And now, no one has faith in the present casual and transient coalition, and many prophesy that the Powers will quarrel over China, and that the long-dreaded world-conflict will arise in consequence. This, too, is used as an argument against us. “A concert? Unanimity? The slightest disturbance unhinges it all. Rivalry is aroused. No one Power is willing to grant the other a privilege or an advantage. When the coalition campaign has reached its end, or even before that, conflicting interests will assert themselves and the European war will be upon us.” True, that war will break out, if there be no forum for the settlement of chance contentions, a forum which, by common agreement, would adjust all differences. Everything goes to prove how necessary such a forum is. The sad fact that it is not as yet in operation surely does not militate, in the least, against the possibility or the utility of the establishment of such a tribunal. The foundation of it was laid at The Hague. That it is generally ignored demonstrates the fact that militarism struggles against an institution which would undermine war. The question, “How in the world do you propose to prevent war in the face of the present upheaval in China?” has been thus answered by Dr. Benjamin F. Trueblood, Corresponding Secretary of the American Peace Society: “We have been asked how we would have settled the present trouble in China without war. That is as if one were to ask how we would prevent a fire when the flames were already bursting from all the windows. The settlement of the trouble by us without war would have required, first of all, that it be turned over to us for settlement, or that the powers involved in it would agree conscientiously to follow, in their efforts at adjustment, the principles and methods which we might suggest. The utter impossibility of either of these contingencies in the case of the trouble with China shows the thoughtlessness of the question. “The time to have begun the pacific settlement of the difficulty was many years ago. Given certain conditions, practices and beliefs, such as have for a long time existed in the relations of the other countries to China, and war or something like it was inevitable. No advocate of peace has ever been simple enough to imagine that war can be avoided when every condition leading to good understanding and peace has been neglected or trampled under foot.”