POLICEMEN TO STOP WAR.

North Otago Times, 1 November 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)

POLICEMEN TO STOP WAR.

HOW THE FAMOUS .NOVELIST

DAVID C. MUHKAY, WOULD

"KEEP THE PEACE,"

To abolish war Ims been the dream of kings, statesmen, divines, and philosophers for centuries, but this year of grace 190(i we fnul Europe an armed camp, and we have hardly begun to breathe freely after the dissipation of the war cloud which lately lowered upon Europe. A European war would be a calastr

jphc too terrible to bo easily grasped by the mind of man. Of- [ ficial estimates declare that the live great Powers have a total war 1 strength of about ten millions of men j ready to take the field, and this is! not to reckon those who would remain on garrison duty, Two hundred millions 01 non-combatants would suitor all the misery and desolation which war brings. The financial cost of such a war would be beyond computation. A bankrupt Europe would greet the eyes of the world when exhaustion finally put an end to the struggle. There is, I venture to think, a practicable wnv of putting an end to j war. Jxt lis suppose that llrown j and Smith, neighbours in a certain J street, quarrel violently and at last i come to blows. The united opinion j of the community, incorporated in a j man of blue, conies along and 1 promptly stops the fight. And if; the combatants will not desist, j prompt punishment is their portion. 1 In the same way that a peaceful j community resents being disturbed j and incommoded by the brawls of j quarrelsome neighbours, so should | Europe regard a war between any oi i its component pails as an intoler- j able thing. Substitute, say, France and Germany for Smith and llrown, nations for individuals, and put the civilized world in the place of tho community, and my parable is clear. There should bo a sort of international police-the nations to maintain small standing armies of equal numbers, so as to remove the temptations inseparable from the possession of superior strength. Then, if two of the European family showed symptoms of pugnacity, the other members could forbid the appeal to the sword under pain of the combatants being opposed by the rest of Europe. I do not mean what is culled "intervention." This generally takes place too late to he of any real service to either combatant. The fight is practically decided, as we see in history, before intervention happens. The hope of intervention, too has sometimes unnecessarily prolonged a struggle, as was exemplified in the lioer War, and in the War of Secession in America. My international police would interfere with a warning before a blow was struck, and if that warning were disregarded, instant action would be taken. It seems to me. a simple and practicable solution- of the terrible problem of war. Let us hope that some day it will be given a fair trial.—"T.A.T."