June 20, It was originally contended that the London Conference should be preceded by agreement on the Disarmament issue. Lausanne indicated also that War Debt settlement should be necessary preliminary to a World Economic Conference. Neither "of these conditions precedent hag been fulfilled. The London Conference has to deal with economic nationalism unqualified by any limitation of policies arising from the War. It has to find success in prescribing for economic recovery in a vacuum. Whether the task ig possible remains to be seen. But, assuming that exchanges are' stabilized and tariffs are brought within reasonable con trol, the main issue for the World still stands. It consists in the apparent failure to eliminate War from the nations' apprehension. It may be deseribed asthe failure to evolve an effective world opinion guarantee of the rule of law. Of what use, it may well be asked, is it to cure the present economic ills, if, sooner or later, the catastrophe which largely produced those ills is to be re-sated on a more terrible scale?
acts and treaties, in the eyes of competent observers, offer no real security. In desperation the old arguments are revived. War, it is asserted, is the natural expression of man's straggle for existence, It, enables humanity to preserve the finest qualities of self-sacrifice which would otherwise be atrophied for lack of opportunity. It embodies the doctrine of the survival of the fittest. It is merely the reflect tion of those processes through which the whole universe is constantly passing. This kind of reasoning, if it can be so dignified, is' but the anodyne employed by the bated physi-clan. Its logic is awry and refuted by every action of man in providing for the advance of civilisations's power to wre the diseased, protect the weak and raise the standard of living. If you wish for Peace, then prepare for War: the tag again rules a disillusioned world. Yet its falsity has been writ largo in the history of the 20th Century; To that falsity the memorials of nearly nine million dead testify.
The League of Nations, Incking though it does the support of a fifth of the world, has enjoyed
cause of its undoubted success precarious prestige, not, bein preventing certain hostility but because, for the time being, there is everywhere an economic and psychological inhibition against War. The Four Power Pact, unless conditions change, will not be worth the paper on which it is written before a decade is out. It unites disunity simply because—for the moment ar is not desired by any of four signatory nations. statesmen, who are sincerely convinced of the horror and folly of War, are none the less certain in their own minds that another World War will be staged in less than twenty years. All the haggling over Disarmament would have been ignominiously brought to an abrupt ending ong ago had it not been for the pressure of a strong public opinion which, impotent devise remedies, has clung to the notion that, s0 long as Disarm ment can be Kept a chance of finding a exists. International anarchy is being fostered by acute nationalist. "'Statesmanship seems able only to cope with it by recognising its validity and endeavouring to. direct its energies along defined channels, *No real effort is being made to replace independent national policy by collective responsibility for peace, Every nation, giving lip-service to the cause of Peace, is manoeuvring for a favourable position in the event lof War. No nation can be Jexempted from this charge. The new diplomacy has blundered as egregiously as the old. To Jcorrect the blunders, the nations fall back on the old technique of regional agreements, themselves the admitted causes of War in the Jong run. All over the world, issues between nations today are in active discussion which would undoubtedly mean recourse to arms were it not for the restraining hand of economic incapacity allied to popular war-weariness. The League Nations has acquired a danger-lous sense of security from the belief that it has fundamentally contributed to this unreal paci-ticism, What will happen when the Jeconomic depression lifts and a generation possessed of no personal knowledge of War is in the "saddle? The question is Poignantly opportune. Only the other day a British statesman in the House of Commons was impelled to lift up his voice Jagainst the emergence of a belief that it ork for peace. Public opinion is confused by the utterances of its leaders: a Foreign Secretary lean win cheers by affirming his fixed intention to keep his country out of War; a First Lord of the Admiralty is applauded for his contemptuorrs references to so-called "pacificists." Let there be no mistake: in the last resort civilisation depends and cipline. If to a nation comes supreme owing to. the failure of statesmanship, discipline answers the call. The pacificist of to-day becomes the obedient, fervent warrior of to-morrow. He may have work-Jed for the abolition of War but. Ihe is ready to share the consequences of a failure for he, equally with those opposed to him in theory, takes responsibility. That, of course, complicates the task of ' world-statesmen. They have to prepare the new method while acquiescing in and, indeed, actively supporting maintenance of the old. Have they to confess the inevitability of failure? The urgent pressure of public opinion, growing in volume, says, "No." "There are factors which provide resources denied former generations. The nations live closer together in th highly' mechanised and inventive civilisation. Interdependence is gaining ground as a principle of world policy. Even the fierce revival of nationalism may be a last despairing challenge to the newer forces of a tolerant belief which holds that a geographical boundary, a difference in lan lage or a' pigmentary variation does not radically alter the essentials of human conduct or wisdom, As family institutions modified and shorn of bat barism—have survived tht coming of communal citizenship so the best that is in national pride has no need to fear the arrival of the age of international polity. Along those Hines alone can the World hope to avoid the disaster ahead.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.