News of the Week
THE greatest event of . the week has .been Sir Austen Chamberlain's announcement.to the United States that the Government "mill be happy to sign " the Kellogg Peace Pact. The text of Sir Austen's reply will not be published, however, till after we have gone to press. France, whom. Sir Austen has pertinaciously tried to bring along in the wake of Great Britain, has actually preceded Great Britain in definitely promising to sign. It is now certain that the Pact will consist of the single declaration banning war as an instrument of policy. Clearly this declaration does not exclude all war. It will be possible for an ingenious and sinister mind to present any aggressive war as a war . of self-defence. Every reader of I3usch's memoirs of Bismarck knows how the thing:Can be done. Nevertheless we are confident that the Padt will ,canse all reasonably honest nations to bend their-attention more than ever before to methods of making the declaration a reality. More arbitration and judicial machinery will be the sequel.
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