There should be many readers for Mr. S. H. Bailey's
sug- gestive and informing little book on The Framework of Inter- national Society (Longmans, 2s. 6d.), which is published for the Workers' Educational Association. Mr. Bailey enforces the great truth—obvious perhaps but by no means widely realized—that international relations are largely unofficial and do not depend solely on diplomatists or the League of Nations. He points to the numerous organizations in which subjects of different countries co-operate for the most varied purposes—industrial, commercial, scientific, literary, philan- thropic; and he reminds us that in these, as in the League itself, decisions are made by friendly agreement. We are all becoming citizens of the world in the nature of things, not merely because the Covenant was signed in 1919. Mr. Bailey surveys the whole subject and makes it interesting. He gives a useful list of books for further study. It may be noted that he misdates the American Declaration of Independence and that he tends to underrate the ability of the English coal industry, as regulated by the Coal Mines Act, to make agree. meats with foreign coalowners if it cares to do so. Mr. Bailey might well have mentioned among the unofficial international societies the APA (All Peoples' Association) which we may be forgiven for regarding as the most disinterested and catholic of them all.
Previous page
