What Price Peace?Libby, Frederick J. (Frederick Joseph)
History
What Price Peace?
Libby, Frederick J. (Frederick Joseph)
Peace
Now the terrors of the future have made the League the cornerstone of
the foreign policy of several states including France. It is flouted
still by the nationalists of every country when it stands in their way;
but even they do not dare try to destroy it. Without it no one sees any
hope ahead――nothing but universal warfare and wholesale extermination
until the end.
GROWING PUBLIC OPINION BEHIND LEAGUE
The change, be it noted, has been in public opinion. The small nations
saw in the attack on Greece the fact that their existence rests with
the League. French liberals perceived that they could reduce the burden
of armaments and achieve security only through the League. Statesmen,
leaders of thought everywhere, discovered that they were leaning upon
it more and more heavily as they looked ahead into the dark.
Winston Churchill, sincere imperialist though he be, writes: “It
is through the League of Nations alone that the path to safety and
salvation can be found. To sustain and aid the League of Nations
is the duty of all.” His government failed to live up to his wise
admonition in the recent crisis in Egypt, but it is something that he
should have recognized the obligation in principle. The League will
progressively destroy imperialism, one may hope.
BUILDING WORLD OPINION
We have only to read our morning paper thoughtfully to become aware
that the sound world opinion required to make the new machinery of
justice effective will not come of itself. It must be built by the
conscious and purposeful cooperation of governments and of all good
citizens.
ENGLAND AND EGYPT
England’s conservative government has just thrown away a precious
opportunity of this kind in refusing to submit to the League her
quarrel with Egypt and resorting to the coercive policy of the old
diplomacy, seizing the opportunity of a murder to advance the interests
of the empire.
The thirst for liberty that is stirring North Africa, the Near East,
and India cannot be quenched by repression. “Only a few agitators
are to blame for this unrest,” say the old-school imperialists. That
is what they said with some justice of the American Colonies once.
England would have been wiser to strengthen the League now against the
difficult days that everyone can see ahead of the British Empire.
It is by such voluntary submission of important matters to the Court
and League by governments strong enough to evade doing so that in the
last instance our world opinion must be built.
A TASK FOR ALL GOOD CITIZENS
Despite two glaring instances of Congressional insularity that are
at present in our minds――passage of the Japanese Exclusion Act and
two years’ delay in taking up the World Court――in the long run and
haltingly a democratic government obeys the people’s will. If we want
international law and order in place of war and chaos, we must say so
and keep saying so.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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