A DURABLE PEACE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 60, 4 December 1917, Page 10

A DURABLE PEACE

SIR EDWARD CARSON ON THE "LEAGUE OF NATIONS." Sir Edward Carson recently addressed to a correspondent a letter on the subject of peace conditions. He said: "Some people seom to imagine that we have only to conclude a treaty with Germany, and all will be well. . . Tho truth is that a treaty of peace does not necessarily socure peace in tho only sense in which it can be of any real use to progress and humanity. ' We 'talk platitudes about a League of Nations to enforce peace without considering the conditions essential to its success. I have not yet seen a single suggestion made as to how in future these calamities a.re to be prevented from recurring, if the lawless temper of the Germans remains unrepentant and their power to repeat their crimes remains what it lias been in tho past relatively to the rest of tlie world/. . . "Nothing is more certain than that just in proportion as the military defeat of Germany is incomplete the duration of peace will be short. Whatever terms Gcrmanv might. now brine: herself to accept in order to recuperate her strength fo'' another airg'ression her people would soon foiyet such ecpnomio privations ns they have had +o midure,,ai'd would remain convinced tbat they had nrovod themselves invincible. IV prestiVo of the T-Touse of IMienzollern and of the Prussian military caste would suffer no diminution, and the inherent 'weakness of democracy would be represented as the chief lesson to be drown from a conflict in which nil the democracies of the world in coalition lind be°n unable to defeat the !>rmies of the War Lord.

"If this war is to put end to all war —if, ill the Prime Minister's Dliraso. there is to be 'no next, time'— it 'must be wnjjer] until German military power lias been sufficiently crushed tn make fresh aggression by her impossible for a Ions; time to oouie, and until it is li/i lonijqr possible for the frprpmn p n op'e themselves to he do. lutled by the legend of their invincibility in arms. When this has been Thieved. it m!)y b" possible f or n Lenijue of Nations to he established with some reasonable hono of being able to safeguard a i>e""e thus set on a durable foundation."