" ADVOCATES OF THE LEAGUE "
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—Having been engaged in Geneva during the past month, I have only just seen Mr. Spender's article of July 8th, describ- ing the strange views of some unnamed " advocates of the League of Nations " with whom in one passage he associates me. If such persons really exist, I can only say that I have not met them and have not noticed any influence exerted by them on the League of Nations Union.
(i) The unnamed apparently insist on the full application of the Covenant in all cases regardless of consequences. The Union, on the contrary, has always insisted that the League should not commit itself to any policy involving the use of force which it is not practically certain of being able to carry through. I should add, however, that if the unnamed in reality merely assert that the Governments of the League might with advantage have been considerably more conscien- tious 'in observing their obligations, few will ventu:e to differ from them.
(a) The same odd people seem to have advocated unilateral reduction of armaments, and at the same time " reproached the Government for not taking the risk of war." The Union never advocated unilateral reduction. On the contrary, it considered the Governments of the Great Powers gravely to blame in not making more effective efforts to secure a general reduction of armaments by international agreement, and always insisted that, if that attempt failed, the present hideous race in armaments was the inevitable alternative.
(3) They are said to hold " that war is inevitable and had therefore better come quickly lest the enemy should be too strong." This accusation, coming from Mr. Spender, astonishes me. I have seen something like it in political- speeches, but I always took it to be one of those party gibes which the speaker neither believes himself, nor expects anyone else to believe.
Among supporters of the League, as in all progressive movements that meet heavy opposition, there are occasional outbursts of unpractical idealism as well as occasional tendencies . to defeatism and loss of faith. Both may be regretted ; but is it not a pity, in times so grave as the present, to throw about these provocative exaggerations ?—Yours obediently, . • Yatscombe, Boar's Hill, Oxford. GILBERT MURRAY.
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