. headed by Viscount
Cecil, the Earl of Lytton and Gilbert
Murray, would make the international
organization a more effective war-pre-
venting agency. AS an initial step 1t
advocates continuance of sanctions to
keep Mussolini from reaping the fruits
of his unjust victory Other British
pro-Leaguers insist that Geneva failed
because fifty nations were deferred by
Fascist turbulence from doing what was
right"-that sanctions were useless SIM
ply because they were never really ap-
piled. This refers to the fact that the
League lacked the nerve to choke off
1talys oil supplies or close the Suez
Canal
Mr.. Baldwin, at this early stage of
the chaos precipitated by the fall OF
Adds Ahaba, merely comedies that Brit
ain must take stock" of the Leagues
position in the light of the ignominious
collapse of collective action, and adds
that the government will give the ques-
ton of reformation of the covenant
Every careful consideration" Meantime
there are influential Britons who advo-
cate reforming" the League by curtail-
ing its powers and the responsibilities
of members. This thesis finds terse ex-
preston at the hands of the Marques
Of Lothian. He asserts that the humiliat-
ing predicament which has arisen is due
to the circumstance that Great Britain
and other nations never thought out"
the implications of Articles x and XVI
of the covenant, "as did the Senate of
the United States" Lord Lothian urges
Britain forthwith to serve notice that
"the obligation to go to war all over
the world" must be stripped from the
covenant and the League preserved pure
ly as an instrument of Cancellation.
These opposing British attitudes indi-
cate the lines of divergence to be faced
in molding the future of the institution,
If it is to live at ALL Prolonged sane
lions would inevitably drive Italy from
the League. Plus the failures in Man.
churia and Ethiopia writ large across the
pusillanimous record, League boycotted
by Germany, Japan, Italy and the United
States could hardly look forward to any
more potent a career than the inglo-
fious one it has so far had. Geneva
preferred inaction to action In the Afri-
can conflict because the ruling powers
Britain, for military, naval and imperial
reasons; France, because of the obsessing
fear of war with Germany without Ital-
ian support-chose to sacrifice Ethiopia
on the altar of self-interest. Collective
security" in consequence became delu-
sion and snare. That it might be
wrecked again by the same fundamental
causes is contingency which would-be
"reformers" of the covenant must con-
template.
A League without teeth, or with teeth
which it declines to use, has been proved
to be harmless to restrain strong ma
ton bent upon aggression. 1t remains
to be seen whether reformed" League
can be converted into League with a
bite. Any other kind, II Duce has Just
shown the world, is about as capable of
preventing war as any debating society.
Cleveland convention is expected to
AllrnaSS the philadelploio oothor;n, 4,