The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. SATURDAY, JUNE 24, 1911. THE WORLD'S PEACE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 149, 24 June 1911, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

SATURDAY, JUNE 24, 1911. THE WORLD'S PEACE.

r* the mmtt the* ImcMt mtMmmt, fr the vfMf Uβ* u~dt ruumum, far.the future to the Httem—. And t**gua4 tAmt w mm 4m.

Last December a banquet given in Washington by the American Society for the judicial settlement of international disputes was the occasion for a remarkable speech delivered by President Taft. Taking full advantage of his opportunity, the President made an appeal to England for help to forward the great cause of universal peace in terms which have already 'become memorable, and which evoked an enthusiastic response from the nation to which they were addressed. Three months later Sir Edward Grey, While speaking in a debate on national armaments in the House of Commons, and emphasising the necessity for maintaining a high standard of military and naval efficiency, referred in laudatory language to President Talt's appeal, and expressed his strong conviction that it would be possible for England' and America to settle all disputes that could possibly arise between them by peaceful means. He quoted, with strong approval, President Taft's proposal for submitting to international arbitration "every issue which cannot be settled by negotiation, no matter what it involves— honour, territory, or money," and he even committed himself to the statement that an agreement between England and America, drafted on these lines, would receive "the deliberate and decided sanction of Parliament." These two speeches taken in. conjunction represent, as President Taft has said, a long step forward on the path that leads to peace, and the public interest that the proposal has aroused renders it, in Sir Edward Grey's words, one of the most momentous and far-reaching suggestions that the present generation has been called upon to consider. Our present purpose, however, is not so much to discuss President Taft's views or the scheme "for an Anglo-American Arbitration Convention as to remind our readers that though for the moment such proposals may 6eem visionary, the way has 'been prepared for them by the remarkable achievements of the promoters of Peace within the last decade. Most people have so far entirely failed to realise how much has been done to >. help on the cause of international arbitration, and to discountenance war by the Hague Conference and the movements arising out of them. The first Conference was convened by the Czar in 1809, and though it consisted only of representatives of such nations as were accredited to the court of St. Petersburg it did work •which produced most important consequences even before the second Conference 'was called together. It established the Hague Arbitration Court, by which England, Germany, and Italy were dissuaded from attacking Venezuela, and embarking on a policy <which -would certainly have dragged the European Powers into a conffiOwith the United States. It provided the machinery for a Commission of Inquiry to investigate facts in dispute between nations, and this enabled England and Russia to settle the Dogger Bank, episode without having recourse to arms. It pronounced in favour of mediation between belligerents by a neutral, even after hostilities had begun, and thus opened a way for President Roosevelt to offer his services to Russia and Japan, 4and thus' to close, ithe most sanguinary;'struggle of modern times. These

:are, indeed, noteworthy result*, bat the constitution of the Second Hague Conference IB in itself an even more remarkable indication of the progress that the Peace idea is making. Tor when the next Conference -was convoked in 1987 1 all the leading nations of the world were, at their own request, for the first time, represented. And not only did thie cosmopolitan tribunal advocate compulsory, instead of voluntary, arbitration, but it abolished a most dangerous source of international conflict by forbidding the collection of debts by force, and it prepared the way for an automatically recurring world congress for the promotion of Peace.

In 'brief, the Hague Conferences have already done far more than the promoters originally expected, fin the way oi finding practicable substi--tutes for -war. And these are not *by any means the only institutions which are striving industriously to secure the world's peace. Already there ten four international courts in -existence devoted to this great object-; .The permanent Court of Arbitration created by the first Hague Conference; the Court of Arbitral Justice, created by the second Hague Conference; the International Prize Court which derived its authority from the same source; and the Central American Court of Justice, created by the Central American Peace Conference at Washington in 1907. But the general principle of arbitration is making headway even more rapidly than the provision of facilities for its application. At the second Hague Conference every nation voted in favonr of Compulsory Arbitration. Three-quarters of the nations would have signed a general treaty to that effect, if it had not been for the vehement opposition of Germany and her allies. But the spirit of Arbitration is abroad everywhere.; since the first Hague Conference was summoned, 133 special treaties x>f arbitration have been signed , ; and though roost of these, following the Anglo-French Convention of 1903, expressly exclude "honour and vital interests," at least ten States have refused to except even these questions from arbitral jurisdiction. It is to be observed thit both Sir Edward Grey and President Taft believe that even "honour and vital interests" may yet be brought within the scop? of international arbitration. And it is no answer to their suggestions to ask scoffidngly if America would arbitrate about the Iklonroe Doctrine. The ppint is that the world's public opinion on these great questions is progressing arid developing so rapidly that it is- impossible to set any limit to its operation in the -future. The Inter-parliamentary Union, the Conciliation Internationale, the International Institute of Peace, the International Law Association, the National Peace Council, the. Peace Society, and mo/e. than..soo other non-official organi--sations are working - constantly 4o promote the growth of international friendship, and to secure the final .supersession of war by peaceful settlement. And though we are still far from the realization of this great ideal, we may rejoice to know that every such forward step as England and America have lately taken together makes it increasingly difficult to sever by force the bonds of amity in which civilized nations should dwell together, and renders it increasingly improbable that the Powers will ever again plunge so recklessly and precipitately as of old into the horrors oi war.-