256 



The Review of Reviews. 



as the Gulf Stream, that shape the course of nations, 

 however, soon dispel the hope and exultation created 

 liy the letter of the law. Violence, bloodshed and 

 rapacity, with occasional compromises that hardly 

 constitute an exception, are still the supreme law of 

 nations. Mendacity and hypocrisy have increased 

 a thousandfold ; honesty is weakness, justice and the 

 respect for the rights of others count no more than a 

 straw in the wind ; might is still, as it ever was, the 

 only right. 



The statement of these undeniable facts solely by 

 way of lamentation would be thankless and puerile. 

 It becomes indispensable to the study of the trend of 

 modern development. 



PEACE BY ARMAMENTS — IN EUROPE. 



Military force continues to be considered the basis 

 of national greatness. The Powers of Europe have 

 constituted themselves into two distinct groups, the 

 main avowed object of which is to maintain the balance 

 or equilibrium of forces and to secure the peace of 

 Europe. 



It is a matter of history that no war has reddened 

 the soil of Central Europe for the last forty years. 

 Nations on the Continent may be, as they are, every 

 one of them, like a huge barracks. The personal 

 liiierty of the individual may be curtailed by prolonged 

 military service ; the masses may be reduced to the 

 very edge of the life limit wage through the imposts 

 which are indispensable for the enormous armaments ; 

 the growth of an ubiquitous proletariat, oppressed by 

 misery, verging on despair and blind revolt, may 

 have been fostered ; all that may be, but the fact 

 remains that Central Europe has been free from war 

 for forty years — a marvellous event, unparalleled in 

 previous history. 



EXPANSION BY WAR — OUTSIDE EUROPE. 



Peace in Europe has not signified peace in the rest 

 of the world, or that the European nations have been 

 at peace with other people. The period of expansion 

 ^that is to say, of acquisition of territory abroad — 

 which had started at an earlier date, has synchronised 

 with the self-same forty years of peace in Europe. 

 Ivxpansion has meant war in every instance. Regret- 

 table though it may be to the great imperial Powers, 

 peoples and nations, no matter how weak thev may be, 

 nor how forlorn their hopes of resistance, have not 

 as yet learned to give up their liberties, their wealth, 

 .ind their soil to a powerful invader without a struggle. 

 'I'he Powers may well point to the perverse stubbornness 

 of the invaded nations as the real cause of the unavoid- 

 able wars. 



The tide of European expansion, which has always 

 meant violence, has submerged every availaiile spot 

 on the continents and the i.slands ' throughout the 

 Old World. The remoter regions of the I'",ast and the 

 darker and less accessible parts of Central Africa were 

 the first principal centres of attraction. The field of 

 operations soon extended to better-known and more 



accessible parts of the Old World ; the essential con- 

 dition for the seizure and retention of a given territory 

 was that it should be in weak hands ; the distribution 

 among the great Powers of whatever was available in 

 the Old World is well-nigh complete. 



THE ETHICS OF EXPANSION. 



No justification is required beyond success. The 

 weak cannot retaliate, and the Powers have established 

 amongst themselves the principle of mutual non- 

 interference in their predatory expeditions, based on 

 what is called compensation, that is to say, some par- 

 ticipation in the spoils, as between two rival cracksmen 

 who agree not to obstruct one another in exchange 

 for a share of the plunder. 



Flimsy pretexts arc alwa)s alleged on each successive 

 aggression, as tenable and sincere as the old-time com- 

 plaint of the wolf against the lamb, drinking below 

 the stream, for disturbing the water. These are 

 simply conventional concessions to form. It is thought 

 that some attempt at giving a reason should take place 

 before the unsheathing of the sword. 



As a general conception, expansion is in itself 

 sufficient, and requires neither justification nor defence. 



The repetition of events of a like nature, carried out 

 now by this great Power, now by that, has bred the 

 indifference of familiarity, which, in its turn, has 

 rendered peoples and governments impervious to 

 moral considerations. Thus a state of conscience has 

 been created which accepts and welcomes for the nation, | 

 on a huge scale, what it would brand and reject as ! 

 criminal and infamous for the individual. 



M. HANOTAUX ON THE ACCEPTED DOCTRINE. 



In the quest for expansion violence to the weak and 

 treachery and disloyalty to the strong, if occasion be 

 propitious, are openly advocated as legitimate mcan- 

 of action. 



The follow ing quotation from an article of M. Gabrici 

 Hanotaux, at one time French Foreign Minister, ;i 

 sagacious historian and an alert and outspoken writer I pn 

 speaks for itself {La Revue Hebdomadaire, Pari; 

 November 25, 1911) : 



" . . . As a con\inrr(l believer in the policy < 

 the balance of power (I' o/ nil Hire) I ask that Franc 

 should devote herself to maintaining as far as possiblt 

 the equal balance amongst the great Powers. 



" In order fully to explain my point of view I wouli 

 call to mind Italy's example. She has indeed knowi 

 how to employ these tactics, and she reaps the bcnefi 

 to-day. At the very moment that she is enterin 

 upon a most difficult enterprise, which in realit 

 menaces the interests of the two European groups < 

 nations, and which, in any case, seriously jeopardise 

 one of the principal axioms of general politics — viz 

 tlie integrity of the Ottoman Empire — Italy's dipU 

 matic situation is so strong that neither of these tu 

 groups, whatever may be their real .sentiment in 1 

 matter, dares to cross Italy's path or even to offer ll 

 slightest remark, so grave is their fear that by so doi 





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