of Peace=—By W. hi. Hughes, xe, ser, Angus & Robertson, This book has a special political Jintekest in that it apparently appeared Jabout the time that Mfr. "Hughes resigned from the Cabinet in dis Jagreement with the Australian. Gov-Jernment's adoption of the polley of sanctions. Mr. Hughes writes with obvious knowledge of his subject and with the desire to bring his count men {0 realize the Importance of national defence. "He documents his argument well and. he is prepared already to come to the conclusion that sanctions have failed, His criticisms of the League of [Nations are logical, but at the present moment their permanent validity cannot definitely be settled except by those who are prejudiced on one side or the other. Looking at the League from the broad point of view, itis undoubledly true that its) weakness really lies in the inability of the Individual nations, and there is no ex: ception to this rule, to look at any question from a_ purely international Point of view. "The only remedy for this basic weakness is the develop: ment of a deep conviction that the use of war as an instrument of polley 4 self-destructive and catastrophically disastrous. 'That feeling was evident in the first decade after the Grest War; it has grown fainter since then, it only because familiarity" with modern warfare has bred a kind contempt. Moreover, nallonal pre)- uudiees and national' selfishness have been intensified, partly owing to the economic debacle and partly as reaction against the excessive romance and too onthusiastle. sup: porters of the League. But no one who studies the controversy at the moment can be otherwise than. im= pressed by the amazing readiness of men to revive those very doctrines of imperialist rapacity which a few short years ago they were so: busy, repudiating. The real answer to Int. Hughes, of course, is that while he may be accurate in his criticism of the human defects of the League and the inability of nations to ise above their own selfish Interests, he cannot be acquitted of the charge of forgetting the fundamental need for elvillzation to. advance, "If political methods are never to change, If what one country did in the seventeenth century is to be taken as justifying similar conduct by another country the twentieth century, the whole conception of progress as it is under= stood in the world to-day must be abandoned, This is not intended to depreciate the value of Mr. Hughes" book, the earnestness of his exposi-{ion and especially the Importance of his emphasis on the need for strong. national defences. One of the causes Jof the difficulties Into which the [League has brought itself has been, Ipethaps, the too ready acceptance of the notion that its principles and policy' can be developed in their Adclescent stages without the strong shield of adequate national defences.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.