Whether these words can really be taken to mean that
the British Empire should become the policeman of the world we leave it for our readers to decide ; but at any rate they make one extremely useful concrete suggestion. The vital objection to this country giving a guarantee to France and Germany that she will support with all her powers either country if it is attacked by the other, is, of course, the impossibility of deciding who, in fact, is the aggressor in modern war. This country would be given the invidious and impossible task, to which even the histcirian is unequal, of fixing the responsibility for aggression. Mr. Asquith evidently realizes this and has found a formula which seems to indicate that our guaran- tee would be to declare war on any power ." resorting to force in breach of the Covenants of the League." Here, at any rate, is something more definite and practical, something which can be determined by legal experts. There has been a considerable amount of protest against Mr. Asquith's speech, but we feel that ultimately some such arrangement as he proposes will have to be adopted. We do not know whether Mr. Asquith intends that Lord Cecil's scheme of regional guarantee should be adopted. To judge from Mr. Norman Angell's interview with M. Herriot the French Prime -Minister's mind ' is working along these lines too.
