46 



The Review of Reviews. 



July 1, 1906. 



folly, after spending _;^iooo on a fire engine, to 

 grudge twenty shillings needed to keep water in the 

 pails with which to damp down sparks before they 

 burst into flame. The old policy of the Friends of 

 Peace was to rail at bloated armaments and to de- 

 mand drastic reductions of the Estimates. It is now 

 recognised that this is to put the cart before the 

 horse. You must first diminish your fire risks before 

 you can reduce the premium you pay for your in- 

 surance. The neglect of this very simple elementary 

 common sense proposition has led to the progressive 

 increase all round of the charge for international fire 

 insurance, until at last it has reached such an 

 appalling figure that the household is being starved 

 in order to meet the annual premiums on the house. 



" Not Governments," said Mr. Secretary Root, 

 " but peoples to-day preserve peace and do justice." 

 He might have added with even greater truth : Not 

 Governments, but peoples to-day make war and do 

 injustice. Take the worst Government that exists 

 to-day, and its responsible ruler is more in favour of 

 p)eace than the irresponsible people w.ho, whether in 

 armies or in music-halls, in churches or in news- 

 paj>er offices, raise sudden storms which from time 

 to time dash the ship of State irresistibly into war. 



Fortunately the winds which lash the international 

 waves into fury are not beyond the control of the 

 modern j^iolus. Nor is it impossible for a prudent 

 and resourceful statesman to throw oil upon the 

 troubled waters. But to baffle the tempestuous 

 Jingo and to create a calm within which the vessel 

 can be steered on its appointed course bv the man 

 at the helm demands prevision, it needs organisa- 

 tion, and, first of all, it requires funds ; and unfor- 

 tunatelv funds have hitherto been the one thing 

 lacking. Money has been spent like water in get- 

 ting up bellicose agitations. There are too many 

 " millions- in it " for the advocates of a policy of 

 aggression and of conquest ever to lack the fuods 

 necessary to create at least a semblance of popular 

 passion at the critical m.oment when peace and w'ar 

 are trembling in the balance. But for j>eace there 

 IS seldom a penny to "W found. 



The great opportunity for the policy of peace lies 

 not SO much in the de.xterous jerking away of the 

 firebrand from the midst of the powder magazine 

 into which it may have been flung. It is to be 

 sought in the careful, steady, systematic discourage 

 ment of the sport of flinging firebrands. That is a 

 practice that ought no longer to be tolerated among 

 civilised nations. Alas ! it is now, as it was in the 

 days of the Eastern sage, the favourite amusement 

 of fools to do mischief. But whereas in these early 

 days he who cast firebrands, arrows and death was 

 rightly scouted as a madman, nowadays he is re- 

 warded with immense wealth and a seat in the House 

 of Lords. It is difficult, although not so impossible 

 as some seem to think, for civilisation to put a direct 

 restraint upon such incentives to slaughter. But the 

 simple and most effective method is to cultivate a 



habit and a temper of mind among the nations which 

 would render it bad business for newspapers to 

 " swell the war-whoop passionate for war.'' If this 

 duty of reducing the fiery gas in the subterranean 

 strata of public opinion were undertaken seriously in 

 a practical spirit by the Governments the risk of ex- 

 plosions would be reduced 50 per cent. But until 

 Sir Henr\- Campbell-Bannerman's Ministry no Cabi- 

 net has ventured to face this dut)'. And one reason 

 which has always been pleaded in excuse is that the 

 Government has no funds available for the prosecu- 

 tion of the active policy of peace. That is why 

 Decimal point one per cent, is the starting-point of 

 the whole campaign. Without money nothing can 

 be done. And this formula will provide the money. 

 One pound for peace for every ^1000 for war. 



II.— WHAT WILL' HE DO WITH IT? 



Given a sum not exceeding decimal one per cent, 

 of the Army and Navy Estimates to be devoted to 

 the Budget of Peace, how can it be spent to the be.st 

 advantage? If this year such a principle had been 

 adopted, John Bull would have had ^66,000 to 

 spend in the active policy which is to lead up to the 

 League of Peace and the General Entente Cordiale. 



\\'hat would he have done w'ith it? 



The question need not be discussed, for the sum 

 of ;^66,ooo will not figure in this year's Estimates. 

 Ministers have succeeded -so recently to so heavily 

 burdened an exchequer that for this year no one 

 expects them to do anything but mark time. But 

 the acquiescence won by C.-B. for Mr. Haldane's Esti- 

 mates this year will not be renewed next year unless 

 the House of Commons sees that something practical 

 and definite is being done to abate the ill-feelings, 

 misunderstanding, and prejudices w^hich excuse, even 

 if they do not justify, the present Estimates. Minis- 

 ters can best avail themselves of this breathing- 

 space and give substantial earnest of their determina- 

 tion to put the thing through if they appoint a Royal 

 Commission at the earliest date, with instructions to 

 inquire into and report upon the best methods that 

 can be employed to prom.ote friendlv relations be- 

 tween our o«-n and other nations, and to secure the 

 establishment of an international entente cordiale. 

 It is a significant fact that no such Commission 

 has ever been appointed. During a thousand years 

 of existence as an organised State, this country has 

 never once put before any responsible representative 

 body of investigators this simple primary problem in 

 international statecraft — How can we best make 

 friends of our neighbours? We have Commissions 

 innumerable to inquire into and report upon the 

 best way in which we can first circumvent, outwit, 

 and forestall them in conquest or in trade ; or if that 

 fails, how we can best be prepared to destrov their 

 fleets, to "seize their land, to devastate their terri- 

 tories, and to slav their citizens. Commissions upon 

 engines of w-ar, from the tifiy revolver to the gigantic 

 ironclad, there have been enough and to spare. But 



