LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PRINCETON, N. J. BNeSOS. GComve/ Conference on Christian politics, economics and International relations C.0.P.E.C. Commission Reports. Volume VII INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS C.0.P.E.C. COMMISSION REPORTS Tue Nature oF Gop anD His PuRPOSE FOR THE WoRLD EDUCATION THe Home Tue RELATION OF THE SEXES LEISURE. Tue TREATMENT OF CRIME INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS CHRISTIANITY AND WAR InDUsTRY AND PROPERTY Po.irics AND CITIZENSHIP Tue Socrat Funcrion oF THE CHURCH Historicat JLLUsTRATIONS OF THE SocraL EFFEcTs oF CHRISTIANITY INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Being the Report presented to the Conference on Christian Politics, Economics and Citizenship at Birmingham, April 5-12, 1924 Published for the Conference Committee by LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E.C. 4 NEW YORK, TORONTO BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS 1924 BASIS Tue basis of this Conference is the conviction that the Christian faith, rightly interpreted and consistently followed, gives the vision and the power essential for solving the problems of to-day, that the social ethics of Christianity have been greatly neglected by Christians with disastrous consequences to the individual and to society, and that it is of the first importance that these should be given a clearer and more persistent emphasis. In the teaching and work of Jesus Christ there are. certain fundamental principles—such as the universal Fatherhood of God with its corollary that mankind is God’s family, and the law “ that whoso loseth his life, findeth it ”’—which, if accepted, not only condemn much in the present organisation of society, but show the way of regeneration. Christi- anity has proved itself to possess also a motive power for the transformation of the individual, without which no change of policy or method can succeed. In the light of its principles the constitution of society, the conduct of industry, the upbringing of children, national and international politics, the personal relations of men and women, in fact all © human relationships, must be tested. It is hoped that through this Conference the Church may win a fuller understanding of its Gospel, and hearing a clear call to practical action may find courage to obey. GENERAL PREFACE THE present volume forms one of the series of Reports drawn up for submission to the Conference on Christian Politics, Economics and Citizenship, held in Birmingham in April 1924. In recent years Christians of all denominations have recognised with increasing conviction that the commission to “‘go and teach all nations” involved a double task. Alongside of the work of individual conversion and simultaneously with it an effort must be made to Christianise the corporate life of mankind in all its activities. Recent de- velopments since the industrial revolution, the vast increase of population, the growth of cities, the creation of mass production, the specialisation of effort, and the consequent interdependence of individuals upon each other, have given new sig- nificance to the truth that we are members one of another. ‘The existence of a system and of methods unsatisfying, if not antagonistic to Christian life, constitutes a challenge to the Church. The work of a number of pioneers during the past century has prepared the way for the attempt to examine and test our social life in the light of the principles revealed in Jesus Christ, and to visualise the require- ments of a Christian civilisation. Hitherto such attempts have generally been confined to one or two aspects of citizenship; and, great as has been their value, they have plainly shown the defects of Vv GENERAL PREFACE sectional study. We cannot Christianise life in compartments: to reform industry involves the reform of education, of the home life, of politics and of international affairs. What is needed is not a number of isolated and often inconsistent plans appropriate only to a single department of human activity, but an ideal of corporate life constructed on consistent principles and capable of being applied to and fulfilled in every sphere. The present series of Reports is a first step in this direction. Each has been drawn up by a Commission representative of the various denomina- tions of British Christians, and containing not only thinkers and students, but men and women of large and differing practical experience. Our endeavour | has been both to secure the characteristic contri- butions of each Christian communion so as to gain a vision. of the Kingdom of God worthy of our common faith, and also to study the application of the gospel to actual existing conditions—to keep our principles broad and clear and to avoid the danger of Utopianism. We should be the last to claim any large or general measure of success. The task is full of difficulty: often the difficulties have seemed insurmountable. But as it has proceeded we have discovered an unexpected agreement, and a sense of fellowship so strong as to make fundamental divergences, where they appeared, matters not for dispute but for frank and sympathetic discussion. Our Reports will not be in any sense a final solution of the problems with which they are concerned. They represent, we believe, an honest effort to see our corporate life Vil GENERAL PREFACE steadily and whole from the standpoint of Christi- anity; and as such may help to bring to many a clearer and more consistent understanding of that Kingdom for which the Church longs and labours and prays. However inadequate our Reports may appear— and in view of the magnitude of the issues under discussion and the infinite grandeur of the Christian gospel inadequacy is inevitable—we cannot be too thankful for the experience of united inquiry and study and fellowship of which they are the fruit. It should be understood that these Reports are printed as the Reports of the Commissions only, and any resolutions adopted by the Conference on the basis of these Reports will be found in The Proceedings of C.O.P.E.C., which also contains a General Index to the series of Reports. LIST OF COMMISSION MEMBERS The Commission responsible for the production of this Report was constituted as follows :— Chairman :—E. F. WISE, Eso., C.B. Economic Adviser to the Russian Co-operative Movement for Foreign Trade; Previously British Representative on Permanent Committee of the Supreme Economic Council, H.M. Civil Service. Members of the Commission :— BASANACH, THE Rev. FATHER, S.J. BUXTON, CHARLES RODEN, Esq. BUXTON, THE Rev. Harotp, M.A. Assistant Priest, Christ Church, Westminster, S.W.; Secre- tary of Armenian Relief (Lord Mayor’s) Fund; Secretary _of the Archbishop’s Eastern Churches Committee. DICKINSON, THE Rr. Hon. Sir WILLoOuGHBY, K.B.E. Member of His Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council; Hon. Secretary of the World Alliance for Promoting Inter- national Friendship Through the Churches. DEEDES, Bric.-Gen. SIR WyNDHAM, KT., C.M.G., D.S.O. A worker at Oxford House, Bethnal Green. *DRURY-LOWE, ReEaArR-ADMIRAL S. R., C.M.G. FOX, THE Rev. H. W., D.S.O. Member of Committee of League of Nations Union. GOOCH, G. P., Esg., M.A., Litt.D. President of the Historical Association; Joint Editor of ““The Contemporary Review,”’ etc. HEATH, Cart, Esq. Gen. Secretary of the International Service of the Society of Friends. * Retired in October owing to his inability to attend meetings. 