Our Allies have doubtless heard with surprise that some British
people have protested against the Peace terms as being unduly hard upon the enemy. The generosity of our national character takes curious forms, as when respectable folk rush to Sign petitions for the reprieve of some particularly callous murderer. Some of those who complain of the Allies' severity ore, of course; the little clique of Pacificists, conscientious objectors, and revolutionaries who have opposed the war from the outset, and, consciously or unconsciously, have done their best to help Germany to win. But a few of the signatories of the protests are strong advocates of a League of Nations, and seem to be concerned above all with the effects of the blockade upon the German people. Strangely enough, they forget that the chief weapon of the League against aggressors is to be an economic boycott; and that an economic boycott means starvation for the offending country. If the League is in no case to use its most effective weapon, lest women and children should go hungry, then it will be an impotent sham. Is that what these enthusiasts really want ? If so, they render a great disservice to the move- ment for a League of Nations.
