LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 75, 23 December 1918, Page 6

LEAGUE OF NATIONS

VISCOUNT UREY'S VIEWS

I FISCAL QUESTIONS AND DISARMAMENT

iViscount Grey of Fallodan, sometime scretary of State for Foreign Affairs, icently delivered a public address on the lbject of "A Leaguo of Nations" that Jtracted considerable attention. The Mowing is an extract from the "Mornig verbatim report-of the ad-i-ess:—

i"one of the commonest objections to f.ileague of Nations," said Viscount irey, ."is.this: People say you Imvo had jese schemes before, nncl they ha,vo aver come to anything, why should they jiiie to anything now ?■ Well the League ;;' Nations is machinery, and machinery :,of no use unless there is power to rive it. The whole point is now that fter this war there v;ill be among man-' ind ,a motive power sufficient to work ie\ machinery. (Cheers.) There has ien no war like this in recorded liisiry. Never before have you 'had wholeitions put through the mill of war. The iffering has been on a scale unpreeedent1. Are we to suppose that' human nature

:' so rigid, so unteaihable, so unalterjle, that all the tremendous experience hich'l'this generation has gone through j to ha\;o no, permanent or lasting effect, at only on men's minds but on their ;elings? (Hear, hear.) This war has ien unprecedented in another way than fat. It has shown the present generaon, not merely what war means to-day ith all the inventions of science, but pat war will mean twenty years hence i'it takes place, something as much ore horrible then as this war has been ore'-.horrible than any previous war ur. whole case is that the world at rge will be convinced at the end of. this jr'- that another world war will be a line arid a.disaster to be avoided at all its. '(Cheers.) That is, what yoii must ly .upon to make the machinery of a iagne 'of Nations ..work. And ono of .'e things which I rely upon for it, in tr time at any rate, is that the men who lvive this war and come back from the ,'hting are the men who are going to be e most earnest in keeping the peace in 'e' future. They wish this war to be ougiit to a successful conclusion, which--11 make peace, secure, and arc defemin- : that after it is secure, so far as it lies ,th them, there shall be no more fightgin their_ lifetime. (Hear, hear.) Your (ague of Nations is therefore machinery carry out the, determination on the it of the world at large that it will )p If that determination es not exist,-the. macbinerv will be of

'Use. If the determination does exist en I believe the world at large will sist on the machinery being . brought to use. Tlrnt is why I believo the forjtion of a League of Nations is not ly possible but is a test whether the perience of , this war has altered the iole point of view of nations with rerd to war in general.,'

; .. ■■ The Fiscal Question. Let me take one or two points' which fought to have definitely settled in our nds with regard to working of the ague of Nations. How is it going to ect fiscal questions, for instance? iere. again,- I'take what I understand J be President Wilson's attitude the ier day. . He says there must be no tnom'ic/ boycott within the League of itions, but he contemplates, as I lin. :stand,'gaoh individual member of the gue, each Empire, each Republic, .atever it, may be, as being free within (league, to settle its own fiscal quesns for itself. We may have—we probly shall have—our own .fights here |mt fiscal questions. (Laughter.) It .1 be. very surprising if there is uot ne discussion and some controversy, t.with regard to the League of Nations ! might keep that outside, settle that ; ourselves in our own way. But hav[.settled our fiscal system you must «gnise that in a League of Nations i will be bound to apply that sysh.: whatever it may be, to all other inbers of the league, and you won't ■able to differentiate against'it. ,That. understand.to bo the principle laid vn by .President; Wilson. That is a nciple which certainly commends it f to ray mind, and I think that is a ■pciple'which mnst be accented if the igue of Nations is to be~a league that ;I guarantee,, the peace of the world, ere. is another important noint in conition with the fiscal side of tho League iNations. During this war there has in brought into existence an economic rcott jof the enemy countries. I am d--that.it has been very effective, e machinery, for it is in existence, e .Allies, who have brought that machw'".int6 existence should keep that phinery ready as part of the League' iNations, and if in future years an Jvidiial"member of the ■ League of jtions breaks the coveiuYnt of that, jruo -that economic weapon is going • be-.a most' powerful weapon in tho ids''of the league as a whole. (Cheers.) think'that economic weapon most uable as a future influence in keeping ,ce; r aml in "deterring nations coming b.'the. league. from breaking any cove>t of the league. But/then, if it is be a valuable influence for .that.pm ;e- you must not bring it info exist e before, the purpose has arisen, be-' a there hns be?n some breach of tfie enant. (Cheers.)

