corollaries. In diplomacy, it has often meant the adoption of the policy that the end justifies the means and that everything is conceded as right so long as it redounds to the national power and honor. In international affairs, it has set nation against nation, with war as a necessary part of the national life. Along with these rather extreme notions, which have often rendered the concept of nationalism odious, have come many positive contributions in the development of a fine spirit of patriotism and sane rivalry and in the growth of peaceful relations which have established the basis for a growing internationalism. INTERNATIONAL LAW AND PROGRESS TOWARD A WORLD STATE The weaknesses of nationalism, however, such as the dominance of self-interest in the conduct of diplomacy, the difficulties and uncertainties of commercial warfare, and the frequent outbreak of war with its horrible aspects, have led men to turn to the ideal of an international or world state. The basis for the world state has been provided in the settled rules and customs by which the nations, through the channels of diplomacy, settle controversies and conduct common affairs, and in the formulation of a body of rules and customs known as International Law. Among the principal conventions and agreements by which these rules and customs have been formulated and codified are: The Declaration of Paris, 1856. The Declaration of St. Petersburg, 1868. Conference of Brussels, 1874. Hague Peace Conference, 1899. Second Geneva Convention, 1906. Second Hague Conference, 1907. Furthermore, the peaceable settlement of international difficulties has been accomplished in large part by the develop ment of the practice and procedure of arbitration. The United States has taken a leading part in encouraging the submission of questions to arbitration, and by the TaftWilson-Bryan treaties the nation is committed to arbitrate practically all difficulties which arise with the majority of the countries with which we have diplomatic relations. But owing to the fact that international law is made in large part by treaties and diplomatic agreements, as well as by the prize courts of each nation, and that its enforcement is left entirely to the separate nations, an effort has been made to establish international tribunals with an effective organization and adequate powers to give sanction to international rules and principles. For this purpose efforts have been made to establish a permanent court of arbitration with well-defined modes of procedure in the settlement of controversies, and an international prize court for the determination of the difficult questions of prize law. And these steps have all been preliminary to the effort to realize the ideal of a world state. Though much progress in the direction of an organization for a world state had been made prior to 1914, the Great War has resulted in at least two contributions to this general movement, which are, on the whole, the most noteworthy advances yet made. These were the administrative agencies established to secure unity in the conduct of the war among the Allies and the covenant for a League of Nations. To effectuate a real unity in plans and administration, there was established, as a result of conferences at Versailles, a group of agencies which made for unity of action among all of the Allies in the conduct of many phases of the war. The most important of these bodies was: The Allied Maritime Transport Council, with subordinate bodies, such as (a) The Food Council. (b) Munitions Council at Paris. (c) Program committees dealing with raw materials. (d) The Petroleum Conference and the Coal and Coke Committee. (e) The Interallied Council on War Purchases and Finance. (f) The Allied Blockade Committee.1 Over and above these and many other subordinate bodies was the Supreme War Council, organized under what is known as the Rapallo Agreement, whose mission it was to watch over the general conduct of the war, to prepare recommendations for the decisions of the respective governments, and to report on their execution. Here, in the words of Premier Lloyd George, we have had provided the machinery of the League of Nations, where nations have come together to set up a complete machine which is a clearing house not merely in military matters and in naval matters, but for financial, for economic, for shipping, for food purposes, and for all the other things that are essential to the life of the nations. All these matters are raised there and discussed there. Information on them all is classified there and interchanged; and, still more, the machinery is there not merely for registering or recording, but for decisions which affect all these nations.2 The real effects and results of this plan of co-operative action will not be known for a long time; but it is now clear that by this plan one of the chief defects in international organization as an effective method for administrative unity in war has been overcome and the machinery for its successful operation has been provided. THE COVENANT FOR A LEAGUE OF NATIONS All of the steps thus described are but preliminary to the actual progress in the effort to formulate a world state such as that undertaken at the Paris Peace Conference in the covenant for a League of Nations. This covenant provides for an Executive Council consisting of nine members representing five great powers and four other states, an assembly to consist of representatives of the members of the League, 1 Bulletin, A League of Nations, vol. i, no. 7, "The Supreme War Council" (October, 1918), pp. vi-viii, published by the World Peace Foundation, 2 Ibid., p. 348. Boston. and a permanent secretariat. The Council and Assembly are authorized to deal with any matter "affecting the peace of the world." It is made the duty of the Council to formulate plans for the reduction of armaments, to control the private manufacture of munitions, and to give advice for the protection of members against aggression. The Council is to act, likewise, as a board of conciliation for the settlement of disputes and is expected to prepare a plan for the establishment of a Permanent Court of International Justice. To aid the Council in the preparation of data and in the rendering of advice, commissions are to be established as follows: Military and Naval Commission to advise on armaments and the traffic in munitions. Mandatory Commission to advise with powers acting as mandatories over colonies. International Bureau of Labor to secure fair and humane conditions for labor. The members of the League agree to acquaint one another with information on military affairs; to defend one another's territorial integrity and independence against external aggression; to regard any threat of war as a matter for the consideration of the League, and to refer disputes not adjusted by diplomacy to be settled by (a) arbitration, (b) commission of inquiry, (c) permanent court to be established hereafter; and, finally, to make no war in any case until three months after awards or recommendations are announced. Members of the League agree to join in bringing pressure to bear on a state which refuses to abide by the covenant by (a) an economic boycott, (b) cessation of all intercourse, (c) blockade, and (d) use of military and naval forces. The colonies and territories left unprotected as a result of the war are to be placed under mandatories which are expected to act under advice and make regular reports to the League. "January 16, 1920," said Léon Bourgeois, chairman of the Council of the League of Nations at its opening "will go down to history as the date of the birth of the new world." That this prediction is in process of fulfillment appears from the progress already made in organizing and getting under way the machinery for a League of Nations. An organization committee formed to work out a plan for the functioning of the League recommended the formation of the following sections, a number of which were soon organized and ready to begin work: 1. Political. 2. Legal. 3. Economic and Financial. 4. Administrative Commissions and Minority Questions. 5. Transit and Communications. 6. Information. 7. Mandates. 8. International Bureaus. 9. Regulation of Treaties. 10. Social Questions and Health. The Council of the League has carried out a number of the duties allotted to it under the covenant and has undertaken others such as the repatriation and resupplying of prisoners of war in Siberia and the adoption of measures to prevent the spread of typhus and cholera in eastern and central Europe. Among the most important steps taken was the appointment of a committee to prepare a plan for a Permanent Court of International Justice to be submitted to the Council and Assembly and then to the member nations. The Council has been participating in the settlement of many matters in the reconstruction of Europe, and the Assembly at its first meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, in November, 1920, discussed and passed upon numerous projects to aid co-operation among nations and to dispel international misunderstandings.1 40 1 See Reports on a League of Nations by the World Peace Foundation, Mt. Vernon St., Boston; Arthur Sweetser, The League of Nations at Work (The Macmillan Company, 1920); also Official Journal of the League of Nations. |