Peking Supplies a Comparison of the Great Powers' Navies During the later years of the Great War the hope was frequently expressed that when a decision was finally reached it would put a period to all wars and that the spirit of arbitration would from that time forward rule the world. The fact that the state of Russia and the settlement of minor disputes growing out of the major peace decision have been productly of a score or more of petty wars in Europe has not thoroughly dis couraged those who were led to believe that the European conflict was the world's last great war.
In spite of the overwhelming cost in lives and treasure, one has to face the fact that in the countries which had participated in the great victory, victory itself has soamed to many minds sufficient compensation for all the suffering and losses of the war years. Millions of people who prior to 1913 thought only in terms of balance sheets, or cost of production, or the relation of phosphates to crops, have been trained to think in mil tary terms and to look the world over and estimate the worth of each nation in terms of that nation's military capacities and possibilities. One reads a surprising amount of press speculation upon "the next great conflict" considering that this is only the second peace year in what should have been an eternity of peace adjusted by arbitration and reason. One reads also in both the British and American press a great deal about the future of the Pacific and many more or less carefully disguised prognostications of a great war centring in the Pacific concerned with Far Eastern interests.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.