• Germany to Lead Disarmament. •' low; I come to another thorny and icult subject—disarmament. I have !d. to get the fiscal difficulty put as' i'rlyaa possible, so that it will not ml! in the way of a League ot Nais. ;You have,got to,.handle this ciuesi,of disarmament verv tenderly. There ■ feelings and apprptansions in this ■nlrjr that somehow or other a League Nations 'is going to put 115 in /a dis'antageous 'position whereby we shall ; bo sufficiently capable of defending selves, and I think you have got to very carefully into definite proposals • may suggest or take with regard disarmament. One tiling X do not id; 'iay.i«sr'-.at;onfce. Before this war expenditure on armaments,naval and itary, had been 'Roing up by leap* ■ houiifls.- Germany had b°en, forcing. j pace in both. She led the way up : liill in increasing the expenditure 'armaments. She' must, lead the way the hill. (Cheers.) ' That this., is .first condition from our point of iv goes without saying. There can no talk of disarmament till Germany, i great armer, is disarmed. But 7 iTc'Wc can go further than Miat. ■ J ik the League of Nations might in- : on each Government which is a nber of the League of Nations becom. ; responsible for the amount irmaments made in its own coun- ; (Cheera.) Tour difficulty now that in any. given country there Y be a vast number of ships of war, is, munitions of war being made, and ■Government may eay: "Oh, these are ng made by private firms for other .ntries; we have nothing to do with In."- I do not seo why it should Ire possible for Governments to agree that y ..will keep that matter in their own ids, that they will give the fullest )lic information and the fullest optunitics for acquiring information as the actual amount of what arc called laments being constructed or availe in each country at any given time, i if that is done and you. find some fernment beginning to forco the pace their armaments I rather think you 1 find the League of Nations discuss-

as to whether it was not time to pg tho economic weapon into jiso bo- ! the thing had gone further. (Hear, r.) ' The League of Nations will have siderable powor provided tho Governlts accept responsibility for the junt of armaments being constructed, t even so, by any regulations you y make about armaments you do not jose completely of the question. Suping to-morrow, or after tho war, the incial pressure was so great,- and the ing that another war was eo »emolo i so strong, that ships of war and aitions of war ceased to be constructin the world at , largo, and those rh tare now in existence were allowto, lapse or become obsolete till inents had <lisap]»ared in the form which we know them—you would not ;e settled the question, because then •potential weapons of war would be !r 'merchant ships. You cannot limit amount of merchant ships, eommcr- ; aeroplanes, and so forth. The fewer ■ships of war in the ordinarily underjd sense of the word the more poten-

Hal as weapons of war become the' things you use in commerce—ship-}, aeroplanes, chemicals, and so forth. Is not the moral of it all this—thnt the one thing that is going to produce disarmament in the world is a sense of security? And it is because I believe a League of Nations may produce, and will produce, that sense of security in the world at large, which will make disarmament in the senso pf a reduction of armaments a reality a sham—that is one reason why I advocate a League of Nations in order that we may get that sense of security;

