THE WORLD’S PEACE.
“A HALCYON WEEK FOR HUMANITY.” i ORGANISE THIS MIRACLE. ■ Tho buoyant, imaginative, and inspiring phrases in tho heading to this article are taken from various newspapers, which used them to indicate tho nature of the possibilities which lie within tho proposal made by Mr Taft and accepted by Sir Edward Grey, that Great Britain and the United States should make a pact that, under no circumstances, would they over fight. The ‘ Scotsman,’ says Sir Edward Grey’s colleagues regard his statement of March 13 as "tho meet important made in Parliament during the last twenty years. —A Halcyon Week. — “This week lute been a halcyon week for humanity,” write® the ‘Star.’ “In the storm of armaments has been heard j tho still, small voice of amity ami concord and peace. At the very moment when our ) peacemakers wore wringing their hands in j despair over our Navy Estimates, Sir EdI ward Grey spoke a word that seemed to | light up the whole sky with hope His i response to President Taft has been ac- ! claimed by all parties here, and Mr BalI four has leaped over party fissures in ( order to stand beside the Government in I their support of the great American idem i “Mr llalfour has set an example of i statesmanship which deserves to ho lionj ortd,” adds the ‘Star.’ “What is still I more important, ho guarantees the conI tinuity of our national attitude towards unconditional arbitration. It is now well known to the world, as well as to America, that Great Britain is ready to enter into a treaty of arbitration with any other nation, and is prepared to make that treaty unlimited in its seo|>c, so that all questions, including questions of honor, may b ‘ settled without recourse to tho arbitrament of anus. TTiat is now the ■ policy of the Uuioist parly <’it> well its tho Liberal party. The fact that both Sir Edward (trey and Mr Balfour are at one with President Taft in his peace jxfiicy is surely one of the most, tremendous events of onr time. It .is sending a pulse of good ■ feeling through, tho veins of mankind. Atreidy it has made the nations of Europe draw closer together in spirit and in temper. Tho groat idea is germinating in every lamb’’ —Memorable for All Time.— ! The ‘ Tunes ” says that “ tho love of ! pe.uc and the horror of avoidable bloodshed have apparently possessed the minds of civilised nations within the last generation more powerfully than at any time in the past.’’ " Wo arc in unbounded sympathy with tho Foreign Secretary’s main aim and with the whole spirit of Ids utterances, which have made tho past week remarkable, and may possibly make it memorable for all time” says the ’Observer. 1 "As the advocate of Anglo-American arbitration, Sir Edward Grey has taken a wholly new and comnuuiding [icsitiou, and wo readily acknowledge that no other statesman could have launched tho new movement with tho s;uuo authority. Ho has done what no one else could have achieved in tho same way. lie has. mobilised the whole opinion and sentiment of tlie nation at once in favor of a policy which would change the whole destiny of the English-speaking world. Ho has made, so far as this country is concerned, a practical proposition understood and urged by tho average man, of what until yesterday was regarded by n ost people as a splendid. but impossible dream. Arrangements have already been initiated for the celebration of tho hundred years of peace between the two English-speaking Powers that will soon have elapsed since the end ot the war of 1312. in the last decade every serious cause of diplomatic friction i lias been removed, the result of the I Newfoundland arbitration practically I marked the end of the long process of diplomatic _ liquidation which had been | going on since tho recognition of -Vmeri can independence. —An English-speaking Federation.— " Iho bonds of a common origin and a common language are between them," added tho ‘ Observ ;r.‘ “In moral inlhicnces and material interests they are knitted more nearly together than have been yuy two model u societies not under fhc same Hag and the sane Government. A hundred and titty millions of souls, forming kindred nations, on every Continent hut one—and holding an Asiatic Empire of three hundred millions more in trust for the peace and progress of its peoples—could maintain for indefinite time the safety of tho seas. That is not an aggressive ideal. It will he the indispensable condition of free intercourse, and common life between nations speaking ‘the tongue that Shakespeare spoke.”’
" What might the English-speaking Powers not achieve, not only for the material prosperity ami safety of the vast populations covered by their Hags, but lor the advancement of every political and social ideal that men can wisely cherish, were only a lasting and unbreakable friendship guaranteed between them';” asks the ' Daily Telegraph. " If Germany would join the League T would become irresistible." says the ’ Keening Standard.’ "The actual and political force of the three Teutonic nations would be so overwhelming that if they were really united nobody could dispute their mandate. Is such a Triplico really impossible of achievement';" " Tho greatest work ever accomplished by statesmen will be that binding the English-speaking race to abolish war. as r lias abolished duelling—an example which other nations must soon follow," says .Mr Andrew Carnegie. " Personally, 1 am so deeply moved by the thought that [ shall I ive to see my native and adopted lands muted 'n the bonds of peace am! brotherhood that I find a positively now charm in life, and increased faith in humanity.”
