NATIONS’ LEAGUE TO PRESERVE PEACE
POINTS IN THE SCHEME
From Perceval Landon. Paris, Friday.
In the following survey of the proposal for a League of Nations put forward to-day in the Plenary Conference at the Quai d’orsay, I am able to present the responsible and considered judgment of an authority who has been most closely in contact with the whole scheme from the beginning.
Three things stand out above the necessarily conventional wording of these articles. The first is that upon the goodwill of its constituent members and their real determination to make a success of this semi-divine enterprise the fate of the whole project depends. In itself the putting forward of this scheme would be of little value were it not accompanied by the knowledge that the war has changed many things to the advantage of mankind, and by the hope that the standards herein suggested will be loyally accepted by the whole group of nations now ready to accept the higher standards they involve. There is in it an attempt to throw responsibility upon the responsible people who will not shrink from the burden.
Secondly, it is made clear that in two cases only does the League of Nations act peremptorily and of its own motion: herein only it must act; it has no power or discretion of remaining inactive. One case is that in which a State, whether a member of the League or not, attempts to remove the landmarks of its neighbour. This territorial integrity is the basis on which the League of Nations is being built, and the work that is now being done by the committees in the redelimitation of national territories is therefore invested with double and vital importance. The second case in which the League of Nations will certainly act will be that of a State declaring war upon another without having submitted its cause of quarrel (a) to arbitrators selected by itself or indicated in a treaty registered with the League of Nations, or (b) to the award of the Executive Council or the delegates composing the League. In the latter case three months must elapse after the award, which itself need not be given for six months after submission of the dispute. It is a translation into fact and force of Disraeli’s maxim, “Delay is the secret of success.”
When, however, the League of Nations is set in motion, their powers are almost unlimited. They have the right to call upon any and every State composing the League for military and naval assistance to the full extent of that nation’s capacity. Moreover, an immediate blockade, industrial, financial, and, above all, personal, will be established against the offending State, which will become at once a pariah in the world. It is especially to be noted that these powers can, if necessary, be used at once against States that are not members of the League of Nations.