19153 Organization for Durable Peace 



that nation making the cooperation of even Romain 

 Rolland or Theodore Ruyssen impracticable. 1 



As an organization we undertook the cooperative 

 study of the problems of durable peace, publishing 

 from time to time the conclusions reached by indi- 

 vidual members. For the first of the two volumes of 

 the "Recueil des Rapports" (1916) I contributed the 

 leading article, entitled "Annexation and Conquest." 

 In this I maintained the following thesis: 



No right of conquest shall be recognized and no military 

 necessity to the prejudice of neutral people or of neutral 

 nations. No annexation or transfer of territory shall be made 

 by force, as a result of war or conquest. In case a transfer of 

 allegiance should concern a homogeneous civilized district 

 accustomed to self-government, a plebiscite should rule. No 

 transfer shall be made except in accordance with the will of 

 the people expressed in the secret ballot and without duress, 

 the basis of suffrage being that already recognized in such 

 region, preferably "one man, one vote." Whether any given 

 district or province shall vote as a whole or in smaller units 

 must depend on the actual conditions in the region con- 

 cerned. 



Also "certain allied propositions": 



All extortions of indemnities by force of arms must be con- 

 demned as of the moral status of highway robbery. . . . All 

 use of military intimidation as political argument is funda- 

 mentally wrong because opposed to security and progress. . . . 

 Finally, the success of any plan for durable peace must rest 

 on the acceptance in good faith of Article 9 in the "Minimum 



x The executive committee comprised the following persons: Theodor Adel- 

 sward, Sweden; R. Altamira, Spain; Mrs. Fannie Fern Andrews, United States; 

 G. Lowes Dickinson, Great Britain; Alexander Giesswein, Hungary; Halfdan 

 Koht, Norway; Heinrich Lammasch, Austria; Achille Loria, Italy; Paul Otlet, 

 Belgium; J. Scherrer-Flillemann, Switzerland; Walther Schucking, Germany; 

 Th. Stauning, Denmark; Dresselhuys and Van Beek en Donk, Holland. 



C 671 3 