" Whatever may come from the new movement.” says the ’Telegraph.’ "and we rest the highest hopes upon it, though not confident of any immediate solution, it has alrcdv asserted its freshening .and ennobling influence and its power to lift national feeling and aspiration far above tho ordinary levels. —A New Stage in Internationalism.—
" Sir Edward Grey’s declaration,” says tho ‘ Nation,’ “ initiates a new stage in the history of international relations. For it is tho first full and warm acceptation, i n the part of a European Foreign Minister, of the idea of substituting a judicial settlement for the arbitrament of arms in the graver issues between two nations.” “Mr Taft’s speech,” says the Lord Chancellor, ” may hereafter prove to be one of the most memorable utterances of the century. When a man who holds an mike such a, that of the President of -.do United States, •vliiclt is not surpassed e d.er in dignity or ;u {tower by any position in tlie world, says what President Tart has said, ho raises the hopes of mankind.” "President Taft, in his quiet way, is heth a strong and a very dexterous man,” says the •Telegraph.’ “Ho has yet two \cars to servo. If ho and Sir Edward Gery can hung about tho lasting pact of AngloAmerican peace they will earn imperishable honor.” " I can assure the right hon. gentleman,” said Mr Balfour, “that if bo and the Government see their way to carry out any arrangement of that kind he will find no heartier friends of that policy than we who sit on these benches. It "is. indeed. but the consummation of a policy for which we have consistently striven, and which we have always desired to see carried into effect.” —What It All Means.— Few men have more right to congratulate themselves on the extraordinary change in public opinion, which has made Sir Edward Grey’s speech possible and its endorsement enthusiastic., than Mr Norman Angell, the author of - the Great Illusion,’ to which we have so constantly and prominently called attention. Our readers well know how vitally that book lias affected European opinion. In a remarkable article in the ‘ Daily Mail’ (March 17) Mr Norman Angell points out the extraordinary significance of what a full treaty of arbitration would mean. ,It means that the two countries have accepted literally the vital principle of Mr Angell’a book, and that the world’s progress depends upon the extent to which the rest of the world adopts it, and the time a£ day it does it
—Oux Groat Rival.— “Wo seem for the moment,” pays Mr Angell, “ quite to have overlooked the fact that tho United States is the most portentous industrial and politiud rival which wo pofee&i. Just think : it represents a homogeneous political entity ot ninety millions; to-day the greatest and most powerful iu tho world, when wo consider tho high average of activity and otliciency of the people; to-morrow perhaps dominating by‘virtue of closer relations with Canada on the, north, Mexico on the south, and tlie control of tho Panama Canal, lullf a hemisphere and populations nouning into one hundred and fifty millions, with resources Immeasurably greater than those at the disposal of any other single Government —a (lovenummt with which wo have been twice at war in the past, a people comprising elements deeply hostile to ourselves. “ This incalculable political force is able to harass us at fifty |M)ints- —-navigation through the Panama Canal, the relation of our colonies in the Antilles with the Continent, our Eastern trade as it affects the Philippines, transcontinental transit to Australia, to mention only a few. As a matter of fact, the points ot contact and of difference with onr European rivals are trifling in comparison. Surely all this, as much on the economic as on the political aide, constitutes a rival immeasurably more disturbing than any winch mts disturbed our sleep within the last few decades—France, Russia, Germany. —Force Economically Futile.— “Yet.” adds Mr Angoil, “it is precisely with the greatest of all onr rivals, the one most able to challenge our position industrially, and tho one who at this moment is in the process perhaps ol absorbing, industrially at least, and with our virtual assent, the greatest of our colonies with whom we propose to make the first binding and complete treaty of arbitration, and, what is more significant, with whom such a treaty seems the most natural thing in tho world.
“ The English ami Americans, subconsciously,’’ ho continues, “ have realised that, in their own case at toast, military force in the condition* of the modem world is economically futile. The English have realised that if America is to be a rival in the economic field Dreadnoughts are not going to prevent it. That it (‘anada is to drift into closer relatioiif-liip with the United States it would bo futile to raise a single bayonet to prevent it ; that our whole phraseology about tho ownership of colonies and the notion that nations can fight about such ownership ignores nearly all tho facts. We do not ‘own’ Canada. America does not and never will ‘own’ Canada. Canada is owned by tho people who live upon her territory. On page 279 we call special attention to the more urgent need of making a compact with Germany, and the remarkably appreciative roce.ption of Sir Edward Grey’s speech by the European Frees shows that that task is by no means impossible. —An Inspiring Task. —
Mr W. T. Steed, in the ‘Daily Chronicle,' says : “ If there is to bo a national, to say 'nothing of an international, rosnonto to Sir Edward Grey’s appeal, wo must rule- out of tho discussion till notions of prospective -agreements, cither for tho mutual reduction of expenditure or for armed alliance for mutual support. When we have done so. there remains in tho two-headed proposition for an understanding with Germany and a.n arbitration treaty with America, a field broad enough and inspiring enough to rouse the enthusiasm of everyone who cares for the progress of civilisation and tho welfare of mankind “Sir Edward Grey’s important speech was first and foremost an appeal to public opinion.” writes Mr C. N. Buxton in the 1 Nation,’ ” I notice that the phrase itself occurs five times on one page of " Hansard.’ ft is to bo hoped that public opinion will respond to the appeal, and tinit the Press will back up the Foreign Secretary's courageous declarations. The Archbishop of York says that “what is strange is that tin; Christian body, which wan meant to be a- great force always making for peace, should have boon apparently so powerless to generate' among the citizens, at least of Western nations, a force of conviction which would make war almost impossible. He supposes tho reason is that they find it a hard thing to bo told that they must ho Christians first and Englishmen only second. It is a hard saying,” ho says, “yet if thought out, it" must he true, because patriotism, just like our own self-esteem, mix' often be- a cloak for the most or<linary human motives of self-assertion, self-conceit, and self-seeking. It is the business of the Christian Church to bo continually sifting and testing the motives oi patriotism by the law of Christ.”
—Organise this Miracle. — “ The Churches,” cays tho ‘ Star,’ “ liavo not done their duty in fho battle against, armaments. They have not helped as they ought- to have helped in tho unequal struggle waged by tho pacifists .against tho hellish competition that has oaten the very heart out of Christendom and made the namo of tho Prim* of Peace a mockery. Wo toll tho Churches that it is their duly to organise this' miracle. We call upon them to put asido their rivalries and jealousies and to unite like Christians in the work of making this dream come true.”
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Evening Star, Issue 14574, 24 May 1911, Page 3
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2,250THE WORLD’S PEACE. Evening Star, Issue 14574, 24 May 1911, Page 3
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