A STUDY OF WAR
Sul„—In your " Notebook " last week you describe as a "suggestive idea" the proposal that there be "a serious official—or failing that, an unofficial—inquiry into the causes of war." An elaborate unofficial inquiry was undertaken several years ago under the direction of Professor Quincy Wright, of the University of Chicago, and the results appeared in two authoritative and comprehensive volumes entitled A Study of War. The Rockefeller Foundation met the substantial costs, although they may, I suspect, have been less than your tentative estimate of St zo,000, and
Pere was ample collaboration from men in different professions or "disci- lines." In the United Stites such collaboration is called "cross-fertilisa- tion," but sometimes (not in Mr. Wright's case) it turns out to be "cross- sterilisation." I doubt whether another unofficial inquiry would shed additional light. An official inquiry, even though "serious," might do little more than provide a small amount of employment.
When my friend Mr. Wright embarked on his ambitious task he and bis sponsors hoped that an examination of the causes of past wars might belp to prevent the outbreak of another Great War. I then held the opinion (which the events of the last decade have not weakened) that a more profitable subject of inquiry would be: "The Nature of Peace and the Terms of its Perpetuation."—Yours, &c., LINDSAY ROGERS. The Athenaeum, Pall Mall, S.W. r.
Previous page