1X LIST OF COMMISSION MEMBERS LINDSAY, Pror. A. D. University of Glasgow. MacGILP, THe Rev. J. D. Minister of United Free Church of Scotland, and repre- sentative of that Church at International Church Conferences at Geneva, Copenhagen, Helsingfors, Zurich, etc.; Member of British Council of World Alliance for International Friendship; organising in preparation for the Universal . Christian Conference on Life and Work to be held at Stock- holm, 1925. MARSHALL, Miss CATHERINE. RECKITT, Maurice B., Eso., M.A. Executive Member of League of the Kingdom of God; Member of Editorial Committee of ‘‘ The Commonwealth ’’; Contributor to ‘‘ The Return to Christendom ’’; formerly Editor of ‘‘ The Church Socialist.” ROUSE, Miss Rutu. Secretary to the Executive Committee of the World’s Student Christian Federation; Member of the Executive Committee of the World’s Young Women’s Christian Association; Member of the British Council of the World Alliance. SMITH, Miss Constance, O.B.E. WORCESTER, Tue DEan of, THE VERY REV. M. MOORE EDE, D.D A Founder of the University Extension Lectures; Professor of Economics at Armstrong University, Newcastle; Rector of Gateshead; Hulsean Lecturer at Cambridge; Member of British Council of World Alliance and until recently Chairman of its Council. YOUNG, GEorGE, Esg., M.V.O. The Members of the Commission are greatly indebted to the Rev. Dr. A. Ramsay, Colonel A. D. Turner, Dr. J. C. Maxwell Garnett, Major-General Sir Frederick Maurice, and Mr. F. B. W. Bowley for material contributed. They also wish to acknowledge the information afforded by the replies of Study Circles on the Question- naire on “‘ International Relations.” CONTENTS Basis e . . ° ° . . ° . GENERAL PREFACE List or Commission MEMBERS INTRODUCTION ; CHAPTER J THE MEANING AND PURPOSE OF NATIONALITY CHAPTER II RELATIONS BETWEEN HIGHLY DEVELOPED COUNTRIES (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) IMPORTANCE OF CONCEIVING THE WorLD As A WHOLE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BEsT IN EACH NATION . , History oF THE DEVELOPMENT OF Morat STANDARDS IN THE WoRLD As A WHOLE Tue Tasks OF THE FUTURE 5 : ; INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES IN "TRADE AND CoMMERCIAL RELATIONS . Tue Constructive PRevenTION OF WAR X1 33 36 CONTENTS CHAPTER III RELATIONS BETWEEN HIGHLY DEVELOPED AND LESS DEVELOPED NATIONS bare (1) PotrticaL AND Economic Rexations . . Rpts (2) Soctan RetaTions. : . i 7 ecg ee CHAPTER IV THE POSITION OF RACIAL MINORITIES (1) THe Present SITUATION . : : X Oo eee (2) Principies , ; ; : . : MB (3) RECOMMENDATIONS . : ; . : ~ OF CHAPTER V INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND RELIEF AND RECONSTRUCTION : . 73 CHAPTER VI CHRISTIANITY AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 85 CHAPTER VII (1) THE CHRISTIAN IDEAL AND THE NATIONS Io! (2) THE NATURE AND BASIS OF A CHRISTIAN WORLD ORDER. ; : . | 1% CHAPTER VIII RECOMMENDATIONS . : ae ©. Xil INTRODUCTION Eacu Commission appointed by the Conference on Christian Politics, Economics and Citizenship is venturing out in a specific direction to explore the Christian Way of Life. All are doing pioneer work, but with one exception they are venturing on seas at least partially charted, and into lands a few features of which have been mapped out. The one exception is the work of the present Commission. The Christian doctrine of International Relation- ships is the dark continent of Christian ethics. Christianity in the Roman Empire and the medieval Church both struggled to express the Christian conception of a world order. Their conceptions were conditioned by the political circumstances of mankind in those eras. ‘These conceptions were rendered inapplicable by the disappearance of their political worlds. After the birth of nations, in the modern sense of the word, the Church was faced anew with the duty of proclaiming the Christian ideal of a world order. But the Church has almost completely neglected this task, and Christian people have been left without guidance in their thoughts and actions with regard to their relations with other nations. It is the task of this Commission to explore this great unmapped continent. War and _ post-war Xlil INTRODUCTION conditions have focussed the attention of Christen- dom on the necessity for its exploration. The Commission has been able to touch but a few of the uncharted regions, and presents its Report abundantly conscious that it is imperfect in many directions, and that in vast territories we have not even set foot. X1V CHAPTER I THE MEANING AND PURPOSE OF NATIONALITY ren iy an 7 i fia ull CHAPTER I THE MEANING AND PURPOSE OF NATIONALITY THE core of nationalism is group-consciousness, the love of the community, great or small, to which we belong. ‘The nation is an organism, a spiritual entity. All attempts to penetrate its secrets by the light of mechanical interpretations break down before the test of experience. The occupation of a naturally defined territory, which supplies the simplest tie of affinity, will not carry us far; for the conviction of national unity 1s sublimely indifferent to rivers, mountains and even seas. Nor is identity of racial type an indispensable factor of nationhood ; for no race has ever been gathered into a single Nation-State, while Great Britain and France, Belgium, Switzerland and the United States remind us that countries where national self-consciousness is most highly developed are peopled by men of different blood. Unity of language, again, despite its immense practical convenience, can hardly be described as a necessity with the example of Belgium and Switzerland, Canada and South Africa before our eyes. Religious unity, in turn, though a potent bond of union, above all in communities such as the Poles, the Irish or the Armenians, which have lost or have never won independent political existence, tends to become less essential with the growing 3 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS secularisation of thought. And, finally, common economic interests avail as little as forced obedience to a single ruler to achieve the birth of a nation. Though neither the occupation of a defined area nor community of race, language, religion, govern- ment or economic interests are indispensable to national self-consciousness, each of these factors constitutes a powerful tie and tends to produce the solidarity in which the strength of nations resides. Indeed in the absence of such connecting links it would be childish to expect a vigorous national sentiment. Yet, while admitting to the full the natural foundations of nationalism, we shall never discover its innermost secret if we confine our scrutiny to the material plane. Its spiritual characteristics have become increasingly recognised since Mazzini, the noblest of its prophets. “A portion of mankind may be said to constitute a Nationality,” wrote Mill in 1862 in his Repre- sentative Government, “‘if they are united among themselves by common sympathies which do not exist between them and any others, which make them co-operate more willingly than with other people, desire to be under the same government, and desire that it should be a government by them- selves, or a portion of themselves, exclusively. ‘This feeling of nationality may have been generated by various causes. Sometimes it is the effect of identity of race and descent. Community of language and community of religion greatly contribute to it. Geographical limits are one of its causes. But the strongest of all is the identity of political antecedents ; the possession of a national history and consequent 4 MEANING AND PURPOSE community of recollections; collective pride and humiliation, pleasure and regret, connected with the same incidents in the past.’”