AN INTERNATIONAL FORCE
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sin,—In your issue of July 16th, Capt. W. A. Powell writes to advocate the formation of an " internationally organized protective force " which is to relieve all the nations from any fears as to their " security " and thus absolve the citizen from any obligation to serve his country, or defend himself and his property.
Alas, history abounds in examples of the failure of trying to obtain concerted action amongst allies. Napoleon had the immense advantage of being the supreme head of his forces and sole arbitrator of his own policies. The allies with their divided counsels could not make headway against his single genius for many years, and in the late War, Germany's strongest point was, perhaps, her solid national front—as she had prac- tically moulded the policy of Austria to conform with her own, and she alone controlled the strategy and tactics of the War. Turkey and Bulgaria were already Germanized. As to international forces, the squabbles at Crete in 1896, 1897 and 1898, and in China in 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion, give some insight of the probable value of an " internationally organized protective force." I fear national interests would automatically reduce such a force to impotence.—I am, Sir, &c., R. N. WHITE, Tower House, Southsea. Major, Royal Marines (retired).
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