Review of litttens 



Character Sketch. 



47 



we look in vain for a singh- Commission that has 

 heretofore bet-n charged to start from the assumption 

 that friendly and fraternal sentiment between the 

 peoples is a thing so desirable in itself that it was 

 worth while to examine seriously how to develop it. 

 It is thirty years since the late Lord Derbv de- 

 clared that the greatest of British interests is peace, 

 but in all the inten-ening yvars neither partv in the 

 State has ever once taken to heart the honielv truth 

 uttered by the Prim.e Minister when he said it was 

 no use professing to desire peace unless we took 

 steps to ensure it. 



We have hitherto approached the whole subject of 

 our foreign relations under the absorbing preoccupa- 

 tion of the possibility of war. Every foreign nation 

 has been regarded as a prospective foe, and that pre- 

 conception rendered it impossible that we should 

 regard them as possible brothers. Only when under 

 stress of imminent peril we have consented to sus- 

 pend our habitual attitude of sruspicion and distrust 

 so far as to make an ally of one nation, it was always 

 with the sole intent of making war upon another. 



The present Cabinet, under the inspiration of their 

 chief, a man whose passion for peace is none the 

 less real because it does not evaporate in eloquent 

 dithyrambics, has ffsen above this plane of interna- 

 tional distrust. Hence nothing could be more 

 natural and fitting than for them to appoint a Royal 

 Commission to consider this greatest of all Imperial 

 and national questions : how can we so order our 

 steps aright as to promote brotherlv kindness and 

 goodwill between our own people and all nations 

 that on earth do dwell? 



The moment is propitious. It is hardly more 

 than ten years since the British nation was con- 

 fronted with the dread possibility of war with the 

 United States of America, and hardly five since we 

 seemed within twenty-four hours of war with the 

 French Republic. To-dav Britain and France are 

 as sisters, and the Empire and the Republic which 

 divide the English-speaking world between them are 

 as brothers in one hou.sehold. That which has been 

 accomplished between Britain and the t^vo Republics 

 must now be secured between Britain and the Ger- 

 man and the Russian Empires. 



The appointnient o_f the Royal Commission would 

 be an intimation not only to our own people but to 

 the. whole world that the British Government was 

 serious in its determination to pursue an active 

 policy of pt-ace. When I was in Paris last month, I 

 was told that our C.-B. was only an ideologue who 

 made phrases about a League of Peace for electoral 

 purposes and did nothing to carry his ideas into 

 effect. The Royal Commission on the Promotion of 

 Friendly Relations between the British and other 

 peoples would be accepted everywhere as a proof 

 that C.-B. meant business. It is for the King, ad- 

 vised by his Ministers, to nominate the Commis- 

 sioners to whom so delicate and so supremely im- 

 portant an investigation could be remitted. But it 



ought not to be difficult to constitute a Commission, 

 under a distinguished ' head, which would be ac- 

 cepted by the nation as a worthy representative of all 

 parties, among which the Labour party, so essen- 

 tiallv international in its spirit, would assuredly not 

 be lacking. 



The scope of the Commission would necessarily 

 be restricted in so far as to preclude any possibility 

 of its entering upon a general discussion in detail of 

 outstanding political questions. It is possible that 

 the Commission might be so constituted as to per- 

 mit of its being asked to ad\-ise upon one or two 

 general questions which will have to be considered at 

 the Hague Conference, but its primary business will 

 not be political or juridical, but social and interna- 

 tional. The starting-point should be the fact that 

 the Government has decided to create a fund not 

 exceeding, in the first instance. Decimal point one 

 per cent, of the Budget for War to be used as a 

 Budget of Peace. 



How is this to be expended ? and bv whom ? 



The governing principle which should govern such 

 an investigation was not inaptly expressed by Cobden 

 when, as a naeans of securing peace, he prescribed 

 the maximum of communications between the 

 peoples and the minimum of friction between the 

 Go\-emments. The spirit of the Commission could 

 not be better expressed than in the eloquent words 

 uttered by Lord Grey in his recent speech on Anglo- 

 American relations. As the friendship between the 

 Americans and the British are closer than those be- 

 tween any other nations, the remark of Lord Grey 

 mav be taken as the high water-mark of interna- 

 tionalism as yet registered. The object of the Com- 

 mission should be to discover how best to make so 

 admirable a sentiment universal among the nations : — 



The more we see of Americans the better we sJiall be 

 pleased. . . . All we want is to know each other better 

 than we do. and to help each other as much a.s we can. 

 ... If C<anada can at any time help the United States 

 in any direction which will improve the conditions of life 

 for your people, she will consider it a blessed privilege to 

 be allowed to render that assistance. 



How best can- a Peace Budget be expended so as 

 to universalise such a result? But there is a prior 

 question to this: By whom should it be expended? 

 In the United States there has been some discussion 

 as to entrusting the sum to an independent Commis- 

 sion absolutely uncontrolletl by the Executive Go- 

 vernment, but that solution is impossible here. As 

 the House of Commons must vote the money, the 

 Executive Government of the day must he respon- 

 sible, but it will be well if the direct administration 

 of the fund could be entrusted to a body which 

 would not involve the Government of the dav in 

 embarrassing complications. 



The first point that seems important to insist upon 

 is that the Government should be organised for the 

 prosecution of the Campaign of Peace. At present 

 there is an Imperial C6uncil for War. It ought to 

 have as a counterpart an Imperial Council for Peace. 



