AFTER THE WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 62, 13 March 1915, Page 15

AFTER THE WAR.

RECONSTRUCTING EUROPE. At the annnal conference of the Historical Association held at T-'nlversity College, Gower Street, London, Professor Hearushaw delivered an address on "The National State and the European Commonwealth." He said it would not do to say the present war was inevitable, because that would be to admit that the Devil was I indomitable in the world. Yet he believed the Devil had been the determining factor in bringing about the present European conflict. Germany had uot had the will for peace, but the will to war, and' l had thrown Europe back again to the welter, which existed in the sixteenth century, before the concert of Europe came Into force. Ensland could not have stood out of the present conflict consistently with her honour and her own safety. The only point open to question was whether it might not have (been advisable for Britain to declare wat a little earner than she did. Our aim now must be first to see that no one Sfate was predominant in Europe. Serbia must be preserved from Austria and Belgium, rescued from Germany. Alsace and Lorraine must either be given back to France or made a small buffer State. The Anstrian Empire'must go, and there must be some reconstruction of the Balkan States. Turkey must go from Europe, and - there must be a more perfect concert among the European Powers than ever'before. Even now we feit some of the benefits which were arising from the war in regard to the position in Ireland and in the labour" world.' Professor Adams (Tale University) *s> pressed the opinion that when Germany came to have a national existence she recognised more clearly than any other' European nation that politics-had become international. Germany realised that if she did not do something, ami do it early, she would be shut out from the.politics of the world and would become something like Wales was in the British Isles. Thirty years ago, when he was in Germany, he became conscious that that country, recognising, the British Empire as the greatest obstacle in the way #f her plans, plotted to overthrow it. The President said his own opinion was j that the attitude of Russia after the war [would be of great benefit, not only to herself, but to the. other nations ol liiww