■Should Germany Come In? We must with a League of Nations be sure that in putting forward all these ideals we have bijen saying what we mean and that we mean what we say. When the time comes that the war ie brought to a successful conclusion wo must nmke it clear that the object is to get a League of, Nations formed into which you get Germany, and not formed iu order that you may find a pretext for keeping Germany out. (Cheers.) On the other hand, your.League ot Nations must .not be a sham, and you must havo no nations in it which are' not sincere. That means that you must have every Government in a League of-Na-tions representing a free people-(A voice: "X civilised people")-which is as thoroughly convinced as the countries who now wish for a League of Nations of tho objects of the league, and as thoroughly determined to carry out those objects in all sincerity. When you come to define democracy, a real democracy and not a sham democracy, I would call to mind-that it is not a question of defining special constitutions. We here, in the form of a Constitutional Monarchy, are as democratic as any. republic in the world, and I trust the people of tljis country to do as John Morlcy once said with regard to Jingoes. He said: "I cannot define a Jingo, but I know one when I see him;" And I think the people of this country nru as capable of knowing a democracy when, they see it. You enn trust no Government, as President Wilson has repeatedly said, that does not come with the credentials of the people behind it and is resiionsible to that people and to no one else. There ai'e one or things .more which I think may be aonffvby u League of Nations, and which are very important. There is work for it to do from day to day which may be valuable. I do not see why the League of Nations once formed need necessarily be idle. I do not see why jt should not arrange for an authority, an international force, at its disposal which should act as the police act. Another thing it may do. It' may possibly do a great deal with regard to Labour. I think" Labour .is undoubtedly going to take p. larger and more permanent share in the Government than it has before. It may be hfire or elsewhere we shall have Labour Governments. Well, I put this forward only tentatively. Labour now has its own international conferences, but they are unofficial. Is it not possible that, as Labour takes a more permanent share in government, it iray find the league useful as the means of giving a more official character to these international consultations? Th&i I will give you another suggestion. There are countries in the world, independent nations, but more loosely organised or for one leason or another incapable through their Governments of. ' managing their own affairs effectively from the point of view nf thwe other highly organised countries who wish to trade with them, and they want assistance in the shape of officials from more highly organised countries. What has prevented it being done is the jealousy that strong States have of each other and the fear of the weaker nation that it is'goin? to sacrifice its independence. But, under the authority ofa League of Nations there would be much •less chance nf that sort of thing being misunderstood, and the trade of the world and tho civilisation of some of the more backward States' would benefit enormously.

Compensation for Suffering. 1 have said why I think a League of Nations, though' impossible before, may be possible after this war. It is true that m tuture years problems may arise. You cannot get absolute security by any human means you 'can invent, but a League of Nations will improve your chance. But surely after the war is successfully., concluded the only approach you can have to compensation for the suffering that has 'been endured is that something will be possible after it which was not possible before it. Deep and abiding will be oim- satisfaction when the war is brought to a successful conclusion, but there will not and canuot be that lightness of heart which has often characterised previous victories. But there will be irreparable grief. But there is a third feeling, too. The thought of those who have given their lives is not one oi grief only but' of pride. I believe that in this war the young men have given their lives in a finer spirit than ever before. In previous wars you have had a comparatively small part of the popula-. tion engaged, and that generally composed in this country of that particular part of the population which by temperament or physical aptitude chose the profession of arms. But in Ibis war, in the beginning, before we had inscription, young men who disliked fighting as much as anybody, who hated war, who had no turn, as they thought, for soldiering, came forward by thousands. They attained heights of physical courage never surpassed—(cheers)—and they showed, whatever their previous predilections might have been," the qualities jof' the best soldiers. Well, they have died, many of them fighting for. their country.' Yes, that is true, but feeling also that they wero fighting in the cause of fight against wrong, that they were, fighting not only in a time of national peril but ,of world peril. They rose to heights-not 'only of physical courage, but of exaltation of spirit, and by thousands on those heights they have given their lives. Now, surely if the peace is to be worthy of the spirit in which these lives have been given it must not secure merely national and material interests; it must do something wider, and bigger, and better, an* higher than the world has ever had before. (Cheers.) Whi\t can we do. those of us who have not been in the fighting? Wp must do our best to live-up to the spirit in which they gave their.lives, and it is. because I believe that the use ot the machinery nf tho League of Nations, the snirit it will remiire, and fie support it will receive on the l'nes laid down by President Wilson that I believo the Governments concerned will be enabled to place the international relations- of. the world, on a' higher plane than was ever reached or ever possible before. (Cheers.)