DISARMAMENT. [COMMUNICATED.] T is sometimes supposed that disarmament will pro-
1f duce peace, whereas, by itself, it will produce nothing of the kind. If mankind were deprived of every conceivable weapon peace would not necessarily result : fighting would be entirely primitive and much less expensive, but that is all.
An agreed ratio of armaments, as between nations, however, is something quite unique in history, and some- thing, too, of a paradox, since armaments thrive entirely upon disagreement or the prospect of it. The hopes of peace which are based upon agreed armaments are justifi- able, not because of the reduced scale of material prepara- tions, but because of the will to agree. If that will be sufficiently nourished, armaments will, in consequence and in proportion, gradually assume the nature and dimen- sions which may legitimately be claimed for them ; for armaments are maintained by a nation for two reasons : first, as a super-police force within the national borders ; and secondly, because another nation maintains similar forces.
The whole trouble, then, lies not in the material arma- ment, but in the motive which produces it, and peace con- sequently depends entirely upon a successful attack upon the motive. This being a spiritual force, victory, if it is to be achieved, must of necessity be a spiritual one. The late war was often, and rightly, described as a spiritual conflict, and we are to-day suffering from the consequences of supposing that it was won by a material victory.
The nature of armaments maintained for the very reason given presents no difficulty whatever, for every nation is the best judge of the kind of super-police force which it needs. With regard to the second, the competi- tion reason, however, with the endless flow of corre- spondence to which it gives rise, there is not, never has been, nor can be, any permanent solution at all by sea, land, or air. What is deemed a solution to-day immedi- ately and inevitably complicates and, indeed, becomes the problem of to-morrow. Naval armaments, of course, differ from military armaments in this respect : that outside territorial waters the sea is a neutral zone, upon which the armed forces of the nations cruise by tacit agreement. No nation, or group of nations, however, can claim, as a right, to hold in peace time what is called " command of the sea,"though a nation or alliance may, of course, attempt to do so, if it can, as a matter of national interest, or, as it is said, in the name of " security." A nation, then, which arms for defence because other nations are armed must of necessity--and more so to-day than ever in view of the pace of modern invention— select, whether openly or not, some other nation or nations as potential foes ; otherwise, it will have no standard for guidance in its preparations, and the very preparations themselves will speak far more convincingly than the accompanying protestations of innocent intent. General preparations against any conceivable combination are, on the other hand, no longer a question of practical politics in these days of science and high cost. Which things go to prove the futility of trying to solve what is a spiritual problem by material means. Agreed ratios of armaments, however, do go a long way in the right direction, so long as it is borne in mind that the whole promise of better things lies entirely in the agreement (which is spiritual) and not in the size of the actual armaments. The ratio can be maintained however small the actual forces or armaments may be. - But even an agreed ratio is not the ultimate ideal to be aimed at, for it implies comparison, which is intimately related to competition. Armaments might, moreover, be pro- portionately reduced all round, but, if the ratio were rigidly preserved, it is quite conceivable that a nation might be faced with the prospect of keeping more or less than it actually required for purely internal national needs.
From this it will be seen that the agreed ratio, as between nations, should be regarded as the first step towards the creation of international trust, and that the only really practical thing to disarm is suspicion.
Wars arise from the present inability—or rathcr, un- willingness—of mankind to control those particular spiritual forces of evil in man's nature which alone produce them. People who say that there will always be wars are doing their best to promote them and are prophesying concerning an ultimate state of affairs of which they can have no knowledge : and they should be treated accord- ingly. The practical folk are those who make the attempt to deal with the causes of war, which have little to do, really, with the weapons—prehistoric club or undis- covered gas—with which it is, for the moment, waged. These practical folk are the " visionaries," for lack of whom nations will continue to perish.
The only safe and certain disarmament, then, will produce a seeming paradox. Armaments will be main- tained solely for internal safety and will be unlimited in size and nature ; but since international security will rest upon the only secure foundation of international trust, the nature of the forces will excite no comment. They will, on land at least, be negligible anyway, since the state of a nation's civilization and law-abiding qualities will pre- sumably be a source of national pride, their evidence being the small size of the national police force. At sea, the nature and numbers of the ships employed will depend entirely upon the many peace services which they will be required to perform in the future as in the past, and not upon the nature or numbers of the ships of any other nation. Agreed limitation, then, should only be regarded as the first step to complete freedom ; and complete freedom will only be possible when there is the conception among nations of the doctrine of mutual international service. Such a freedom might well provide a long-sought definition. Based upon the oldest sea tradition of fellowship and service, it might be called the [We deal editorially with the problem of disarmament in our " News of the Week."—En. Spectator.]
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