Fiat Justitia. THURSDAY, MAY 17, 1900. INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 20, 17 May 1900, Page 17

Fiat Justitia. THURSDAY, MAY 17, 1900. INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION.

fHE interesting gathering of 'advanced' ladies uho compose what is miscalled the National Council ot Women has been passing through ' a short, sharp shock' in consequence of a VJJ. paper reflecting on the Anglo-Boer war. Ihe wH&J%& 00^ lea avc turne(l OVI r an(* examined in <fWy' usually daintily feminine fashion many a social Vr and political problem and gently toyed with soft lingers at time-hardened knots that stronger and ruder hands than theirs have thus far vainly tried to disentangle. It was inevitable that in their excursions among Ue political puzzles of the day the assembled lady councillors should have stumbled across that of international arbitration. They —or rather some of them—did so. And their application of arbitration principles to the present war and their statement of opinion regarding the merits of the struggle between Briton and Boer made the Press and a portion of the public in Dunedin, in ' Mr. Dooley's ' words, * mad in ivery vein iv their bodies.' There blew, in consequence, a little hurricane of local feeling, but the ladies bent before it like whispering reeds before a storm,and it passed

on its way and was gone. And yet the interest in the campaign has greatly fallen off, owing, in part, to the natural difficulty of keeping excitement of any kind for a long period screwed up to concert pitch ; partly, no doubt, to the dull monotony of the present slow and intricate moves on the military chess-board in South Africa, which arc ' caviare to the ueneral. 1 Any public discussion on international arbitration c.tu scarcely be popular y\< now The barkers of the man who has reached an interesting phase in a 'mill ' at fisticuffs, and who see that he has got his 'htn und wind,' and have laid ' long odds ' on him, are not likely to listen with much patience to either a tart or honeyed h niily on arbitration, especially if it is accompinied by a pointed personal application to the favourite. This is about the prevalent feeling regarding the war. And pointed peacetalk is not likely to be a popular theme in any place when 4 the man on horseback ' is the hero and demi-god of the hour. • * • But the theme, if unpopular, is not on that account the less wholesome and timely. And for our part we see no reason why the voice of peace — which, like that of conscience, is often still and small — should not \ ibrate even amidst the hoarse cry of the Jingo. The two latest wars — that between America and Spain, and the present struggle between Boer and Briton — were of the preventible kind that scouted even mediation ; and we venture the hope that they will have the effect of still further accentuating the need of a tribunal of international arbitration, and of bringing it nearer to a concrete and operate realisation. The principle is no new-fangled fad or fancy of unpractical idealists. It was acted upon long ages ago among the Greeks, in the days of the Amphictyonic League, which was nothing more or less than an early tribunal of arbitration. Once, when the Arrives and the Lacedemonians had tired of hacking and hewing each other, they struck a model treaty of peace, one of the clauses of which provided for arbitration by a neutral State in the event of their having - words ' with each other again. Pagan Rome had a curious order of priests, all its very own — people called tham fpcia/fs. Their chief concern -was with war, and they were, in effect, a perpetual court of arbitration, and many a time and oft their cool and practised brains undoubtedly stood between the Jingo spou ter of the Forum — the newspaper editor of those times — and the declaration of an unnecessary and costly and unjust campaign. Cykl'S of Persia once nominated the king of India to settle a dispute that had arisen between him and his luxurious neighbor of, As>yria ; and the king of the hardy and athletic Numidians, by a similar friendly service, once kept Maj-ini.s.sa's people and those of Carthacc from each others' throats. The Popes were the chief arbitrators of the Middle Ages. Bishops, according to Pikuantoni, took a conspicuous part in the preservation of international peace, and the Dukes of Padua, l>ologna, and Perugia acted frequently as arbitrators in the stirring period of the feudal days. At the close of the American War of Independence, in 178)3, a difference of opinion as to boundaries between the mother country and the newly-risen nation. was submitted to, and decided by. the fiiendly method of arbitration. • » • More recent cases of arbitration are recorded as follows in Leone Lj:vi's International Lac : — The Congress of Vienna of IMS left several questionb to arbitration, such as the debt on the Rhine octrois, the succession to the duchy of Bouillon, the differences between the cantons of Ure and Tessin on the subject of custom-house, and on a portion of the Dutch debt. In 15."14 :i"< the King of Prussia arbitrated between France and England on the Portendic indemnity. In I'viOthe Queen of England arbitrated between France and Mexico. In l.sfil the Senate of Hamburg arbitrated between England and Peru, la lSiil) the President of the United States arbitrated between England and Portugal. In ISt>l-72 the Alabama claims, by the United States against England, were settled by arbitration. In 18.52 the claims of France and Italy against Chile for damages produced by her naval and military forces on their subjects were left to the arbitration of a mixed tribunal, consisting of persons nominated by the President of the French Republic (or by the King of Italy), the President of the Republic of Chile, and the Emperor of Brazil. In 1881 the claims of the United States against Hayti were left to the arbitration of the Hon. William Strong. To these we may add the following further instances in which a possible resort to the dread arbitratment of lead and steel was averted by the sound remedy which, in New Zealand, has made it practically impossible for trade dis-