? Renan’s cele- brated lecture, Quw’est ce qu’une Nation? leads to the same conclusion. ‘‘ What constitutes a nation is not speaking the same tongue or belonging to the same ethnic group, but having accomplished great things in common in the past and the wish to accomplish them in the future.” ‘A nation,” pronounces Littré, the eminent philologist, “is an union of men inhabiting the same territory, whether or not subject to the same government, and possess- ing such common interests of long standing that they may be regarded as belonging to the same race.” “As the culture of a people advances,” argues Lavelaye, the Belgian economist, “race exercises less power, and historic memories more.” “A nationality,”? echoes Durckheim, the Belgian soci- ologist, with admirable brevity, “is a group of which the members, for racial or merely historic reasons, wish to live under the same laws and form a State.” ‘Nationality, like religion,” we learn from Mr. Zimmern, “‘is subjective; psychological ; a condition of mind; a spiritual possession; a way of feeling, thinking and living.” Nationalism thus denotes the resolve of a group of human beings to share their fortunes, and to exercise exclusive control over their own actions. Where such a conscious determination exists there should be a State, and there will be no abiding peace until there is a State. Where there is a soul there should be a body in which it may dwell. ‘The gospel that a people with a distinct culture and a 5 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS highly developed self-consciousness should be allowed and indeed encouraged to live its own life is the expression of a profound and legitimate instinct. Its explosive force has inspired sublime sacrifices, torn unjust treaties to shreds and shattered despotic empires. But it has also fostered savage racial passions and repulsive national arrogance. The cult of ‘sacred egoism ” has almost obliterated the sense that civilisation is a collective achievement and a common responsibility. During the nineteenth century, thoughtful minds were filled with the conviction of the legitimacy of nationalist sentiment. In the twentieth, we are oppressed by the conviction of its insufficiency. While the Great War was raging each country discovered the cause of the catastrophe in the unexampled wickedness of its enemies. Now that we are emerging from the domination of the war mind, we realise that the conflagration was not caused by the turpitude of any single government, but was the logical if not indeed the inevitable result of a system in which the sovereign State was the supreme authority, and which recognised no obligation to any tribunal, human or divine, outside or above itself. It is only because we had grown up in a world where the doctrine of unfettered national sovereignty was accepted as an axiom, that we failed to realise its moral perverseness and intellectual absurdity till it brought Europe clattering down about our ears. The lessons taught by the sorrows and sufferings of the world-war, that the whole is greater than the part, that every nation is a member of the human family, that every unit has obligations to every 6 MEANING AND PURPOSE other unit, that civilisation is a common inheritance and a collective responsibility, are neither very new nor very old. ‘The Greeks had no notion of the unity of mankind, and despised the “‘ barbarians”? by whom they were surrounded. The jurists and statesmen of the Roman Empire commanded a wider per- spective. For the first time in history a large number of different races lived side by side under the sway of a State which governed, not by force alone, but by the maintenance of a common standard of civilisation and the diffusion of common principles of government and legislation. Neither nationalism nor internationalism, as we understand the terms, were born at that time; but the conception of a system of legal principles of general application, in which the Law of Nations and the Law of Nature should meet and blend, represented an important advance towards the organisation and co-operation of mankind. On the fall of the Roman Empire the Christian Church took its place as the governing influence in the life of Europe. The social teaching of the New Testament has been interpreted in various ways, and the authority of Christ has been claimed by every school of thought, from communism to individualism, because Christ dealt with principles, not with institutions. But if the indications are vague as regards the social order, we are left without the slightest definite guidance in reference to the relation of States and nations to one another. Nor is this surprising; for the world as it was known to men and women in the first century was neither more nor less than the Roman Empire, and therefore i: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS the question did not arise. On the other hand, the general tendency of the Christian message was unmistakable. It stood for universalism. The Fatherhood of God involved the Brotherhood of Man. The narrow nationalism of the Jews, with their arrogant doctrine of a Chosen People, could find no place in a movement where Jew and Gentile, bond and free, met on equal terms as children of a common Father. Distinctions of race and language and class faded into insignificance compared with the spiritual bond of Christian fellowship. The only problem of political philosophy which concerned the early Christians, either as thinkers or as citizens, was the relation of the Empire and | the Church. They did not condemn nationalism, for the Church did not recognise its existence. They did not preach internationalism, for the nations of the civilised world had been swallowed up in Rome. ‘They breathed an atmosphere of religious cosmopolitanism. ‘The universalism of the New Testament and the cosmopolitanism of the early Christians were capable of developing into inter- nationalism when the World State had broken up into fragments; but they could never be logically or legitimately transformed into a nationalism emphasising racial or political separation at the expense of spiritual unity. When the Church secured the dominant position in the life of Europe after the conversion of Con- stantine and the fall of the Western Empire, the European races entered upon a new experience which lasted for a thousand years. The civilised world once more consisted of a large number of 8 MEANING AND PURPOSE independent States. But as each community in turn embraced Chrisitanity, it entered the great family of which the Pope was the visible head. Each member of the family felt itself connected by a common faith with every other. ‘The conception of a Respublica Christiana, or Christian Common- wealth, was enlarged and completed when Charle- magne established the Holy Roman Empire. Hence- forth, at any rate in theory, Central and Western Europe was regarded as a single community, subject to Pope and Emperor as Vicegerents of God the Invisible King, and unified by the possession of a common creed and the acceptance of common principles of conduct. Patriotism—the instinctive love of the land in which a man lived and the soil he cultivated—flourished in this as in earlier and later times; but the notion that a State owes allegiance to no authority above or outside itself never crossed the mind of a medieval publicist. The modern doctrine of sovereignty was unborn. Power was not concentrated but diffused. The share of authority which fell to each member of the hierarchy—Pope, Emperor, King, nobility—was the subject of continual conflict; but the funda- mental unity of Christendom was an axiom with all the warring disputants. The Middle Ages, or the reign of the Church, began with Augustine and ended with Machiavelli and Luther. The Renaissance inaugurated the secularisation of thought, and the Reformation, with its spiritual and political individualism, shattered the religious unity of Catholic Christendom. ‘The pagan idea of the unfettered sovereignty of the State 9 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS re-emerged, and the conception of universal com- munity disappeared. The medieval ideal and institution of the Respublica Christiana (though its sanctions, moral and military, in excommunications, interdicts, inquisitions, and Crusades were not absolute and were very susceptible