The basic importance of Mr. Stimson's speech to the Council on Foreign Relations Jies in its clear indication that the Government and people of the United States of America are firm in their alliance with the other nations pledged to preserve the machinery for the mobilisation fof peace. If this idea were new andthe product merely of the resent age statesman would be Jess inclined to attach to it the significance to which testimony constantly being borne—notably in the recently-signed "Consultative Pact" by the great European Powers. In linking up the Covenant of the League with the Briand-Kellogg Pact, Mr. Stimson brings America into the ranks of the peace champions. he most hopeful feature in the world to-day is the evidence of a close ce-operation between America and Great Britain international affairs. The association of the latter with thi Lausanne Treaty and America's: acceptance of the invitation to attend the World Economic Conference arising out of that Treaty, develops the process of consolidating the _interdependence of nations and attaining ultimately to the understanding which makes for continuity of peace. That the road is long and still difficult no honest reader of the signs of; the times can deny. Mr. Stimson is not blind to that aspect of the problem. Indeed he would have to ignore the teaching of history if he attempted fo establish the doctrine that the mere conclusion of pacts and covenants was enough. The League of Nations, however admirable and effective may have been some of its performances in the few short years of its existence, is still very much on trial. Its survival of twelve troublous years, with the nations—ineluding the America and Soviet Russia—Jooking to it for guidance is in itself a notable feat.
For, looking back on history, it will be perceived that the ideas, which world-statesmen are now ' trying permanently to enshrine, have been put to the test and, although leaving "footprints on the sands of Time," have succumbed to the inveterate hostility of national pai cular ism, Over nine hundred years ago, in the Pyrenees, there was held' the Synod of Cine which suspended warfare from Saturday noon till Monday dawn.
eventually the "Trace of bread through France, Germany and Italy—England was unaffected—and reached its zenith of influence, always.under ecclesiastical direction, when left barely one-fourth of the}! year for fighting aiid when: the: Council of Clermont decided that oath of allegiance to the Truce should be taken triennially by all men above the age of twelve, It broke on the inherent hostility of feudal society to the principle of private peace and, perhaps, on the use made of it to unite Christian Europe in military opposition to Islam by the Crusades. This modest and comparatively unproductive forerunner of the League of Nations was aimed against private warfare. Eight hundred years later, after the Napoleonic Wars, Burope tackled the problem of preventing public war. There was the Holy Alliance of Austria, Prussia and Russia proclaimed' at Paris on September 27, 1815, with the grandiloquent <object of establishing world Peace among Christian nations lon the basis of the "sublime truths which the Holy Religion lof Our Saviour teaches." This never became effective as a i instrument. Ironically enough, it gave rise to, although it was' not the basis of, the European "Concert," the' pro-leesses of which definitely led to the Great War a hundred years later. It undoubtedly inspired, however, the Rescript of Tsar Nicholas 11 which made memor-lable the first international peace leon ference at the Hague.
More promising, at the time, was the renewal of the Grand Alliance, (w! fat Chawmont i 1814) under the Quadruple Treat November 20, 1815. This was ix-la-Chapelle jin 1818 and, more properly, i Imay be described as the foundation of the Concert of Europe which, if it ultimately brought about' or was powerless to prevent the catastrophe of 1914, Iwas for some years a real instru: ment of peace. The Treaty provision which gave it its sixnificance ran thus:
"In order to consolidate the inti mate tie which unites. the four sovereigns for the happiness of the world, the High Contracting Powers have agreed to renew at fixed intervals either under their own auspices or by their respective ministers, meetings. con-secreted to great common objects and to the examination of such Measures as at each one of these epochs shall" be judged most salutary for the peace and pros-verity "of the nations and. the maintenance of the tranquility of Europe."
The fourth party to the Grand Alliance in addition to the members of the Holy Alliance was Great Britain, Its permanent contribution to world peace in its establishment of the pri lefple of periodical meetings of the Powers for the discussion of international issues. So critics lof the conference habit should Met be led into the belief that it of comparatively recent growth. It should be added that the efforts of the Ts make the Holy Alliance a basis of "universal union" or a confederation of Europe were opposed by Great Britain who preferred to rely on the committee of the Great Powers. Whether events would have taken another course had the Tsar had his way is a matter of pure speculation. 'This neces: sarily brief and discursi summary of the history of the }peace-movement is of value to the student of affairs to-day. It shows that, in spite of good intentions,' peace could not be maintained. It also shows that the League of Nations is functioning with traditions of real weight behind it.
Ground has been gained as well as lost. From failure the road to success can be gauged. Perhaps the efforts to which Mr. Stimson has 80 eloquently referred may eventually have to be written down by Some future historian as failures. There is room for the modest belief that they may make some definite contribution movement which, as the records show, has bee progressive and must, in the long run, culminate in complete achievement if civilisation is to endur
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.