THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS.
T" presentation of a draft Constitution for the League of Nations is a momentous event. What- ever critics may say in its dispraise, and we confess that there are only too many points that invite criticism, the fact that the Great Powers of the world have agreed to the creation of this League designed to prevent war marks an unforgettable stage in the progress of mankind. It would be absurd, of course, to say that there is no parallel to such an act, for the Holy Alliance, which came into being after the world had been shaken to its foundations by the Napoleonic adventure, was, according to the professions of its authors, nothing but an effort in brotherly love—an effort to make the world live in peace for ever afterwards. As is only too well known, that particular organization became transformed into a hideous tyranny of oppression, and the world was saved from its tyranny only by the stout independence of Great Britain and the United States. The outlook now, however, is far more hopeful ; the very fact that history records in detail the steps by which the Holy Alliance was so evilly transformed is of good augury. Mistakes which are familiar can be avoided,. We have too often insisted on the warning lessons which litter the track of the. Holy Alliance to be blind to the possibility of such a transformation happening again. But there is little doubt now that a League of some sort is really coming into existence, and it is the duty of all men and nations of goodwill to determine that they will do their level best to make the League fulfil its functions. This is not the hour to plunge ourselves into gloomy meditations upon the past; it is rather the hour to secure, by all the forces of sagacity, honesty, and character which the nations can amass in a good cause, that the future shall put the past to shame.
When the Constitution of the League has been ratified, with whatever amendments may between now and then be introduced, it will comprise the most sacred Treaty in existence—a Treaty which any nation will break at its peril. A large part of the scheme is obviously drawn from the recently published proposals of General Smuts. It was General Smuts who proposed that inside what he called a General Conference there should be an Executive Council. This Executive Council actually appears, and will consist of the five most important Powers, together with four other Powers chosen by the " Delegates." The " Dele- gates " in the draft Constitution do duty for General Smuts's " General Conference," but it is to be noted that the " Delegates " are a much smaller body than General Smuts had proposed. This main body, instead, of being a large family of nations, will consist of representatives of the Allied Powers. It will be seen that on the Executive Council the great Allied Powers will have a permanent working majority, as General Smuts suggested. It is provided that the Executive Council shall meet once a year. But there is also to be a Secretariat always at work. The Secretariat, we imagine, will act rather like an official Department in Whitehall. The permanent officials will supply the data, and to a considerable extent will try to frame policy, just as permanent officials do here. The head of the Secretariat, the Secretary-General, is appointed by the Executive Council. In these circum- stances the Secretary-General will be a man in a quite extraordinary position of authority. Let us keep our eye upon the Secretary-General. If an ambitious, self- glorifying type of man found himself in that office, he might try to rule the world I The League will require that all disputes shall be submitted to arbitration. There is also a very wise stipulation that there shall be a period of delay before hostilities can be begun. There are severe arrangements for the reduction of armaments, largely designed to prevent armaments from being a source of private profit. When the League decides to force a recal- citrant member into a better frame of mind, it will rely mainly upon an economic boycott ; but each m mber of the League will be bound to place its military and naval resources at the disposal of the League in case of need. There is no provision for an international armed lone directly manned and controlled by the League. Finally, the League will appoint Mandatories to control the Colonies taken from Germany and those territories which were till lately ruled by Turkey. We are delighted ti be able to add that certain very important principles which we hoped would be embodied as an essential part of the policy of a League of Nations have been adopted. For example, it is laid down that there is to be no forced labour where the writ of the League runs, and no demoralization of native
races by means of alcohol. Moreover, there is to be no forced military service except for the purpose of defence and keeping public order ; and the natural res urces of a territoryruled in trust are not to be used for the sole benefit of the controlling Power. Lastly, all Treaties are to be published in full. The corollary of this 'last provision is that all existing agreements which are inconsistent with the objects of the League will be abrogated. As for the expansion of the League, Sates will be admitted " as they give effective guarantees of their sincere intentions to observe their nternational obligations." No new member can be admitted unless two-thirds of the States represented vote for its admission. It looks rather as though it might be as difficult to get into the League as it is for candidates to get into some clubs where crusty old gentlemen put black balls into the ballot-boxes as a matter of principle. Certainly a fe 'small States getting together, and working upon the feelings or the interests of fellow small States, might year by year, or even generation by generation, contrive to exclude from the League some vigorous and wealthy State which they distruste .
