382 World Federation and Social Progress 



nevertheless be those of an international police 

 force. The essential function of a police force is 

 to prevent aggression and compel the parties to a 

 dispute to bring their case into court. It does 

 not itself commit aggression or attempt to estab- 

 lish justice. The disastrous defect of rival armies 

 and navies under the present system of interna- 

 tional anarchy is that each nation, disregarding 

 the universal principle that it should not be a 

 judge in its own case, attempts to impose a one- 

 sided conception of justice by physical force, and 

 constitutes itself, not only judge, but also advo- 

 cate, sheriff, and executioner, in the dispute to 

 which it is a party. The result is necessarily to 

 base the decision on Might instead of Right, and 

 to employ a maximum of force where a minimum 

 would be more effective. 



Still less would such a League of Peace abolish 

 struggle from human relations. This is, of course, 

 one of the chief militaristic objections to world fed- 

 eration. For example, General von Bernhardi says : 



To expand the idea of the State into that of human- 

 ity, and thus to entrust apparently higher duties to the 

 individual, leads to error, since in a human race con- 

 ceived as a whole, struggle, and by implication the 

 most essential vital principle, would be ruled out. 

 Any action in favour of collective humanity outside the 

 limits of the State and nationality is impossible. Such 

 conceptions belong to the wide domain of Utopias. ^ 



' Bernhardi, Germany and the Next War, p. 25. 



