NEUTRAL STATES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 50, 27 February 1915, Page 4

NEUTRAL STATES.

One of the ninny instructive inference I that the historian of the future will draw from the recent course of events in Kuropp ie that the position of smnll State* ajlivUhe.trederihe existing system precaroui a"nd"unsTilhle "in the extreme! Some of the smaller national districts on the Continent hare been neutralised in order to protect tJitfm. Blit' ttiiit neutrality is no protection in itself has been proved over and over a;r.iin in Furnnean history, but never within the records of time so terribly as in the fate of Hclgiuni. That example suggests another lesson of the war, to which we have more than om-e called Attention, the futility of the doctrine of interposing a fcetfer neutral State between two powerful military nations. Even- neutral State, the most peaceful and inoffensive, has had cause to tremble for its own security; nnd not only neutrals, but al! minor States have been proved to be in danger of being made the victims of the fury of a conquering or a conquered army. Servia and Voland are suffering , "martyrdom as well a* Belgium. Roumania. in ■ a pitc i of her strong desires to' freo'fcer liihdrVS, dare not expose 'herself to share the fate of these small nations. The only remedy » to, provide neutralised nations with substantia.] guarantees, sanctioned and enforced t>y specific penalties, and to encourage them to form thmselves into federations or at least groups united ■ for purposes of defence. Yet. though the smaller nations havp i proved to be almost defenceless against f th*> "intelligent brutality!' of a stronger 1 Power that seeks to terrorise them into ■ submission, at the same time the doctrine ; of terrorism lias been futile of great ad- ■ vantage, to the nation,that has.carried it , out. Tt has been, justified W the. Gcr : . mans, and many, oppressors before their timfc, by the assertion that the. greater'the psfri iiiftieted ami the grefitrr * the terror created, the sooner would re- ) sistatieo he at an end and die conqueror ■. be able to oxtend clemency and humanity ■ towards his obedient servants.- . But in this instance the Kaiser forgot that there ' are outrages that rouse a spirit not to i ho quenched except by total exteruiinaf lion, and that even if the victimised Tace . enuld he exterminated their wrongs would * live after them and rouse up other nations. This lesson tbe Germans might ; have lenrued from the warning l fate of ; their ally of Turkey, but the rage created , by their failure has blinded them. And it is probable that the inability of the Germans to realise the disastrous reaction > of outraged public feeling upon them-. i selves may yet prove their undoing. .For ( this -war. among many other great achievements, has revealed tbe almost 1 incalculable spiritual force of the public : opinion of Europe. We even begin to-sie ■ something likje Uie foundation' of a com- . lminity of thought and feeling on the Can-. tinent, anil an extraordinary interfusion of ideas throughout tbe civilised world. 1 This was a factor that scarcely entered - into tbe calculations of prophets who pre- , dieted for us the issues of a coming war x before this began; but it may in the end prove even more important than the lfelaB tive strength of armaments and numbers 1 in deciding the final outcome of tbe , t struggle and its ultimate consequences.