THE POST-WAR LEAGUE
Stat,—Your informative and valuable article under the above title should prove a much-needed tonic and enheartenment to many who have come to regard the League of Nations as almost extinct and nearing its end. If it could be broadcast, say by the B.B.C., it would be greatly to the good.
There are two sentences, however, at the end of the fourth van_ graph which seem to me to be liable to cause a misinterpretation of the 8th Clause of the Atlantic Charter. True, the final goal is there stated to be " the abandonment of the use of force," and that implies " having war banned by the League," as you say.
But if, as you say, " in the post-war League there must be binding undertakings by the member-States to unite in effective measures to counter all aggression,", what but " force " can secure this in the world as we know it? And until greed and self-seeking and vaunting pride and lust for power have ceased to have a large place in the • world, what but force, and even armed force, as an ultimate resource can assure security? Not force " as a substitute for right and justice, but as their support "—to quote Viscount Cecil's article in the Sep- tember Headway. HERBERT C. FLOYD. 46 Downs Court Road, Parley [Certainly. Force must be used collectively, not as an instrument of national policy.—En., The Spectator.]
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