19 MARCH 1932, Page 2

Ignorance or Malice?

In that connexion it would be difficult to find a better example of the misrepresentation to which the League of Nations is consistently subjected in certain sections of the Press in this country than is supplied by the Daily Express of last Wednesday. The leading article in that paper opened with the statement :

"That definitely anti-British institution, the League of Nations, has thought out a new way of injuring our interests and limiting our' power.

A clause has been adopted by the Naval Committee of the Dis- armament Conference forbidding a helligerent.to make use of any vessels of war that might he its ts yards for another Poweir."

The prosaic fact, of course, is, as indieated .above,. that the clause is taken word for word from the Washington Naval Treaty. of 1922 and can. therefore claim Lord Balfour, Lord Lec,of Fareham and Sir Auckland Geddes among its authors. A little knowledge of .past history can be quite a useful thing.

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