New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 4, July, 1915: April-September, 1915Various
History
New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 4, July, 1915: April-September, 1915
Various
World War, 1914-1918
We hope and pray for peace, and our hope of its coming in the near
future is sufficient to make us think that the present is a good time
to discuss and formulate a series of proposals to which the assent of
a number of the great powers could be secured. _We think a League of
Peace could be formed that would enable nations to avoid war by
furnishing a practical means of settling international quarrels, or
suspending them until the blinding heat of passion had cooled._
When the World Conference is held our country will have its official
representatives to speak for us. "We, Tailors of Tooley Street," will
not be there, but if, in our sartorial leisure, we shall have
discussed and framed a practical plan for a league of peace, our
official representatives will be aided and may in their discretion
accept it and present it to the conference as their own.
There are Tooley Streets in every nation today and the minds of
earnest men are being stirred with the same thought and the same
purpose. We have heard from them through various channels. The
denizens of those Tooley Streets will have their influence upon their
respective official representatives. No man can measure the effect
upon the peoples of the belligerent countries and upon the peoples of
the neutral countries--the horrors and exhaustion that this
unprecedented war is going to have. It is certain they all will look
with much more favorable eye to leagues for the preservation of peace
than ever before.
_In no war has the direct interest that neutrals have in preventing a
war between neighbors been so closely made known._
This interest of neutrals has been so forced upon them that it would
require only a slight development and growth in the law of
international relations to develop that interest into a right to be
consulted before such a war among neighbors can be begun. This step we
hope to have taken by the formation of a Peace League of the Great
Powers, whose primary and fundamental principle shall be that no war
can take place between any two members of the league until they have
resorted to the machinery that the league proposes to furnish to
settle the controversy likely to lead to war.
If any member refuses to use this machinery and attacks another member
of the league in breach of his league obligation, all members of the
league agree to defend the members attacked by force.
We do not think the ultimate resort to force can be safely omitted
from an effective League of Peace. We sincerely hope that it may never
become necessary, and that the deterrent effect of its inevitable use
in case of a breach of the league obligation will help materially to
give sanction to the laws of the league and to render a resort to
force avoidable.
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