THE FUTURE OF THE LEAGUE: ,ILL PAX AND PACTS
By PROFESSOR GUGLIELMO FERRERO
[Chang tä the non-arrival of the article which was to hare been contributed t6 this series by 31. Pierre Cot we publish in its place a discussion of the essential principles of a constructive foreign policy by Professor Gugliebno Ferrero, the . well-known author of " The Greatness and Decline of Rome."I WITHIN the space of seven months, betwcen October, 1985, and May, 1936, the world has seen the violation 9f five treaties of increasing gravity.
• • • 2. A certain number of States members Of the League have violated the Covenant by refusing to apPly the sanctions,, decided on by the CounCil and the Assembly or by applying them, in form only. _ .
8. Italy has violated the Geneva Convention by which almost every State in the world has pledged itself not to use poison-gas in war.
'4:Germany has violated the Treaty of Locarno by re-militarising the left bank of the Rhine.
5: Austria has violated the Treaty of St. Germain by rearming.
Each -of the violated treaties was a fundamental engagement, a corner-stone of European order. But how and why has it been pOssible for so many consecutive violations to 'have been Committed with such rapidity t hat' the world has hardly realised what has happened? It means' the crash of the Mountain eateii away year by ?„-ear' by invisible V.reams and brought down by a final shnek- when it is least expected. The invisible streams : have been the numberless errors committed in the hiSt"fifteen years by the powers victOrious in the World .War. The final shock was the war in Ethiopia. Therein 'lies the historic' importance of this war, 'which the aggressor Persists in describing as a petty colonial enterprise. It would be foolish to cherish illusions on the gravity of the situation. The word " peace " comes from the Latin par; which has the same root as paetn. ••A' peace is the observance of pacts, war their violation.. -A continent in which within seven months many States have been able to violate their pledge for so; many different motives is already in a state of virtual war. The guns are not yet going off, but we are getting ready to fire them.
Never for three centuries has Europe found itself in such • an appalling situation. In Europe today there is neither faith nor law. Europe today is nothing but a system- of military forces watching each other with mistrust, and maintained in the immobility* of an apparent equilibrium by universal fear. What would happen if some little incident upset the equilibrium ?
In certain circles there is a tendency to hold the League responsible for this situation. It is said that the League of Nations was a chimerical creation, that if it is destroyed and a return made to the old system of alliances peace will be re-established on a firm basis.. But that too is an illusion. States between which violation of the Covenant like that committed by Italy has been possible arc no longer capable of making serious alliances. An alliance is not made by good intentions. For serious alliances the contracting parties must be in earnest. For a quarter of a century down to the World War it was possible to maintain the peace of Europe by the balance of two alliances, because Europe was a firmly- based continent, with regular and legitimate governments with a.. political, moral and intellectual order stable enough. ,for international engagements to possess a permanent and precise value. In the present chaos I. Italy by the invasion of Ethiopia has violated the binding engagement which members of the League of Nations have taken to respect the terri- torial integrity and political independence of one another. alliances will be merely coalitions of fears or ambitions sentiments too volatile and interests too contradictory to bind States seriously and firmly in a conunon long- term policy.
What then is to be done ? The first thing is to under- stand the cause of this universal social dissolution which is dragging Europe to perdition and to react against it. The cause of the catastrophe is not hard to discover. R is the degradation of principles. Instead of regarding the principles which alone can assure peace and order in Europe as rules to be observed with an intelligent loyalty, an attempt has been made to use them as pretexts or expedients to achieve artificial groups of forces in which even the States which deny the principles would be included. Exactly the opposite is necessary. We must marshal our forces to preserve and maintain prin- ciples against every State which refuses to recognise and observe them. You cannot play with the principles on which moral and social order rests without provoking universal anarchy.
We have today spectacular proof of that. The prime cause of the present catastrophe and those with which we are menaced has been, and will be, not the conflict between Italy and Ethiopia. but the conflict between Italy and the League of Nations. That is the real con- flict which has been raging for seven months and which lies at the centre of the present chaos. But nothing was simpler to foresee than this conflict. It was enough to compare the statements made by the Fascist Govern- ment at Geneva with the doctrines professed by the same Government at home as the very basis of its whole policy, to know that na Government can long pursue two contradictory policies, one at home and the other abroad. A Government which preaches to the people the duty of preparation for aggressive wars in order to extend its domination cannot remain a member of the League of Nations without imperilling the Nvliole League.
Why have the men and States which bear the chief responsibility for European order insisted tq) to yesterday On refusing to recognise so obvious a truth ? That question will be a problem for future historians. It has been supposed possible by dexterous diplomatic man- oeuvres oc by mere newspaper articles to transform into a guardian of the peace a State whose official doctrine openly proclaims the rights of conquest. and force. It is obvious today where the universal myopia has brought Europe.
Will France and England be capable of adopting a vigorous policy of principle, which alone could restore the situation and check the total collapse of Europe into chaos and war The whole future depends on this change of front, on its possibility or impossibility. For if the two countries are not capable of that, there remains for them in my view nothing but to pile up milliards of money and pour them out on guns, aeroplanes and poison- gas. A mad competition in armaments will be the only expedient remaining to cheek war. But I fail com- pletely to understand how a policy of disarmament and collective security can be carried out on the basis of the League of Nations between States by which all treaties, even the most fundamental, can be violated with such impunity. France and England, I repeat, are at this critical moment responsible before all others for the inture. The policy of alliances will lead to nothing. What is needed is a vigorous policy of principle. It is essential,, moreover, that the world-should understand at last the appalling future towards whieh•it is slipping. For it seems stricken with blindness. WA% for instance, has seen that the world without realising it has for three months been running the risk of countenancing by tacit consent gas-warfare proscribed years ago as the modern form of the war of .extermination. That great wars should be menacing the world afresh is deplorable, but that they should be menacing it in the form of wars of extermination whose victims will be counted by millions is an unimaginable horror. And if the world cannot shake off its apathy, that horror may _ well be a reality tomorrow.
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