to abuse) was a general spiritual recognition of the unity of civilisa- tion and a standing homage to the reign of law. The thesis, on the other hand, expounded in Lhe Prince and the Leviathan, that the individual ruler or State need consider no interest but its own, that - it owed no allegiance to humanity, and that it was subject to no human or divine authority, justified every war in advance, and provided Europe with as much security as exists in a mining camp. The recognition of Europe as an organic whole with a common heritage, common interests and common responsibilities was henceforth confined to a few idealists, who may be regarded either as survivors from a vanished age or as pioneers of the twentieth century. The alliance of Francis I and the Turk, the devastation of the Palatinate, the seizure of Silesia, and the partition of Poland were only the logical application by the non-moral State of the accepted principle of national self-sufficiency. ‘The political theory of the medizval world contemplated Christendom as a whole. The political theory of the last four centuries contemplated each country as consecrated to a tribal god. To that extent the political religion of the Middle Ages was Christian, that of modern times pagan in character. The notion of the sovereign and self-sufficing State was firmly rooted when nationalism, no longer } fe) MEANING AND PURPOSE a mere instinctive emotion but an operative principle and an articulate creed, issued from the earthquake of the rupture with America and the eruption of the French Revolution, carrying its virile message of emancipation and defiance to the uttermost parts of the earth, and filling the nineteenth century with the insistent clamour of its demands. The essential rightness of the claim of subject peoples to self-realisation was recognised by the best minds of the time; and the struggles and triumphs of the national ideal in Italy, Germany, the Balkans, Finland, Poland, Bohemia, Ireland and _ other countries were loudly applauded. But as the nineteenth century advanced the dangers implicit in the new gospel aroused growing apprehension. At the end of the eighteenth century France turned into a nation of supermen, whose energy scattered the hosts of feudal Europe like chaff before the blast ; and militant nationalism revealed, not only its magical power of mobilising the latent strength of a people, but the temptation to carry fire and sword into the land of its neighbours. ‘The example of France was followed by other countries, and love of country often tended to express itself in hatred or contempt for neighbours or rivals. At the very time that the world was being rapidly unified by steam- ships, railways and telegraphs, by commerce and finance, by art and science, by the standardisation of culture and comfort, the sense of the political separateness of States increased rather than diminished. The league of despots known as the Holy Alliance, by opposing democratic develop- ments, discredited the idea of international co- II INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS operation; and the “‘Concert of Europe” was merely a halt-hearted attempt to keep the peace in the Near East. Mazzini, the loftiest of nationalist teachers, looked forward to the ‘‘ United States of Europe,” subordinated nationality to the moral law, and harnessed it to the unselfish service of humanity ; but few hearkened to his message. At the opening of the present century the Great Powers, it is true, grouped themselves into two camps; but this was a step away from, not in the direction of, inter- national association. Unfettered sovereignty was the religion of the statesman and the soldier, the journalist and the man in the street. ‘The obsession of nationality strengthened the conviction that the part was more important than the whole, and the ‘brotherhood of man” was relegated to the lumber-room of lost causes and impossible ideals. Moltke bluntly declared that perpetual peace was a dream, and not even a beautiful dream. The Great War was at once the consummation and the condemnation of a nationalism which had become a peril to the world. It has sent many of us back to the medieval or Christian ideal of a partnership of nations, expanded to embrace the wider geographical area of modern civilisation and based on our common humanity as moral and rational beings instead of on the profession of a common religious belief. Weare beginning to realise that the doctrines of the unfettered sovereignty of the State and of self-sufficing nationalism must both be scrapped. Yet all that is vital and healthy in the sentiment of nationalism must be preserved. We must seek unity in variety, not in uniformity. 12 MEANING AND PURPOSE Political cosmopolitanism has no friends. We are feeling our way towards an internationalism which accepts and respects nationalism but transcends it. The larger patriotism is the complement, not the negation, of the smaller, as the second storey of a building is the completion, not the rival, of the first. The alternative to unfettered sovereignty is not subordination but partnership—the surrender of a portion of power in return for participation in a wider, richer and more secure life. The new international order to which our reason and conscience point, while abating some of the claims of nationalism, must, as we said above, guarantee its rights. But what are these rights? We talk less in the twentieth than in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of “‘ natural rights”; but we may assert with confidence that a nation possesses a natural right to exist. Self-preservation for the individual is an instinct rather than a right, for under certain circumstances it may be our duty to sacrifice our life—and even as a result the lives of our children— for a friend, or in response to some irresistible appeal. Similarly it might be the duty of a nation, under very exceptional circumstances, to sacrifice its existence to such an appeal, even though the citizens at any given moment are only trustees for unborn generations. For example, German Austria is to-day a nation, but who insists on it remaining so? On the other hand, if a nation considers that it has a natural right to live, it may be argued that it also possesses a natural right to defend itself against unprovoked attack if there is no other way of pre- serving its existence. 13 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS It may also, be plausibly argued that a nation has a natural right to internal self-determination, that is, to choose its own form of government and to decide in entire freedom all matters of domestic concern, such as justice, religion and education. Though this claim would be less universally admitted than that of self-preservation, it appears to be valid, subject to the vital condition that its practices do not directly imperil the national existence of its neighbours or of other countries. For instance, a State might with impunity encourage or even impose beliefs or practices which excite vigorous disapproval beyond its borders. But if an attempt — were made to impose or unduly to encourage such beliefs or practices in other communities, the claim to a self-determination that challenged the common law or common sense of civilisation would itself be rightly challenged. A second condition seems necessary if the self-determination of a nation is to be held legitimate, namely, that its standard of civilisation must not differ very widely from that of its neighbours. No country with a social or economic system very far behind or in advance of others could count on freedom from interference. ‘Thus once more we reach the conclusion that no nation can live for itself alone; that it can only claim rights if it also recognises responsibilities to the larger community of which it forms a part; that mutual