"CURSE OF PEACE" AND GOOD OF WAR

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 7, 9 January 1915, Page 4

"CURSE OF PEACE" AND GOOD OF WAR

TEACHINGS OF TREITSCHKE. FEAR OF BRITAIN. Frequent reference is made by war reviewers to the teachings of Treitschke, who has remarkably influenced the policy of Germany. z Selections from the lectures on politics of Heinrich yon Treitßchke, the German prof es3or 'and teacher of militarism whom General Friedrlch yon Bernhardi often quotes in his books on Germany and war, have been translated and published. The main thesis of Trietschke's teachings, according to these selections, is not simply that war is necessary, but that it is of benefit and advantage to a nation. "This truth remains," writes Treitschke, " the essence of the State consists in this, that it can suffer no higher power than itself. . . . That is so unreservedly true, that we here again at i once recognise that it cannot be the i future of the human race to form one Single political power, but that the ideal towards which We strive is an ordered company of nations, which lays down limitations of sovereignty in the way of voluntary treaties without doing away with that sovereignty." THE VIOLABILITiT OF TREATIES. He then goes on to prove that "a State cannot possibly bind its will for the future in respect to another State " ; and " that the international treaties which restrict the will of a State are no absolute barriers, but voluntary limitations of itself." This, he says, shows that the erection of an international court of arbitration is incompatible with the nature of the State. Questions of second and third-rate importance might be submitted to such a court, but questions of vital importance never could be. -He argues that international treaties may become more frequent ; " but to the end of history arms will maintain their rights, and in that very point lies the sacredness of war." Treitschke then declares thai the development of great States aims unmißtakably at ousting States of the second rank; that a State must be powerful to fulfill its ideal. A small State 1b ludicTous ; it judges its importance by the taxes that it raises, he contends, and the consequent materialism has a pernicious effect on the mind of its citizens. In the large State, tho danger ho fears is that the administration will become routine, but this weakness can b& mitigated by granting greater independence and freedom to the provinces and municipalities. A CURE FOR AILMENTS. He maintains that one of the essential functions of the State is to make war. That this has been forgotten, is cited to provo "how effeminate the science of the State, as treated by the hands of civilians, had finally become." In another place he speaks of the "curse of peace" as the cause for the downfall of the Dutch people from the position which they held during the period when they were combatting the Spanish worldpower. "In misfortune," he writes, "there lies a hardening influence for noble nations ; in prosperity, even they run the risk of becoming a prey to sloth." In another place he says : "War is the only remedy for ailing nations." MORALS AND THE METHOD OF MIGHT. In regard to the methods which a State may take for winning out, Treitschke, expresses the Machiavellian theory that "when the safety of the State was at stake, the purity of the means employed should not be called in question; if only the State were preserved every one would subsequently approve the means." He softens this view, however, by saying that Machiavelli must be taken historically to be understood ; ahd finally sayß ( that "a power that treads all right underfoot must in the end itself perish, for in the moral world nothing remains firm .that is not able to resist." "States do not arise out of the people's sovereignty," he writes in another place, "but they are created against the will of the people ; the State is the power of the stronger race which establishes itself. . . . Only in war does a nation become a nation, .and the expansion of existing States proceeds inmost cases by the way of conquest, even if afterwards the results of the armed combat are recognised by treaty. STRENGTH OF TONGUE TIES. Treitschke also argues that the strength of a nation is dependent upon the number of people who speak the language of the nation. He cites the English as a case in point, and says that it does noit i*ally affect England's greatness that she lost the United States and that she will "probably lose Canada one day." People with the same language retain their close relations even after they have broken away from each other politically, he points out. "What does it not signify," he says, "that there will soon be three hundred millions of English-speaking peoples? . . . Yet the whole position of Germany hangs upon how many millions ofpeople will speak German in the future." RUSSIA'S GREAT DESTINY. In regard to Russia, Treitschke has the following to say: — "If ever any state had, then Russia has what the Americans call a great destiny. Its civilising mission in Asia is unmistakable, and there it has huge tasks still to accomplish. The danger to Europe Kes in the fact that the state is filled, because of its successes in Asia, ' with a consciousness of victory which j it has not earned at all. ... Thft , fancy of a Russian lieutenant of tho j guard does not stick at a little military promenade, taking one part of the army J to the Hindus and the other over Berlin and Vienna to Constantinople." As for the permanency of Republicanj ism in France, Treitschke has the following laconic prophecy : j "The republic has only lasted because ' a new Bonaparte, who shall beat the Germans, has not yet been, found/ In regard to tho necessity of an army, he says that "he who looks upon the army as an evil must consider it in any ; case as a necessary ewl." He then save that a powerful, well-organised army is the basis oi political freedom^ and dbses the paragraph with the statement that "the state is no academy of arts, still less a stock exchange; it is a power, »nd therefore it contradicts its- own nature if it neglects the-ftrmy."