It will be seen that, for all practical purposes, the League is a League of the Allies and the United States. The Allies are to fight the battle of peace as they fought the war, but under a new name. The present enemy Powers may qualify for membership of the League sooner than we dare to hope, but they are certainly not there yet, and even Neutral Powers are not yet included. The whole of Germany and Russia lies beyond the border. That, of course, is inevitable for the present. In spite of the criticisms which are naturally and justly aroused by the proposed Covenant, three chief and very important facts to the good at once emerge. The first is that Great Britain and the United States are thrown together by the necessities of their policy, and it is impossible to see how they can ever again be divided. In our opinion, this is the greatest result of the Peace Conference. The second fact is an expansion of the first ; the members of the whole Entente Alliance, so far from having become alienated during the discussions of the Conference, have drawn much closer together. The third fact is that the very delicate, and indeed perilous, question of the Freedom of the Seas has by force of circumstances disappeared altogether as an issue. As President Wilson has himself explained, that doctrine was asserted in the interest of Neutrals. In future there will be no Neutrals. If war breaks out again, the world will be divided into those who aide with one or other of the belligerents. The last four years of war have shown pretty clearly that the status of a Neutral during war had become almost entirely fictitious. It is just as well that this fact should be recognized. We think we are not exaggerating what must happen ; for the Covenant expressly provides for cutting off countries altogether by means of the boycott, and such a boycott can leave no place for neutrality on the part of States which are neighbours of the boycotted nation.
In the United States there is bound to be much discussion about the paradoxical aspect incidentally placed upon the Monroe Doctrine. Suppose that the American Senate demands that the Western Hemisphere, in accordance with the Monroe Doctrine, should be excluded from the operations of the League and from all its implications. Such an amendment would have a very logical appearance, for assuredly, if the authority of the League be accepted in the Western Hemisphere, the Monroe Doctrine in its literal sense will cease to exist. We sincerely hope, however, that the American people will decide that there is room here for such an accommodation as will save the substance of the Monroe Doctrine while admitting some little weakening of its verbal stringency. The Monroe Doctrine has worked admirably, and in our opinion it would be a disaster to jettison what has proved an excellent instrument in ruling out a large part of the world from disputes, and thus preserving the general peace. As a Treaty has to be ratified by a two-thirds majority in the American Senate, and as the majorities in both the new Houses of Congress will be opposed to President Wilson, there is obviousy room for a good deal of uncertainty.
When all has been said, the League is, and must be, a great act of faith. We could wish that the statesmen
had contented themselves with simply guaranteeing the sanctity of Treaties ; for that would have been an enormous achievement in spite of its modest look, and would have given lees cause for suspicion and intrigue among nations. The cynic could very easily make play with the scheme as it stands. His meditations may readily be imagined. The Judges, he might remind us, told Charles I., when ho was in difficulties about passing a statute which lie did not intend to respect, that " every statute lath its interpre- tation." So has every agreement, and especially an agree- ment so hastily drawn up and so full of compromise as the League of Nations Covenant. It bristles with potential " interpretations," but, strangely enough, if perhaps inevitably, there is no one entrusted with the duty of interpretation. Yet, as we know, even in settling a Tube strike an interpreter has to be called in, sometimes within twenty-four hours. Every human institution is subject to the law of change and development. Which way will the Covenant develop ? If it grows stronger, as Federal government has grown in America, we shall get universal monarchy in commission. That may not be bad, but should we like it ? If the Covenant grows weaker, it will be a case of the union between Sweden and Norway over again, which gradually dissolved itself, and we shall be back again in the old, old story—which may Heaven avert ! The ambitions of men and nations are the real danger. An ambitious man may easily inoculate a nation and turn it into a community of adventurers willing to play the bravo. The League holds up to us a great vision of more than the Caesarian calm which Gibbon described in his gibe on the Antonines, while all the time some man or nation is growing the crimson flower that maddens and yet ennobles. Can these poet-politicians, our cynic would ask, be permanently kept under without Machiavelli= ? Indeed, can men ever be prevented for long from putting their lips to the heady wine of death ? Will they always be good boys ? Will not the effort to be so stifle them ? Only too probably they will say : " Anything is better than this ghastly moral anticyclone, in which there is never an adventure for the adventurous, and all goes by time-table and according to plan. And what makes it worse is that all the great things have already been done in discovery and in material development. There is no new adventure to be got there." Will the girls ever cease to dream of the strong man who will carry them off, as the Romans did the Sabines ? Will Helen never again look out of the corner of her eye ? Will boys ever cease to flush in secret pride at the thought of the laurel for the brows of the brave, the laurel that is only to be won in combat ? Anyway, let us not run off with the idea that coercion by way of the sea is going to be a permanent remedy. The real coercion of the future will be by way of the air. And how are we going to prevent people preparing in secret for that ? Thus the cynic—but we have allowed him already to say too much. It was indeed time that something was done, and to make the attempt is in itself good. Although we shall not do so well as the optimist dreams, we shall not do nearly so badly as the pessimist foretells. Very likely it may be the old story of how the Devil when sick had religious aspirations, and how every monastic prospect vanished with recovered health. But that is no reason for doing nothing. True, ginger will always be hot in the mouth. True, men will bite their thumbs at each other, and the young plants of grace will look couth and sly and will say beneath their breath: " Ah, he would die lot me!:.' Still, the troubles of the next generation will, thank Heaven, be settled by the next generation, and not by us. We must be content to feel that for the next thirty years no one will want to fight, or will indeed be induced to fight, and that " peace in our time, 0 Lord," is almost certain to be realized. Let us devoutly hope and pray that all doubt will be proved groundless and unworthy by the event. Best of all, let us determine that so far as we can direct its course history shall tell the tale we all desire to read in it.
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