Co-operation in Europe
THESE two books provide excellent material for • the student
of the' problems and the prospects of the League of Nations. Dr. Shisson, in his well-proportioned and well-balanced nar-
rative, gives a luminous account of the histOry of a period in which constructive ideas are to be seen struggling with the ambition's and the passions of the several Powers. Dr. linaplund not so successful in bringing his material together in an ordered and significant form, but he has worked over un- published papers of great importance, and his book throws new light on a number of 'interesting 'questions.' The statesman whoSe policy he is describing had a stronger sense than any of his centemporaries of the need for setting up public law
in the life of Europe, and though his mistakes and misfortunes must take an important place in the history of the tune, the sincerity, wisdom and force of GladStorte'S ideas stand out very clearly in this study. The two spheres in which European statesmen were making
efforts to put an end to anarchy or to regulate international competit ion were Eastern EnroPehnd Africa. The two efforts are closely related. For it is in the part that Beaconsfield and Salisbury played at Berlin that we find the. clue to the later Complieationi which tied England in Egypt. The more
this phase is studied, the stronger is the evidence for the view urged with such learning by Dr. Seton Watson of the disastrous consequences of the policy pursued by Disraeli in the Eastern Crisis. England undertook to prop up Turkey's rule, and as part of this policy—or under its cover—took CyPrus. When
the Gladstone Government took office in 1880, they learnt that their hands in Egypt and in Tunis were tied by secret engagements made with France, in order to obtain her assent to our proceedings with Cyprus. Her frequent And rapid changes of mood made France a most embarrassing colleague and added immensely to the difficulties of the British Govern- ment. At alinost every stage the Gladstone Government had to choose not between good and evil but between evil and less evil. Dr. Knaplund describes their efforts and their mis-
fortunes clearly and dispassionately. The problem of putting preSsure on a recalcitrant State, in
which the whole world is interested today, arose in an acute form as soon as the Gladstone Government took office. France, with her eyes on Tunis, was reluctant to displease a Mahommedan population by joining in coercing Turkey to carry out the agreements into which she had entered at Berlin. England was represented at Constantinople by
Goschen, whose part in these events is one of the chief suc- cesses of his career. The Sultan eventually gave way from learning that Great Britain had urged the use of force without learning also that the Powers had disagreed. It was a notable success for British initiative and resolution. Goschen, in spite of what he called his " taint of Jingoism," was anxious to facilitate a settlement of the Greek question by ceding Cypius to Greece :
" Peace " (he urged in a telegram) " ought to be certain ; Europe grateful ; Turkey convinced of indisputable disinterestedness and England relieved in. a most honourable way. of a convention which Mr. Gladstone called an act of madness."
Unfortunately, the Gladstone Government .was already in disgrace for two acts of restitution : in Kandahar and the Transvaal. Granville observed that it was not an unwise proposal, but " one must pay some attention to public opinion." He replied to Gosehen " I have. betrayed your confidential views to Gladstone. They tempt us much but we do not see our way."
.. If a study of Dr. Knaplund's account of the complicated struggle in Eastern Europe is • interesting for the light . it throws on one set of problems, Dr. Slosson's admirable chapters on the partition of .the tropics .is. interesting for the light it throws on another. . There are certain resem- blances between . the exploitation of . the New World and the exploitation of Tropical Africa. Livingstone, interested in religion and discovery, is the counterpart of Columbus, who wanted the wealth of which he had unlocked the doOr to 'be used for a crusade for the recovery' of the Holy Sepulchre. Peters, Rhodes and their fellows are like Pizarro and Cortez. Las. Cases and the Jesuits who defended the natives are like Lug/1rd. and Kirk. But there is a striking. difference.. In
1404 •the Borgia Pope drew a line dividing up the new world between Spain and Portugal, giving Portugal the eastern half of modern Brazil, Africa and all other heathen lands in that hemisphere, and Spain the rest.. But nobody, Catholic or Protestant, paid the slightest heed to this award and a struggle ensued, involving five peoples, taking the form sometimes of piracy, sometimes of war, and lasting for three centuries. In Africa, for different reasons, exploitation was much more peaceful. The Great Powers realised the dangers, and they made efforts to control this new adventure, more serious than the Pope's Rule. Thus, the creation of the Congo Free State was the result of a Conference at Brussels in 1878, which formed a committee for the study of the Upper Congo. In 1885 a Conference at Berlin laid it down that no Power should extend its African territory without notice to others ; that disputes should be settled by arbitration, and that territories annexed must be effectively occupied. The Brussels Con- ference in 1890 drew up a General Act whereby all the parti- cipating States undertook to suppress the Slave Trade and to prohibit or restrict the importation of arms and alcohol within a fixed mid-African zone. Thus, though the exploitation of Africa has been disfigured by crime and bloodshed, efforts were made—and made successfully—to avert a series of wars in Europe such as followed the discovery of the New World. Nobody looking at the present state of the world can think that this problem has yet been solved, but Dr. Slosson's pages should encourage the hope that a solution
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