SWITZERLAND AND THE WAR.
[To THE EDITOS or THE SPECTATOR."] SIL—Tour issue of September 1st contains a very interesting review—headed "Switzerland and the War "—of four books on that subject, and that review connects itself in my mind with your review of Potterat and the War in the issue of July 28th, and the letter it called forth from a "British resident in German Switzerland;' also in the number of September 1st.
Your contributors, like many other Englishmen, feel that the attitude of the Swiss mind to the merits of the war is worth study by those interested in the psychology of nations in such a critical period of the world's history as this. Perhaps I may help them in understanding that which perplexes them. What they all want is a clue, and bore it is. The Swiss national life and its inter- national relations have developed since 1815—that makes exactly a hundred years of history down to this war—under a unique statue, the European charter granted as a part of the Treaties of Vienna, in the following words :— "The Powers bind themselves to recognize perpetually the neu- trality of Switzerland, give her their guarantee for the inviola- bility and intangibility of her present territory, as fixed by these treaties. The Powers declare herewith that the neutrality and inviolability of Switzerland, as well as its independence from any foreign influence, serve the true interests of the whole European polity."
Every word of this declaration, up to which Switzerland has been systematically at pains to live, since she accepted it as her node mecum in international and home politics, should be weighed when endeavouring to understand her at present. The doctrine of ,that declaration has penetrated her heart, mind, and blood. It is a juridical status which not only the State but every citizen adheres to implicitly and explicitly. There have been, during this war, two instances of default—the affaire des deux colonels and the indiscretion of the late Minister at the Swiss Foreign Office. The first was immediately punished after a public trial of the delinquents; the second resulted in the retirement.of the Minister from office within a few hours of his mistake, followed by his formal retirement from public life.
It is for want of not quite grasping the moulding force which this eentnry-old international status put forth in shaping the Swiss mind, that those who are pusszled by its apparent incon. sisteneies fail to sec the logical bond that binds them together. The more neutral is an observance of international obligations,the more free in individual and moral thought, the privilege and distinctive mark of every man as man. Should President Wilson's ideal of a Society of Nations formed under international obliga- tions of a juridical character—not of a political nature—be abeut to be adopted by Europe, Europe need only turn to Switzerland to see how the thing works out in practice. Sympathies vary, events.are diversely judged, merits are discussed, but the law is upheld and obeyed. The law in question, in the Swiss case, is briefly, but comprehensively, worded in the above-quoted Declara- tion of Vienna, setting up a nation in such is fashion that its interests coincide with those of Europe, and that its public duty consists in serving them, while respecting every individual opinion, judgment, sympathy, expressed without breaking that
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