TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE CONFERENCE AT WORK.
IT is good to know that the Allied Peace Conference has at last begun work in earnest. The troublesome question of procedure has been settled, and the chief problems with which the Conference has to deal arc being taken up one by one and referred to Committees which will draft their solutions. As M. Clemenceau admitted last Saturday, the Allied peoples had become somewhat impatient at the long delay that has occurred. It was expected in some quarters, and especially in France, that the Allies, after concluding the armistice of November 11th, would impose a preliminary Treaty of Peace on Germany, and then proceed to elaborate the details at their leisure. This course would have been in accord with precedent, as in 1871 or as in 1814, when France signed a Treaty of Peace months before the Congress of Vienna assembled. But the victorious Powers this time have deliberately adopted a different method. Germany and her con- federates, in accepting President Wilson's Fourteen Points and an armistice, are assumed to have agreed in advance to any terms that the Allies may see fit to dictate. The Allied delegates have assembled in Paris not merely to make peace with the beaten enemy but also to devise a new world-order. Indeed, it is evident from President Wilson's speech last Saturday that he attaches far more importance to the League of Nations than to the Peace Treaty itself, and his view has prevailed. The main work of the Conference, as he conceives it, is to provide a guaran- tee against future wars ; the precise form of the peace structure does not interest him nearly so much as the foundation upon which it will be erected. There is a great deal to be said on general grounds for this attitude. ft is not of much use to elaborate a new world-settlement unless it is assured of permanent support from the most powerful nations and also commands general public sym- pathy—a proviso which the Holy Alliance forgot or ignored. But President Wilson advanced a special reason which was bound to be decisive. America, he said, had been fighting for " the cause of justice and of liberty for men of every kind and place," and not only for European settlements. " She would feel that she could not take part in guaranteeing these European settlements unless that guarantee involved the continuous superintendence of the peace of the world by the associated nations of the world." That is to say, President Wilson virtually under- took, on behalf of America, to guarantee the Peace, provided that it included a League of Nations. We cannot overestimate the value of such an undertaking. If America with her vast resources is prepared to take an active part in upholding the settlement devised in Paris, the Allies may feel confident that their work will endure.
The resolutions with regard to the League of Nations which the plenary Conference of twenty-four Powers adopted last Saturday are worded in general terms but imply a great deal. The League is described as " essential to the world-settlement," and its objects are " to promote international co-operation, to ensure the fulfilment of accepted international obligations, and to provide safe- guards against war." Again, the League " should be treated as an integral part of the general Peace Treaty, and should be open to every civilized nation which can be relied on to promote its objects." Further, it is to have a per- manent organization and to hold. periodical Conferences. The Allies, then, may look to America to take her share in the common task, to appoint an American representative on the permanent Council of the League, and to rend American delegates to the League Conferences. Moreover,
if, as seems likely, it is agreed that the League shah boycott any Power which declares war without giving a long notice of its intention, America will exert her immense economic power against the offender. If we may safely assume that America is thus entering the European system, it is clear that the old conceptions of the Balance of Power must be completely revised, and that the inherited fears and sus- picions with which European nations regard one another may diminish. But President Wilson must forgive the Allied. statesmen if they show some hesitation to act as if a new and happier era were opening. America, viewing troubled Europe from a safe distance, cannot realize so fully as we do the intensity and complexity of the racial feuds which have been bequeathed to us from an unhappy past. France, in particular, after fighting for her very existence during this long and cruel war, cannot be expected to view the future with philosophic calm, to abate her very definite and just demands for reparation and security, or to extend the right hand of fellowship to her implacable enemy. She may be excused for desiring solid recompense for her wrongs and a new frontier which can be defended. against German aggression. Italy has similar well-founded grievances to redress. We, for our part, cannot afford to run the risk of being cut off from the Dominions and India by a sudden attack of German submarines on our shipping, and we must therefore insist that Germany shall not recover her lost colonies. If a League of Nations were in being and all the civilized Powers were co-operating honestly to make it a success, the Allies could venture to think less of territorial settlements and strategical safe- guards. But in this period of transition, as we hope it will prove to be, the Allies cannot act as if all the old dangers were past, and as if oven the Germans and the Bolsheviks were converted to a better mind. President Wilson has achieved much in persuading M. Clemenceau and Mr. Lloyd George to work whole-heartedly with him for the establish- ment of a League of Nations, but he will recognize, we are sure, that they dare not stake the whole future of France and the British Empire on the bare assumption that the League will keep Germany or Russia in order.
It would be very unwise, however, to form any estimate of the value of the Conference at this stage. It has appointed Committees to consider what reparation the enemy countries should make, and to devise means for bringing the authors of the war to account and for punishing the lesser personages guilty of atrocities. Much depends ou the action which is taken on the Reports of these Com- mittees. Some superfine people affect to ridicule the widespread demand for the punishment of the Kaiser. But the popular instinct is right. Unless an example is made of the chief offender in this war, the moral value of the world's verdict against Germany will be greatly weakened, and ambitious rulers in the future will not be deterred, as they should be, from making war by the fear of suffering in their own persons. Moreover, Germany and her confederates must be made to pay for their wrong- doing. Here, again, the public demand is irresistible, or at any rate can only be resisted with grave risk to the future League of Nations. We and our Allies have suffered much in a war which we did not seek or desire, and the peoples who provoked the war must bear the consequences of their guilt. We have no wish to be 'vindictive, but we do ask for justice. The Conference has also approached two of the larger problems which will concern the League of Nations. It has appointed a Committee to consider the international control of ports, waterways, and railways, with special reference, no doubt, to the Dardanelles and to the Kiel Canal and to rivers, like the Rhine and Danube, which flow through several countries. It has also appointed a Committee " to consider the international means necessary to secure common action on matters affecting conditions of employ- ment," which raises a whole host of problems, and points to the establishment of some common standard of wages and conditions of labour and, we suppose, of tariffs designed to prevent the competition of cheap labour with the highly paid workmen of the West. The Labour Committee can scarcely hope to do more than enunciate a few principles in these abnormal times. The Conference, meanwhile, has been diverted from its peaceful work by the very perplexing question of Russia and Eastern Europe generally, where hostilities have never ceased. The Congress of Vienna continued its deliberations during the Hundred Days, while Napoleon rose again and fell, and the Congress of Paris is proceeding on the assumption that Russia somehow will return to her senses. But a world-settlement which included an unrepentant Germany and a chaotic, Bolshevik-ridden Russia would.not usher in the Golden Age.
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