AN ENGLISH CATHOLIC VIEW OF PRESIDENT WILSON

New Zealand Tablet, 21 August 1919, Page 37

AN ENGLISH CATHOLIC VIEW OF PRESIDENT WILSON

A philosopher, who could be a cynic very easily, said; “Every nation mocks-at other nations and all are right. He also said : ‘The man who is endowed with important personal;qualities will be only too ready to see clearly in what respect his own nation falls short, since their failings will be constantly before his eyes; but : every miserable : fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud adopts, as a last resource, pride in the nation to which he belongs ; he is ready ■ and glad to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.” Some such thoughts must often rise in the mind of President Wilson (says the London Catholic Times). When first he came to Europe he received suh a popular-welcome in all countries that he may have been tempted to think his task was going to be less arduous than he had feared. His second visit has shown him that he has undertaken one of the greatest and most difficult works to which any statesman ever set his hand. He came as the preacher of a gospel of international peace. He found himself in the midst of sordid struggles caused by national rivalry. To say that all the nations represented by their political chiefs at the Paris Conference were engaged in a game of grabbing all they could might not be true ; if only because some of them had already seized what they wanted. But the intelligent public opinion of democratic Europe has been painfully impressed by the evidence that each nation has thought far more of its own interests than of the interests of Europe. This Paris Conference is now seen to be not a Peace Conference, arranging for a League of Nations which would prevent war for ever, as far as that is humanly possible, but a conference about the terras on which Germany can have peace and her enemies the spoils of war. The old secret diplomacy has acted on the old diplomatic methods and from the harvest of this peace will come the seeds of future wars.

His Idealism Has Failed. When the Paris Conference is over and the peoples of Europe have time to consider the fruits of its deliberations, they will • find reason to regret that the idealism of President Wilson failed to make itself felt. And they will regret, when it is too late, that they did not rise above the temptation to indulge their national interests at the expense of international security. Mr. Wilson came from the new world to offer a word of counsel to the old. That word was: Remove the curse of war by removing its causes abandon armaments, imperialism, tyranny give all peoples their legitimate right of self-determination; let government repose on the consent of the governed ; carry your moral law into your politics; be Christians nationally, as you are individually; do to others as you would be done by. He told the rulers of States and Empires that the day was at hand when the masses of . the toiling- population of all countries would refuse to be regimental and driven to battle, to fight for ambitions of which they knew nothing and which they would loathe if ' they understood. The slaughter of human beings committed during four years of a world war had seemed to him an outrage on mankind, a scandal to Christendom, and a peril to the ’continuance of civilisation 'on the earth. His speeches were as those of an ancient prophet. The people heard him gladly. His voice fell on their ears as one of hope that the curse of war was

soon to ber, abolished and , permanent J>ej*ce established. They trusted his genius, his wisdom, So( -i strong was their desire to see his ideals that, ■ their own rulers were forced .to feign acquiescence: in them, and to go : to the Paris Peace i Conference wittt a proclaimed determination to make the world safe for.' democracy! -.- ' : ,« '*■.""'':.. p When time permits, President Wilson, we may be. sure, will tell the peoples of world how he struggled for them, and why he failed. He-wsPun«rvezthe secret places of diplomacy and let forth affloodof"light \ipoh its aims and deeds. -< It is ; very unlikely ; that he will ' have another term of office.' Arid then, when be'is" free once more, he will talk freely.' His ' story will shake the world of half-truths and hoary conventions.(" For it will show to all nations how the seeds of war ; '. are sown in the making of peace. And in all probability it will be more provocative oftroubles? for Gov vernments than the men who, since the certain defeat of Germany, have been abusing him will like. Mr. Wilson, standing as he does for democracy as against militaristic autocracy, has had many enemies arid great ones. They have hated him and -.his- policy. Their ideal is war; his is peace. What he has had to bear during the proceedings at Paris may be imagined, but cannot yet be told. Apparently he has been foiled in his noble endeavors to make, peace the object which all Governments should cherish and foster. The old sordid ambitions of statesmen have been too powerful for him.: Still, for all his apparent failure, he remains the noblest figure at the Conference. Others struggle for purely national interests. : He struggles for the general interests! of mankind. : : It may be that his( struggle will be largely, if not' altogether, in vain. He may have to return -to America defeated. Be it so, if so it must be. But let it also be remembered that some defeats are preferable to any ... victory. Mr. Wilson has held up before the eyes of mankind an ideal which, though it be rejected to-day, will be welcomed to-morrow. If this peace leads <to other wars, other wars; will create revolutions which will justify President* Wilson and make ;. us all regret • that the governing '( classes of Europe ignored him. : ~ --