1932 Convention Report

              E I G H T E E N T H A N N U A L R E P O RT 37
It is not enough that we devote one meeting a vear to . he Peace move­ment
and then forget it for the remainder of the year. Peace w i l l never be
realized in that way, We must link this movement with our homes, our
schools, our community life, making it something vital. And we must first
of all fervently believe that W o r l d Peace is desirable and necessary before
we can hope to interest others.
One convener suggests that an open discussion be held in which members
are encouraged to ask questions and give opinions, the person responsible for
the program conducting the discussion. This seems to me a good idea, par­t
i c u l a r l y if the subject is announced in advance so that . members may i n f o rm
themselves as to the facts concerning the question under discussion. This
would seem to be . preferable to having a paper read, although much depends
on the person giving the paper. Often a l i v e l y discussion may foKow a short
paper.
A few of the conveners prepare monthly synopses which are sent from
b r a n c h to b r a n c h ; others circulate literature among their branches.
Space w i l l permit only a brief reference to the work of the League of
Nations during the last year.
The Twelfth Assembly of the League of Nations held last September
opened in a spirit Of depression due partly to w o r l d conditions. Three events
of major importance, however, served to profoundly agitate what promised to
be the quietest Assembly on record. These were: The financial crisis in
Great Britain with the abandonment of the gold standard, the seizure of
Mukden and other Manchurian towns by Japan, and the long drawn- out
negotiations regarding an armaments truce.
It was but natural that much time and discussion should be given to the
question of Disarmament in view of the W o r l d Disarmament Conference to
meet the following February, S. Grandhi proposed that the Assembly con-declared
that peace can rest only on the security of States and that security
can result only from harmonious development of two factors— the peaceful
settlement of disputes and the general reduction of armaments.
Great B r i t a i n and Germany both supported the affirmation of S. Grandhi
of disarmament before further security, but France set up again and again
the thesis of further security before disarmament.
E m p h a s i z i n g the fact that the W o r l d Disarmament Conference was to
meet the following February, S. Grandhi proposed that the Assembly con­clude
an armaments truce to last while the work of the Conference was in
progress, and the Assembly finally endorsed the demand that every govern­ment
would abstain from increasing its armaments at least until the Confer­ence
had concluded its work.
The Japanese invasion of M a n c h u r i a was a clear violation of the League
Covenant, the K e l l o g g Pact, and a special Nine- Power Agreement regarding
the integrity of C h i n a , signed at W a s h i n g t o n in 1922. The Chinese member
of the Assembly at once requested the Council to take immediate steps to
stop Japanese agression in M a n c h u r i a , while the Japanese representative inti­mated
that intervention by the League was not desired. Ultimately, the ques­tion
was settled by the Japanese agreeing to w i t h d r aw their troops that had
advanced outside the treaty zone.
In the year preceding the convening of the W o r l d Disarmament Confer­ence,
various organizations including the Women's Institutes conducted a
vigorous campaign, issuing peace petitions, c i r c u l a t i n g literature and in many
ways s t r i v i n g to educate the . public to the importance of this Conference.