A WORLD CONSTABULARY
[To. the Editor of THE SPECTATOIL1
Sur,—May I comment on Sir Hesketh Bell's "World Constabulary"? I am sure that he is trying.tosee some way to a real advance on the problems. of Peace and War._ But after twenty-five years. of dose attention. to. these problems I am surprised: at the- unrealistic idealism. of those- who would seek. a short cut to: a world! order and, enforce. peace' by a military sanction;
Sir' Hesketh Belt calls the- League _ of Nations "a- sort of vapid: authority" because- the- world at huge:isnot yet ready- toneceptits-decisions. His curious .nemedy, for thiaisthat this same recalcitrant. worlds-should: surrender its entire freedom to this unacceptable League by endowing it With. all might; majesty, dominion and power, with a force "of supreme strength,' that is comprising " armies, fleets, air-forces and all the resources of military science." It is so simple, and all "provided- by contributions from all the nations," as°, r The United States; which has just again declared' through the President that it will. not join the League ; Japan, which has left it ; Germany, which is- antagonistic ; Italy, which is doubtful ; Soviet Russia; which is outside : Sir Hesketh Bell: does not explain by what magic these great powers will- be. led.to see the beauty of submission to his- " three Just Men and the infallible righteousness of their " sentences " letting loose, as they may, thereby, the bombs, tanks,, submarines, poison gases and "all the resources of military science," if one of them should take to arms "under the sudden stress of unpardonable insult or injury " ? Or ourselves?
The great fallacy in this, is- surely that such. schemes are. psychologically entirely wrong. Nations will- simply not accept coercive peace, enforced by war. For this...proposition. is not acceptance of defeat in war, however hard to bear, but. of surrender beforehand of all possibilities or opposing, a centralized dictatorship, however it be camouflaged as a sen- tence of Just Men. The simple fact is that the nations have not yet accepted universally and' whole-heartedly any inter- national organization at all. They are not likely tci" pot themselves under the heel-of a Genevan junta:oft three, however just these three may be claimed to-be by their sponsors. And from the peace point of view if they did; we should-be back at the old ultimate standard of war, a brave new world seeking to protect its. spiritual unity by "all' the resources of military science."
As a pacifist I prefer to go on quietly seeking peace by the steady education of mankind and: the spread of the peaceable spirit, as men grow in practical understanding of the commou interests and of the intelligent life. This may not imme- diately prevent war. Neither would an international army: But after all peace is a spiritual:problem. No internationaliz. ing of poison gas will ensure it, let alone of "all the resources of
military science."—! am, Sir, &o., CARL HEATH. Guildford.
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