44° 



The Review of Reviews. 



June I, 19>J0. 



above all, to be resolute and courageous. Cam- 

 paigns of peace are no more to be won by funkers 

 than campaigns of war. 



There are some who think that the 



,-*'''^" , whole question ought to be handed 

 of Campaign for ^ ,, ."^ , < „ 



Peace. o^'*^'' 'o ^ s'"^^' ^^^ strong and re- 



presentative Royal Commission 

 charged with the duty of inquiring into the question 

 of what measures can be most profitably adopted 

 for the purpose of promoting the increase of friendly 

 intercourse among the peoples and a decrease of 

 hostile friction between their Governments, which 

 Cobden long ago saw was the secret of international 

 peace. There are others who would prefer that 

 C.-B. should constitute a body analogous to the 

 Imperial Council of Defence, which would be 

 charged with the duty of considering and concerting 

 the necessary steps to be taken for the purpose of 

 promoting the peace of the world based upon the 

 cntciHe cordiale of all nations. But whether it be a 

 Royal Commission or an Imperial Peace Council, 

 something must be done to set half-a-dozen prac- 

 tical, earnest men of experience and resolution seri- 

 ously at work to consider what can be done to pro- 

 mote better relations between us and our neighbours. 

 There would be no lack of materials for their 

 agenda paper. There are the series of pious aspira- 

 tions which the Hague Conference put on record in 

 1889, which have never from that day to this been 

 taken into consideration. There is the approaching 

 meeting of the International Parliamentary Union 

 in 1907. There is the proposal that a sum not 

 exceeding decimal-point one of the money spent on 

 armaments should be allocated every yeai to pro- 

 mote hospitable intercourse between nations, and 

 to educate our own people in an abhorrence of war. 

 There is the creation of an International Union 

 under the wing of the Government, but with inde- 

 pendent commission, to promote joint international 

 action along the lines of the Hague Convention. 

 And over and above all these towers the supreme 

 question of our future relations to Russia and to 

 Germany. Unless we are good friends with both, 

 our army and navy expenditure will increase rather 

 than diminish. And the consideration of the 

 methods by which we can substitute an cnienie 

 cordiale for the present attitude of estrangement 

 suggestive of incipient hostility is the supreme pro- 

 blem before the British Government. 



We are spending here and in India 

 Why No Old Age about 100 millions sterling this 

 Pensions, Etc. year in preparation against risks of 



war which are admittedly much less 

 than they were when under the last Libera! Govern- 

 ment we were insured against war risks for less than 

 ;£6o.ooo,ooo a year. This is one of those great 

 outstanding facts which cannot fail to impress the 

 imagination of a people which is denied old age 

 pensions because there is no money in the locker. 



and which is refused payment of members for the 

 same reason. Labour members are expected to 

 make both ends meet in London on less than £2,°° 

 a vear. When thev find themselves burdened, like 

 Mr. W. Crooks, with eighty letters a day, the post- 

 age stamps on which amount to 42s. a week, they 

 naturallv ask for a revival of the old privilege of 

 franking letters formerly enjoyed and abused by 

 everv M.P. The abuse' could be easily prevented 

 bv limiting the privilege to letters posted within the 

 precincts of the House. If our relations were as 

 cordial with Russia and Germany as they are with 

 France and America, there would be no difficulty in 

 making reductions which would enable us to meet all 

 the demands of the Labour members, and still have 

 monev to turn. It is the men who are continually 

 stirring up strife and ill-feeling between us and these 

 two nations who stand in the way of retrench rnent. 

 International hatred is easily roused, but it is a 

 devil which sends in a terribly long bill. 



For months past the most unin- 

 The Algecjras ^gijigibie part of the newspaper to 



Conference and , ° ,. "^ , j Ju ^t 



;^ft,f. the ordmary reader, and the most 



interesting to the few behind the 

 scenes, has been the telegraphic reports of the Con- 

 ference at Algeciras, where the representatives of 

 the Powers decided their rival pretensions to Mo- 

 rocco. The controversy turned chiefly upon the 

 respective share of France and Germany in the 

 Bank, which, like a financial octopus, is to do for 

 Morocco what the Russian-Chinese Bank did for 

 Manchuria — absit omen — and the extent to which the 

 policing of the ports and the sea coasts should be 

 internationalised. Into the details of the negotia- 

 tions from day to day there is no need to enter. 

 Suffice it to say that, aJFter interminable negotiations, 

 an agreement has now been finally arrived at, 

 chieflv through the intervention of Mr. White, 

 the American delegate. The details of the 

 settlement are of no immediate interest. The 

 vital fact is that in the discussion Germany 

 found herself face to face with an almost 

 unanmous opposition. France had the thick and 

 thin support of England, Russia, and Spain. Aus- 

 tria acted as a friendly broker on behalf of her 

 partner at Berlin, while Italy and America acted as 

 smoothers. 



There seems to be little difference 



. f,i . c»«_ of opinion, even in Gemianv. that 



4 raise Step. , • •' ,• u u' u *u„ 



the precipitate action by which the 



Kaiser raised the Moroccan ques- 

 tion has hardly been justified by the result. 

 Rumours of Prince von Billow's approaching retire- 

 ment are current, and it is hardly to be wondered at 

 if the Germans generally feel a little sore. That 

 being the case, the most mischievous thing in the 

 world is to gloat over her isolation and her discom- 

 fiture. There are few more dangerous fallacies than 

 the notion current in Jingo quarters that it is ever 



