THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES..
TnE object of this excellent volume is to advocate a reunion of the English-speaking peoples of the world :— " An Alliance of the United States with the British Common-
wealth on clearly defined terms of unquestionable explicitness, 711840 in the light of the day, so that those planning aggression could realize clearly the formidable obstacle in their path, would," says the author, " effectively, though not absolutely, secure the general peace of the future world. In addition, such an alliance would well-nigh guarantee the development of the world along pro- tueseivelydemooratic lines. It would give nearly absolute security to the English-speaking peoples, and relative safety to all Europe. More than anything else, it would prevent the persistence of the German menace."
Mr. Beer begins by pointing out that the international anarchy -.Odell exists in default of any efficient system of international law is a perpetual obstacle in the way of all progress, social, moral, or intellectual. This anarchy he considers to be due, in a large measure, to the belief in, and -the insistence upon, the principle of the sovereignty of the State, which tends to keep each State politic- ally and legally a self-sufficing unit ; and it can be abrogated or abolished only by closer and closer association between the States whose people are nearest akin, until either the whole world has been absorbed, or at least so powerful a portion that the remainder will be mist& to binder its peaceful development. The war against Pruseiartiam has produced the beginning of such an association, " based upon mutual sympathy and respect, and dedicated to a common high purport,. " ; and another already exists in the British Commonwealth without any material sacrifice of the national spirit ur ideals of any of its elements.
The author then goes back to history, and traces the steps by
whisk the United States became committed to her traditional policy of aloofness from European affairs—an aloofness which he regards as " tantamount to a refusal to assume those obligations that every State owes to the unorganized world community "; and he shows how, under the pressure of German aggression, she was reluctantly compelled to abandon this attitude :- " The entrance of the United States into the war . . . is in many utspecte a tranacendent event of'far-reaching potentialities. Apart from its effect upon the war itself, it marks the definite aban- donment of the 4-ielicy of isolation and the inception of new tracli- ions of international responsibility. It means a clear recognition of the fact that the peoples of the world constitute a society, and that each -member thereof is responsible for order and juatiee therein. In addition, the full co-operation with the Entente Allies in their 'VW Xetdit8WrepW.: Fated fideten sad Join ha.weioma Obiyatiom. By Ocorseiels Beer. London : Mace:Allan sad Co. (U. WI.Inst,j high purpose is equivalent to the practical establishment of a league to enforce peace."
Lastly, Mr. Beer deals with the essential unity of the English. speaking peoples. He shows how the forces which of recent years have helped to bring the Colonies into closer "Mush -with the Mother Country are acting with accelerating power to bring the United States into voluntary solidarity with the British Commonwealth the " intimate like-mindedness " of the two nations, based on a common heritage of language, literature, and tradition, the unity of their civilization and -emotional outlook, their economic inter- dependence, and the outside pressure that is driving them into compulsory co-operation and a general identity of policy.
We have a particular pleasure in welcoming thie book, as it urges. more persuasively than from the nature of the cats we could venture to do, a policy with which the Spectator has long been identified. " The arrangement of the material and the relative degree of em- phasis upon the various phases of the subject were naturally con- ditioned by the fact that the writer is, in the main, addressing his fellow-citizens of the United States." The message it contains, however, is none the less one that deserves to be heard with atten- tion on this side of the Atlantic also. It is the product of a far- sighted publicist who is free from the suspicion of partisanship, and whose eyes are open to the true interests of his country. He states his argtunents cogently, but without heat, and fortifies every position he takes up with a full reference to facts and authorities. We regret only that in the effort to be at once condensed and accurate he has allowed his style to become, at times, so abstruse and technical as to prevent obis volume from appealing to the widest possible public.
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