827 



England Must be Strong! 



Our Duty as Policeman of Peace. 



The FORCES OF PEACE must be STRONGER than the FORCES OF WAR.— This is the only 

 andoubtedly sound foundation upon which to rest all work for peace ; it is the TOCSIN of the NEW 

 PACIFICISM. 



THERE are plenty of forces about which would 

 be only too glad to break the peace. Even 

 at the recent Peace Congress in London we 

 find Mr. Zangwill solemnly warning everyone 

 that war, not peace, is the summing up of the world 

 situation to-day. What pacifists want is some police- 

 man of peace, some force to cope with the Apaches 

 of war. But it is no use having a policeman in a 

 bad district if he is not strong enough and not able 

 to control the strongest of the bad characters on his 

 beat. There are many nations and more governments 

 who think in terms of war, who make plans and 

 spend money always with the probability of being 

 able to wage a successful war in the back of their 

 minds. Such cannot be policemen of peace ; they are 

 the enemies of peace, the friends of war, just as much 

 as the man who carries a jointed jemmy and a bunch 

 of skeleton keys is a criminal in all but opportunity. 

 Here we do not speak of the smaller nations, because 

 too often for them armaments are their only hope of 

 life and contemplation of war is by no means desire 

 for battle. 



THE OLD AND THE NEW PACIFICISM. 



Away with the old pacificism which believed, or 

 forced itself to believe, sufficiently to preach that by 

 many words much disarmament would ensue — that a 

 word spoken was of more value to peace than a cartridge 

 in reserve. The lime has come for practical politics, 

 for looking the situation fairly and squarely in the face, 

 and shaping our pa( ificism accordingly. Pacifists want 

 peaic, and the new pacificism, leaving aside shibboleths 

 and ostrich-like head-hiding, is going to advance 

 towards peace by a sane realisation that there exist 

 forces for peace just as much as there exist forces for 

 war. All that is nc( cssar>- to secure peace is to make 

 the forces of those nations which think in terms of 

 peace as strong, or stronger, than those of nations 

 which think in terms of war. 



THINKINC. IN TERMS OF IT.ACE. 



This need for the new pacificism has been more 

 clearly recognised abroad, perhaps becau.se they know 



more clearly the horrors of war and the blessings of 

 peace. And what do these Continental pacifists find as 

 a solution ? They are quite clear on this point, and say, 

 " England must be strong." That is all ; but there we 

 have the problem and the solution in a nutshell. What 

 a compliment, and what a responsibility, to be police- 

 man of peace for the world ! .\nd yet it is striking that 

 the idea does not ring false in English ears, even when 

 suddenly enunciated. And naturally not, because we 

 are a people who do not think in terms of war, who 

 do not really ever think enough about war to study 

 what war means, but who do desire peace, and think 

 only of peace. But let us look a little more closelv into 

 the question of our qualifications to regard everv one 

 of the great guns on our Dreadnoughts, every rifle in 

 our armouries, as a baton of peace. 



ENGLAND AND WAR. 



It is no exaggeration to say that it is thanks to the 

 strength of England and the British Empire that many 

 of the minor States exist and continue to exist. If 

 there were no British Navy, how long would the 

 status quo remain in Europe ? Ask any of those respon- 

 sible for the conduct and safety of a small State, and 

 the answer will be illuminating. In no part of the 

 world can it be said that there is a point where England 

 is meditating, or has meditated, going to war unpro- 

 voked. A policeman may be guilty of the minor sins — 

 he may even beat his wife — but as long as he remains 

 a good policeman he is not lacking in the great essen- 

 tial. And so, although at times England may have 

 been led astray by scheming politicians or mistaken 

 ideas, it must be noted that always the reasons adduced 

 to force the people to go to war are based upon the 

 idea of humanity or justice. .\nd the strengthening of 

 our forces makes more than ever incumbent the duty . 

 that we hold our Jingoes back and never again allow 

 them to seize the reins of power, for a Jingo-ridden 

 Britain with an overwhelming fleet is no longer a 

 world-policeman, but a homicidal lunatic at large. 



PAST PRIVILEGE MEANS PRESENT DUTY. 



There will be those vho say that it is easy to be 

 peaceful when earlier warlike decades have given all 