aid, not the struggle of all against all, is the condition of survival; that the system of sovereign national groups must give way to an association of nations in which the individuality of each will be preserved. In no department 14 MEANING AND PURPOSE of life and thought is there greater need for the purifying and healing influence of Christian ethics than in international relations; and in no direc- tion is the tendency of Christian teaching more unmistakable. CHAPTER II RELATIONS BETWEEN HIGHLY DEVELOPED COUNTRIES CHAPTER II RELATIONS BETWEEN HIGHLY DEVELOPED COUNTRIES I. IJmporTANCE OF CONCEIVING THE WorRLD AS A WHOLE Ir is impossible to enunciate final principles as to the relations of one country with the other countries in the world. We have probably not arrived yet, possibly we shall never arrive, at a final delineation of the units which make up our world. What, how- ever, we are arriving at, with much more hope of finality, is the conception of the world as an organ- ism, all the parts of which are vitally interconnected, an organism in which the good of the whole depends upon the healthy functioning of each of the parts and in which the well-being of each part depends upon the good of the whole. In this conception, each part of the world, whether it be an existing country like France or Germany, or some other kind of unit which the future may produce, has its own peculiar function to perform which differs from that of every other part. It has its special claim upon the whole, it has its own contribution to make to the general welfare of the world. The simile of the human body is too trite and too 7 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS clear-cut to be applied here, but if one thinks of an organism in evolution, of the ultimate functions of its parts and even the parts themselves as not more than in process of determination, one approximates to the internationalist idea of the world to-day. It is therefore of the very greatest import to each individual country, assuming, as we must assume at present, that the world is made up of countries, as well as to the world as a whole, that each country should most fully realise its own destiny, discover and fulfil its own special function and become a complete and efficient unit. Any action on the part of any one country that results in preventing or hampering the sound growth and proper development of any other country is injurious to the world, and ulti- mately to the country that is the cause of the injury. If a country is really pursuing a policy that is in accordance with its own specific qualities and genius it should not be possible, granted that our view of the world is correct, for that policy to react hurtfully upon other countries pursuing policies similarly in accord with their individual characteristics. Il. DerveLorpmMentT oF THE Best 1n Eacu NATION The first need, then, for any country from the © point of view of international relations, is to be its truest, best and highest self, to be that at all times, in every circumstance, and under no matter what conditions. How it may become, or rather go on becoming that, is not particularly the concern of 20 HIGHLY DEVELOPED COUNTRIES this paper. Our interest is that of assuring that, whatever may be the principles which a nation has set before itself as those by which it should live, it shall not derogate from these in its dealings with other nations. For example, strict financial probity has long been a settled principle of English life. It is a point of honour to pay our debts, it is even more than a point of honour, we take it so entirely for granted, that the question as to whether or not we should pay them scarcely presents itself to our mind. ‘The question did, however, arise in regard to the payment of our War debts. Other nations had adopted an attitude in regard to their debts not at all in consonance with our traditional views. We stood to suffer by that attitude, more especially if we maintained our own principles. It was very natural to put to ourselves the question whether, in view of the fact that other nations were unwilling to conform to our ideas in this matter, we were not justified in approximating our standard to theirs. We very rightly decided to answer that question in the negative. We refused to repudiate the obligation of our debt to America, and in so doing stood firm by our best traditions and our highest principles. Our action in conformity with the true character of our genius will prove of incal- culable benefit to the world as a whole, and we shall reap our own advantage. If it is vital that we should in no case abandon or lower our principles in dealing with other nations, no matter how their principles may differ from ours, it is almost as important that we should respect principles which express the real convictions of other 21 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS nations, even if we do not agree with them. Only by mutual respect for what are genuinely the highest expressions of each nation’s life can the harmony of the world-organism be secured. We have a very pertinent case in the principle of Prohibition enunciated by the people of America. We may be very far from accepting this principle in our own national life, but it is essential that we should most scrupulously respect it in the American nation. Individuals of British nationality, from the very _ lowest of motives, have endeavoured to destroy the effective operation of that principle. Various bodies representing the Christian Church in this country, while expressing neither approval nor criticism of the principle of Prohibition, have nevertheless con- demned in the strongest terms the action of those British subjects in hampering and frustrating this great effort on the part of the American Govern- ment, and have publicly dissociated the right- minded people of our country from this nefarious enterprise. ‘These bodies have been entirely justi- fied in doing so, and international relations would be greatly helped were the opportunity taken on every similar occasion. It is not, however, only on great occasions that the temptation to disregard national ideals presents itself to those engaged in the ordinary conduct of international affairs. Day in and day out in the routine business of diplomacy, the representatives of every country are faced by situations with a definitely moral content. ‘This is perhaps even more true with the representatives abroad of commercial and industrial firms. Business houses that would scorn 22 HIGHLY DEVELOPED COUNTRIES to resort to bribery in this country find it frequently impossible in many foreign cities to obtain a con- cession or secure a contract without pandering to the prevailing and recognised custom of greasing the wheels of official procedure. ‘The sums involved are often insignificant in comparison with the profit to be made, in fact the extra expense can be cal- culated for. An agent who may fear and respect the scruples of his home directors may be able to arrange the necessary bribery without their know- ledge. He secures the contract; the means by which he has done so is his responsibility, not theirs. And yet they are involved, and the good name of England, and the principles for which England stands. In the long run, no immediate gain can compensate for the sacrifice of principle. The best hope for maintaining our principles in our foreign transactions of the kind indicated lies in maintaining a high moral standard in the men whose business it is to conduct them. It is all the better if that moral standard is a personal one, at least it should be a public one. Public opinion, however formed, should demand a high degree of integrity in those who, either in the public or in private service, represent our country abroad. No person should be appointed to represent the British Govern- ment, or any British concern in a foreign country, who will not be expected to maintain in his work and in his life at least as high a moral standard as he would be expected to do in this country. 