putes to end in that form of commercial war which is known as a strike :— Pope Leo XIU. arbitrated between Germany and Spain in the dispute about the Caroline Islands ; four years ago (in 1 *<)<;) he settled a dispute as to delimitation of territory b tweeu Chile and Argentina, and a, difficulty of a similar vat.ire was submitted to him by the President^ of those two <|uarrehome neighbouring republics, llayti and^ San Domingo; President Fai hk was authorised to arbitrate between Costa Kica and Columbia; the King of. Portugal mediated bet wen England and Brazil in the difficulty regarding the wretched rock-islet of Trinidad : President Lachkral settled a knotty dispute between a French subject and the Republic of 'Venezuela ; France, Sweden, and Chile referred a diplomatic difficulty to the judgment of M. Jwnskn ; and the boundary dispute between Creat liritain and Venezuela was referred to Professor Martens, who was nominated by the Czar Xi< holas IL The intenention of the Great Powers in the Greco-Turkish War was, in effect, but another form of international arbitration. *■ * * 'The Popes of the Middle Ages,' said Lord Chief Justice Russell, ' determined many a hot dispute between rival forces without loss of human life.' The endless private wars of that stirring time were, to a considerable extent, repressed by the influence of the Church. She found a leverage on quarrelsome kings and kinglets and rival nobles in the eleventh and twelvth centuries in the canonical ' Truce of God.' This paved the way for the ' Peace of God,' which, under the severest ecclesiastical penalties, forbade all acts of armed \ iolence from Thursday to Sunday in each week, from Advent till after the octave of the Epiphany, during Lent and the Easter-cycle until after the octave of Pentecost, and on e\ cry feast day throughout the year. It was, for the times, a notable movement in the interests of peac j and civilisation to keep so many eager swords in their scabbards over a wide area of Europe for so great a portion of the year. It may be of interest to our readers to know that Pope Boniiac k VIII., by arbitration, settled a serious dispute between Pmur le Bel and the First Edward of England in 129k. ft was but one of countless instances in which their friendly mediation or the strong exercise of their spiritual authority prevented the butchery of human beings in unneces ary wars. In the event of the linal establishment of a court of international arbitration the Pope, the spiritual father of "2.">0,000,00<> Christians, would naturally take a leading part in its deliberations. There can be no doubt as to his suitability for a chief share in the work of arbitration, lie would be the ideal sole arbiter. He is venerated throughout the civilised world, lie is a sovereign without territorial cares or interests — with no boundaries to protect, no frontiers to pUbli forward. Relying on moral force only, he can act independently and according to the dictates of his conscience.