INTERNATIONAL MORALITY

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LIX, Issue 86, 28 October 1938, Page 4

INTERNATIONAL MORALITY

"More and more frequently, in lectures and in editorials, the decline of international standards is noticed with consternation and lament," said Professor R. V Southwell, president of the engineering section of the British Association, in the course of his presidential address. "Naturally, perhaps, in Britain we are apt to see it mainly as an increasing tendency toward 'repudiation of law and order in favour of brute force,' revealed most clearly in States that have abjured the democratic ideal. But I think that the malady is at once deeper and more general. Dare we claim that our own policy has shown no falling away from earlier belief in straight-dealing generosity, and the sanctity of contracts? Increasingly, as it seems to me, nations incline to put trust in the adroitness rather than the sincerity of their statesmen. Ethics are out of fashion, and, while as individuals we may still admit the moral imperative, the notion that motives recognisable as moral can have place in international affairs seems now to be rejected as impracticable idealism. Force and deceit, it appears, although unpleasant, are held to have 'survival value': the gangster compels our unwilling admiration, at least in the field of world affairs. But what if there should be something in the notion, that because success in the life-struggle can come not only by individual strength but also by ability to associate and combine, morality has survival value as being (thus regarded) one of the factors which make association possible?"