23 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Ill. History oF THE DEVELOPMENT OF Mora STANDARDS IN THE WorLpD AS A WHOLE Pursuing the conception of the world as an organism in which each part has its individual functions and aptitudes, one is led inevitably to the idea that there must be certain principles applicable to the organism asa whole. For example, the human body has a nerve system common to all its parts. The more organised an organism becomes, the more closely are its separate parts inter-knotted and interconnected. Each organ developing in its own way, and obeying its own laws, nevertheless — becomes more and more subject to the rules which govern the whole. Few things are more interesting to trace in the history of the last hundred years than the gradual adoption by the world as a whole of certain principles which were not common property prior to the nineteenth century. In many different directions international moral standards have been built up and acknowledged, although the idea of an international standard had scarcely dawned upon the world a hundred years ago. A striking and notable instance of this is to be found in Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles, where the signatories of the Treaty of Peace sub- scribed to a very complete and high international standard in regard to the conditions of labour. No other part of that treaty, not even those dealing with complicated financial or engineering questions, would have so completely mystified our great grandfathers could they have read it. The elabora- tion of that standard—the work of ardent reformers 24 HIGHLY DEVELOPED COUNTRIES in many countries for several generations—is a colossal achievement, its imposition upon the world by a treaty of peace scarcely less than a miracle. From now onwards the whole world has one standard at which to aim, one set of principles to which to live up, one rule by which each part of the world can be praised or condemned in the field of labour legislation. Were this the only international moral standard that had been set up, it would by itself alone mark an epoch in human progress, but it is very far from standing by itself. ‘The first really important step was taken in the year 1815, when the Powers, assembled at Vienna at the close of the Napoleonic wars, laid down an international moral standard in regard to the slave trade. Individual nations had prior to that expressed their condemnation and renunciation of this great iniquity, but it made all the difference for the future, and for the eventual abolition of slavery itself, to have a pronouncement, as nearly as was then possible a world pronounce- ment, of a universal principle. As the nineteenth century wore on, and more especially in the final years, and in the beginning of this century, moral standards for the world have been laid down and so widely accepted as practically to render them universal. At least, any State claiming to be civilised would hesitate to declare its non-adherence to them. It is impossible to give even a brief sketch of the history of the creation of the international standards that have been attained, but even an incomplete list will give some idea of the magnitude of the work 25 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS that has already been accomplished. A thoughtful contemplation of this list should give the very greatest encouragement to those who long for more apparent progress in the world, and particularly in international relations. It is possible to state that the necessity for a common world moral standard is now recognised in the following matters, and this list does not pretend to be complete. 1. Matters of a Political Nature. The Sanctity of Treaties. The Character of Treaties. The Obligations of Recognised Law. 2. Matters of a Social Nature. The Slave Trade. The Traffic in Women and Children. The Traffic in Obscene Literature. The Traffic in Dangerous Drugs. The Traffic in Spirits in Uncivilised Countries. The Prevention and Control of Disease. 3. Matters of an Economic Nature. The Freedom of Water Communications. The Simplification of Land Communica- tions. The Freedom of Postal and Telegraphic Communications. The Conditions of Labour. The Protection of Property Rights. The Conservation of certain Natural Resources. 26 HIGHLY DEVELOPED COUNTRIES 4. Matters of Human Rights. Religious Freedom. Racial and Linguistic Freedom. Individual Liberty. §. Matters Relating to War. The Humane Conduct of War. The Crime of Aggressive War. The Abolition of the Right of Conquest. The Traffic in Arms. 6. Matters Relating to Science. Generally the right of the whole world to participate in the benefits of any beneficial scientific discovery. Not only have there been established inter- national standards in regard to all these things, but for most of them, at any rate, there have been brought into existence international organisations, to work for and to safeguard the carrying of these standards into effect. Important as it is for a country to maintain strictly the moral standard which it has achieved by itself, it is scarcely of less importance that it should not fall short of standards which the whole world has set up for itself. It would, for example, be an inexpressible pity if Great Britain refused to accept some principle in labour legislation which had been agreed to by the whole world, including representatives of Great Britain itself in a world conference. It is for public opinion to make the commission of such an injury to the world-organism 27 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS impossible by any British Government. While it is primarily the function of such organisations as the International Labour Office to bring consistent pressure to bear upon the Governments of the world to bring their national legislation up to recognised international standards, their task will be rendered immeasurably easier by the activity of an informed and energetic opinion in each country working through such agencies as the World Alliance for promoting International Friendship through the Churches and the League of Nations Union. ‘There will be very little hope of progress if nations are not constantly reminded of their best resolves and kept resolutely up to the mark. ‘‘ Whereas we have > attained by that same rule let us walk” is a maxim of the very greatest importance in the development of international morality. The establishment of the League of Nations gives promise of doing far more for the promotion of international moral standards than can have possibly been imagined by its founders. It is now open to any nation which has some principle very much at heart to initiate a world discussion of that principle and its practical bearings in the most favourable international atmosphere, and to work for its universal acceptance through machinery which is proving to be singularly adapted for just this thing. No nation can possibly be offended by a suggestion of principle from a world-body like the League of Nations, whereas it would resent, possibly most bitterly, any such suggestion from any one nation. There is thus given to every country, in the institution of the League of Nations, an opportunity 28 HIGHLY DEVELOPED COUNTRIES to work for the furtherance of international moral standards, and to work successfully for them provided that it pays great attention to the beams in its own eyes. Great Britain very specially has need of the greatest circumspection in urging moral standards on other nations. We are not so far ahead as in our self-complacency we like to imagine we are, and other nations have questioned, not without reason sometimes, our