I ask, what is the reason for all this confusion of thought? First of all, it arises from the purely imaginary notion which these people have s to what is meant by 'a policeman. A superficial survey of facts would lead one to suppose that a policeman is essentially a mild-natured, ponder rous, slow-moving, soft-voiced individual with a brogue, who spends his time taking down names, with pencil and notebook, of foolish people who violate traffic regulations, or who dilute their buttermilk or who sell dirty eggs, The truth of the matter is, however, that in every country in the world, the police force is compelled to have lethal weapons in reserve, and when they are called upon to deal with desperate law-breakers such, as gunmen shooting indiscriminately from a fast car, the police throw aside pencils and note-books and deal with the situation in a sterner way.
A second circumstance tending to confusion of thought is the constant slurring-over of the distinction between a purely "national war" undertaken as an item in purely national policy, and "war as police action in defence of the rule of law." Mere denunciation of war in general, however valuable it may be, never comes to grips with the real question, Every Christian who takes his religion seriously endorses such denunciation, He is still, however, anxious to know how the rule of law in the international world is, in the Nast resort, to be protected from "the bad men." It does not clear up the situation merely to say that a bomb labelled "With love from Geneva" will blow people to pieces just as surely as will a bomb labelled "With hate from Rome."
It is epigrammatic, but it does not face up to the real issue. That issue is whether the Powers ce-operating at Geneva, when they have exhausted all peaceful means of checking a belligerent aggressor, and have at the same time overwhelming force at their disposal, would not be justified in threatening him with bombs if he still persisted, and even in checking him with bombs if a mere threat did not suffice. To at question I can return only one answer for the choice is ultimately a choice between world anarchy or the rule of law
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.