War and the Future: Italy, France and Britain at WarWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
History
War and the Future: Italy, France and Britain at War
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
World War, 1914-1918
That much has already been broached in several quarters. But so far is
not enough. It ignores the chief processes of that economic war that
aids and abets and is inseparably a part of modern international
conflicts. If we are to go as far as we have already stated in the
matter of international controls, then we must go further and provide
that the International Tribunal should have power to consider and set
aside all tariffs and localised privileges that seem grossly unfair or
seriously irritating between the various states of the world. It
should have power to pass or revise all new tariff, quarantine, alien
exclusion, or the like legislation affecting international relations.
Moreover, it should take over and extend the work of the International
Bureau of Agriculture at Rome with a view to the control of all staple
products. It should administer the sea law of the world, and control and
standardise freights in the common interests of mankind. Without these
provisions it would be merely preventing the use of certain weapons; it
would be doing nothing to prevent countries strangling or suffocating
each other by commercial warfare. It would not abolish war.
Now upon this issue people do not seem to me to be yet thinking very
clearly. It is the exception to find anyone among the peace talkers who
really grasps how inseparably the necessity for free access for everyone
to natural products, to coal and tropical products, e.g. free shipping
at non-discriminating tariffs, and the recognition by a Tribunal of the
principle of common welfare in trade matters, is bound up with the ideal
of a permanent world peace. But any peace that does not provide for
these things will be merely laying down of the sword in order to take up
the cudgel. And a “peace” that did not rehabilitate industrial Belgium,
Poland, and the north of France would call imperatively for the
imposition upon the Allies of a system of tariffs in the interests of
these countries, and for a bitter economic “war after the war” against
Germany. That restoration is, of course, an implicit condition to any
attempt to set up an economic peace in the world.
These things being arranged for the future, it would be further
necessary to set up an International Boundary Commission, subject to
certain defining conditions agreed upon by the belligerents, to re-draw
the map of Europe, Asia, and Africa. This war does afford an occasion
such as the world may never have again of tracing out the “natural map”
of mankind, the map that will secure the maximum of homogeneity and the
minimum of racial and economic freedom. All idealistic people hope for
a restored Poland. But it is a childish thing to dream of a contented
Poland with Posen still under the Prussian heel, with Cracow cut off,
and without a Baltic port. These claims of Poland to completeness have a
higher sanction than the mere give and take of belligerents in congress.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account