right to regard ourselves as the moral mentors of the world. Motives of self-interest were curiously mixed with philanthropy in our advocacy of the abolition of the slave trade, which reform we were by no means the first nation to urge. ‘There are several matters to-day in which we are distinctly lagging behind other nations, notably the accept- ance of the compulsory jurisdiction of the Permanent Court of International Justice. Some twenty nations, members of the League of Nations, have accepted that. To all right-minded men and women of Great Britain surely it is intolerable that as many as twenty nations in the world should be more willing than we to renounce the weapon of force in favour of the decrees of justice. The whole-hearted and unequivocal acceptance by our country of the compulsory powers of the World’s Court would go far to establishing a world moral standard in regard to the use of force in the settle- ment of international disagreements. = INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IV.» Tue Tasxs oF THE FuTuRE It is, of course, not possible to make a complete list of those matters in regard to which there is at present no international moral standard, but the following suggestions are made of the directions in which progress should be aimed at : Armaments. Race equality. The use of the world’s material resources. The standard of life. The standard of educational opportunity. These are all questions of very great magnitude and they are questions which Great Britain by virtue of the peculiar nature of her Empire might well take the lead in solving. We are still very far from the recognition of standards in these matters within the Empire. It might be easier indeed to arrive at a world standard in regard, say, to race equality than on an Empire standard. It is perhaps galling for us to admit it, but it is nevertheless true that an international body on which Frenchmen and Japanese sit is much more likely to arrive at a standard in regard to race equality than an Imperial Conference. Even more so perhaps is this true in regard to the use of the world’s raw materials. It so happens that the greater part of them are in Anglo-Saxon hands. Does not that fact in itself constitute a very serious handicap to the elaboration of a just standard by Anglo-Saxon minds alone? Even should it not result in anything immediately 30 HIGHLY DEVELOPED COUNTRIES practical, it would be interestingly illuminating, it would set the whole world thinking, were this question to be fully and frankly discussed by the League of Nations. So far the British Empire has tended to resist any such discussion. Possibly the time is not yet ripe, the economic position of the world is still too upset and the future too nebulous, but it is impossible to exaggerate the effect upon those countries poor in raw material, and desperately uncertain as to their means of procuring it, were Great Britain to initiate a world examination of the question, thereby exhibiting at least a willingness to consider the merits of a solution from a world point of view. It may be quite impossible to lay down “ Chris- tian ” principles in regard to any particular economic question, such, for example, as the right to a monopoly; but it is possible surely to say from a Christian point of view that it is right to seek a world solution of all these problems. The oppor- tunity of doing this has literally never been vouch- safed to the world before: there was no machinery by which it could be done: the machinery now exists, not perfect certainly, but workable, and it is essentially the duty of the Christian Church to urge that the machinery be tried and used. One of the greatest problems that the world and _ each nation has to face to-day is that of armaments. It is not one for which any nation by itself can find its own solution, for a nation’s armaments depend to some extent at least on those of its neighbours. It is one, however, eminently suitable for a world solution, and it was rightly handed over by the Peace 31 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Conference to the League of Nations. Only one thing is required in order that the League should resolve this great difficulty, namely, a complete willingness on the part of every nation to accept a world solution of the problem. ‘The solution which the League of Nations may in due course recommend may not come up to the standard which certain pacific nations have already set for themselves. ‘This is a small matter, each nation is entitled to do better than the world as a whole, and once a world standard has been reached, it becomes a matter of com- . paratively little difhculty to raise it. In the deliberations of the League, the Scandinavian nations, for example, have set most admirable precedents in agreeing to resolutions which fall much short of their own wishes in order to achieve unanimity. The world will progress slowly if it moves all together, but as a world it will not progress at all if one part is retreating while the other is advancing. It would appear then that by far the most im- portant contribution which any nation can make towards the solution of at least some of the great world problems is to work whole-heartedly for a world effort at their solution. It is not within the wisdom of any man or of the able men of any one nation to say what these solutions are likely to be. To believe that such solutions are possible, that they will be practicable and wise, calls for great faith, faith in the world and the Providence that guides it. But not only does this seem the best way, it appears to be the only way. It is surely a way which the Church can extol and urge, for until recent years in 32 HIGHLY DEVELOPED COUNTRIES Christianity alone could be found the conception and the faith that the world was one, and that we were all members one of another. V. Specrat Notre on INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES IN TRADE AND COMMERCIAL RELA- TIONS 1. The Christian conception of duty towards one’s neighbour.—Within the limits of a single town or country, those who accept the Christian conception of duty towards one’s neighbour are fully prepared to admit its personal application. Legislation and public opinion, not merely religious opinion, has now accepted the view that in an increasing range of activities the personal responsibility of each man or woman for the well-being of his or her neighbour may best and, in many cases, can only be discharged by the corporate action of the community. ‘The civilised world to-day is in many material respects much more a corporate community than this country was say a hundred years ago. Finance, commerce and industry are in no sense limited by national boundaries. They are international in their scope and activities. Modern improvements in methods of communication have brought the ends of Europe physically nearer to each other than were London and Edinburgh a century or so ago. In matters of art, science, of ideas, of sport, boundaries have ceased to have any importance. Not only the Roman Catholic Church, but the Eastern Church and thevarious Protestant Churches overstep national D 33 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS boundaries and link individuals in different nations one to another. It is impossible, therefore, to assume that the Christian conception of duty towards one’s neighbour is in any way affected by the chance that a neighbour may happen to live on this side or on that of the North Sea or English Channel. ‘The bearing of the parable of the Good Samaritan on this hardly needs emphasis. 