A DEFEATED LEAGUE ?
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—You say that if the League States hold on " in the enforcement of the present measures in restraint of the Italian aggression on Abyssinia, Italy must ultimately come to terms. One would hope that they will hold on to that policy, in default of a better ; though the difficulties of persisting in one so little calculated to inspire enthusiasm are obvious. But even so, would the history and probable outcome of it all be such as to encourage hopes for even the beginnings of a " world-society " ? The answer, I am afraid, is only too clear. Nations would not agree to reduce their armaments, trusting in so deplorably poor an example of the working of a system of collective justice and security : nor would nations contemplating aggression be deterred by wholesome respect for it. It seems to me quite chimerical to suppose that a stable and satisfactory European system could be founded on such a shockingly inadequate fulfilment by the League of Nations of their pledges under the Covenant.
Is it equally chimerical to hope that our own Government will even now propose (not -wait for others to propose) a policy commensurate with the clear obligations still resting upon ourselves in common with the other League nations ; and will tell France that co-operation in this is the condition of our accepting the obligations of Locarno (which assumed the working reality of the League Covenant, to which it was subsidiary)—and of our considering any further specific commitments ?
The only alternative to such a policy would seem to be the fools' race," to impoverishment and disaster, in competitive armaments, now in full swing in all parts of the world, our entry into which the new Budget must be taken as signalising.—Yours, &c., ARTHUR FLOYD.
46 Downs Court Road, Purley, Surrey.
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