542 



The Review of Reviews. 



Vecember 1, 1906. 



Photo 



by'\ [£. H. Mills 



Ppincioal J. Marshall L»ng. 

 (Vice-chancellor of Aberdeen Uni-rersitj-.) 



Photo 



Sip Fpederick Tpevep. BaPt. 

 (Rector of Aberdeen University.) 



reduction of the crushing armaments of the world 

 with a declaration in favour of " a nation in arms " 

 in the shape of a volunteer force of 900.000 men. 

 The difficulty is that the more you appeal for volun- 

 teers the more you strengthen the alarmist senti- 

 ment upon which militarism thrives. If Mr. Hal- 

 dane would promise to cut down the cost of the 

 regular army by a million a year for every 100,000 

 volunteers passed as efficient something might be 

 done. But to keep up our regular army at its present 

 strength, and then to super-add at a continually 

 increasing cost nearly a million volunteers — that 

 does not seem exactly the wav in which to reduce 

 the crushing burdens of militarism. Mr. Haldane's 

 proposal to render the Militia liable for foreign ser- 

 vice should not be accepted until the right to ballot 

 for the Militia is abolished. Otherwise we may 

 have the principle of conscription enforced by some 

 successor of Mr. Haldane who would use the scheme 

 of the present War Minister to bridge over the 

 gulf between the voluntary svstem and that of com- 

 pulsory military service. 



There is some danger lest the pub- 

 The Hague j;^, should forget the real aim and 

 1907" objects of the next Hague Con- 



ference. Newspapers are discuss- 

 ing it as if it were summoned to discuss schemes of 

 disarmament. So far from this being the case, the 

 assent of Germany to the Conference was only ob- 

 tained after it was seen that there was no proposal 

 for disarmament on the programme. No doubt thf 

 British Government, actively supported bv Italy 

 and the United St;ites, will make an effort to secure 

 an international veto upon the devotion of any more 



monev than is at present voted to the armies and 

 navies of the world; but that is an addition to the 

 original programme, of which it forms no integral 

 part. While it is well to propose anything and 

 everything that may afford an opportunity for pro- 

 test against the unceasing increase of military ex- 

 penditure, blessed are they who expect nothing, for 

 thev shall never be disappointed. The Peace Con- 

 gress, which met at Milan last month, has passed 

 resolutions in favour of the national federation of 

 all peace and arbitration societies, and the forma- 

 tion of all such national unions into one great in- 

 ternational federation. This was the idea that found 

 expression in the International Union which was 

 founded in iqoo at Paris, but the idea is still a 

 little too advanced to be capable of practical rea- 

 lisation. What is wanted is the concentration of 

 effort in the attainment of some simple practical 

 proposition such as that of the constitution of a peace 

 budget based upon decimal point one per cent, of 

 the war budget. If that project were put forward 

 at the Hague, backed by the example of a great 

 Power, it would probably be accepted in principle, 

 and the first serious effort to undermine the base of 

 militarism would have begun. 



The most important event in 



American American politics last month was 



Oracchi. the nomination of Mr. W. R. 



Hearst for the Go\ernorship of 



New York hv the Democratic Caucus at Buffalo. 



Mr. Hearst is the banner-bearer of what mav be 



called Social Democracy in the United States. His 



strength lies in his newspapers, which serve him 



and his staff of preaching friars as pulpits, from 



