The New Zealand TABLET THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 1907. ARBITRATION

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 4, 24 January 1907, Page 21

The New Zealand TABLET THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 1907. ARBITRATION

HERE were heroes before Agamemnon, and there was international 'arbitration before the • ' Alabama '.-" In the old pagan Greek and Roman States, brute force .was an- active • constitutional principle. ' War was the first and. readiest arbiter,- and the ' jus gladii ' or law of sword was" the. c jus pubjiciim '.. -^There "was . no" ultimate moral" principle, to which paganism could well appeal, and force remained practically its only resort against the rebellious subject within ite borders and' the menacing enemy beyond. Yet, exceptionally, the principle of international arbitration w^s - here and 1 there' ackndwledged.' • Among the pagan Greeks, for. instance, . the - Amphictyonic. League was nothing- more or less than' an , early .: Hague Conference -or .tribunal of arbitration. Once, \ when the * Argiyes' and .the Lacedemonians 'had tired of hacking and skewering each other, they struck a treaty of peace, one oL the clauses of which provided for arbitration by a neutral State in the- events o.f their having ' words ' with each other again. In pagan Rome' the Meciales ' checked, the jingo spouter of the Forum— the counterpart 'of the warlike newspaper- editdr of our time—and, re-

strained- the declaration; of some unnecessary, and costly campaigns. Cyrus of Persia once nominated the King of India to settle a dispute, that had arisen between him -and his luxurious neighbor of Assyria; and the- king of the hardy and athletic Numidians, by a similar friendly service, kept Masinissa's people and' those of Carthage"- from each others* throats.

'' " ' * . -- - r . i Christianity did not entirely condemn .the dread, arbitrament of ,±he^sword. It recognises that -fact that there are occasions when war may -be the only -means of defending menaced public rights. j But it gradually eliminated' the old feeling . in,. regard to mere force, an<d / succeeded at last in inducing the peoples within its pale to , recognise an international tribunal- to. which they would " refer their disputes before plugging imto t-he red vortex. of war. .Jhe Popes were. the. great permanent courts of -international arbitration of the middle ages. With. the. ( Truce of , God ' and the ' Peace of

God ' they reduced the, number and mitigated the atrocity of wars between Christian States. ' The- Popes of' .the middle ;.ages,' said the late Lord' Chief " Justice Russell, ' determined many a hot dis^utie' x b.e ( tween ; rival forces without loss of human life.. F.oreniost amongst these great Christian" agents of the Princef of;'- -Peace were Leo, the.- Great, Pope Gregory. the Great, Pope Zachary,' Pope Stephen 11., Pope Boniface Vlll.,' and (to come to our own' day) Pope Leo XIII., who arbitrated between Germany and" Spain; in -a grave" dispute about the Caroline Islands, and brought to a ■ friendly issue critical differences between Chile- and Argentina, and between Hayti and San Dpmingo, over, questions^ of de-limitation-of frontier. * •*

With the Reformation, I/he position of the Pope as the international peacemaker and court of appeal gradually 'declined. The Hague Conference— lor which .preparations are now being made— is an attempt to set up another, permanent court of last instance between' nation and nation. "Where- so much hangs nowadays -by war,, there was perhaps never a" time when a- 'world-arbiter of some effective kind was .more sorely needed. How far the Hague tribunal will fill, the place so -long occupied by the Popes remains.., to be seen. *■ But, Mr. Stead is not alone in the opinion .that ;. it is necessary to have in all international disputes an appeal to some authority ' sufficiently high above the disputants to take an impartial view of the whole case, and sufficiently honest to decide the question on dts merits, without being " nobbled " by either party in the quarrel '. And such a one Mr. Stead believes. the^Pope, to. be.- To the Supreme Pontiff' rank is 'nothing. He is incorruptible, independent, neutral, venerated- throughout the civilised world. He is a sovereign with no, boundaries to^ protect, no frontiers to push forward. He relies on'moral force only, and can act independently and according- to the dictates' of his conscience! He is seated;', 'on a throne from which no power can remove him, and from which' 'he can serenely and dispassionately r - overlook rulers who put their'lrust.in fleets and armies, and decide without disturbance from secondary j^nsiderations what makes for right and justice.