2. Ihe international application—The problem is to work out the implications of this in the relations. between men and women in one country and men and women in another, both in their individual and corporate capacity, and especially in relation to trade and commerce. Broadly it seems clear that the moral principles accepted as applicable to commercial and economic relations between individuals in this country apply as between individuals in one country and those in another. Nor can any difference be admitted as to the purpose of industry and the principles on which it should be conducted, whether viewed from the national or the international standpoint. 3. Industry 15 an international service.—Industry must be regarded as a service. Profit may or may not be a necessary incident of that service. It certainly cannot be regarded as its primary purpose. International trading institutions and transactions — must be tested, not by the amount of profit they yield to British subjects or to the British Exchequer, but by the service they render to humanity. Diplomatic and other methods of pushing national claims to concessions, trading privileges, etc. with- 34 HIGHLY DEVELOPED COUNTRIES out regard to the general interest of the civilised community as a whole, or of the particular countries from whom they are demanded, can have no moral justification. Competition between individuals and between nations may be, and often is, a healthy method of securing the best service. But rivalry and expansion for the purpose of national advantage and profit cannot be regarded as a justifiable objective of national policy. ‘Tested thus, the policy of the European Governments in the Near East and in Central Asia and, at various periods, in China, is open to serious question. ‘The attitude of the Washington Conference towards China points a better way. The bearing of this on general commercial policy in relation to foreign trade, tariffs, etc. needs consideration. ‘Tariffs, bounties, etc. designed to stimulate and assist trade may in many circumstances be justifiable, but since they must affect legitimate trading activities and economic conditions in other countries, these effects should be taken into account before decisions are made. Action, which ignores their effect on other people, can hardly be regarded as in accordance with Christian principles. In this respect, individual States, in relation to the whole community of nations, are in the same position as individual citizens in an organised community. As a first step towards the general acceptance and realisation of this point, it is obviously desirable that Christian nations should consider the effect of their action on other nations, before embarking on lines of policy whose results are immediately and specially felt outside their own borders. 35 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 4. Application to trusts, monopolies, etc.—The protection of those unable to protect themselves has always been regarded as a Christian duty. Physical violence is less to be feared than economic injustice. The question of international labour legislation against low wages and unfair conditions is dealt with elsewhere. But Governments and individuals should recognise, on the one hand, that no national assist- ance of a diplomatic or any other character should be given to those who would profiteer at the expense of others, whether at home or abroad, and, on the other, that all support should be given to positive schemes of an international kind designed to prevent ex- ploitation by controlling or supervising trusts, monopolies, etc. Exploitation and _ profiteering acquire no virtue when perpetrated on the foreigner rather than on one’s own countrymen. VI. Specrat Notre on THE CONSTRUCTIVE PREVENTION OF WAR War as the method of settling disputes is clearly at variance with these conceptions of Christian international relations. With this view the con- science of mankind is already in agreement, though much scepticism prevails as to the practical means of preventing war. Christian efforts should be directed to the creation of such international public opinion and such international relations that war is really impossible. Organised Christianity, with this great object in view, should strive its utmost to eradicate all fundamental or even temporary causes 36 HIGHLY DEVELOPED COUNTRIES of dispute, and to fill mankind with the conviction of the desirability of replacing envy-creating com- petition by co-operation in the general interest for the good of all nations. National envy of the prosperity of other peoples has no place in Christian motives. Just as the prosperity of Manchester is essential to that of Liverpool, so the prosperity and peace of other countries is vital to the happiness of every country. The adoption of the principles set out above must involve a weakening and in many respects a breaking down of national boundaries. This is a result which need excite no special alarm. ‘The doctrine of national sovereignty is a comparatively late invention. It has served its purpose in securing individual liberty and in the political and economic expansion of the nineteenth century. It is time, however, now that patriotism as a human motive should give place to wider conceptions. For many centuries the Christian Church was a super- national force making for the unity of civilisation. Christianity, which is still the greatest universal influence in civilised life, should definitely range itself on the side of frank recognition in political. relations and political machinery of the essential unity of the interests of all peoples, which the development of finance, communications, industry, etc. has already gone a long way to accomplish. 37 CHAPTER III RELATIONS BETWEEN HIGHLY DEVELOPED AND LESS DEVELOPED NATIONS ‘us . ie ~~ «€ 4 ’ ‘ aly ry 7 é ‘ ry /ay ae * yh) 1 y fp eh By CHAPTER III RELATIONS BETWEEN HIGHLY DEVELOPED AND LESS DEVELOPED NATIONS I. Poxuiticat aNnp Economic RELATIONS Hicuty developed countries have in the majority of cases occupied undeveloped areas for one of two reasons: Political or Strategic and Economic. 1. Political or Strategic—Undeveloped areas have been occupied for political or strategic reasons either because the occupying Power has wished to estab- lish a military port or base in a certain area, or to obtain political influence in the area for strategic purposes, or in order militarily to safeguard the route to another of its possessions—for example, the Suez Canal—or to deny to another Power the strategic use of an area, or finally, and perhaps most com- monly, because a certain area lies contiguous to territory already in possession of the Great Power, and the latter, owing to absence of public security or for some other such reason, deems it “‘ expedient ”’ to extend the frontier of the territory in question to embrace the “‘ disaffected ”’ area. It was in this manner that most undeveloped areas were occupied during the ‘‘ Age of Grab,” when the nations of Europe were building up their Colonial Empires and occupying military and naval bases in foreign lands and seas, the better to be able tocompete with their 41 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS European “ rivals.’ ‘That this policy is still preva- lent to-day the Peace Treaties following the war afford ample evidence. 2. Economic.—Highly developed nations have, in the past, occupied areas belonging to less developed peoples in order to provide markets for their manu- factured goods and raw materials for their manu- factures. ‘They have then treated such areas as close preserves, and the trade with them as a monopoly against other European ! nations and even against the inhabitants of the areasin question. ‘The labour of the inhabitants has been exploited to obtain the raw materials without any corresponding benefit accruing to them, and they have often been forced to take the manufactures of the home countries rather than those emanating from other and possibly cheaper sources. There has been a third class of occupation which may be called Indirect Occupation, brought about by the enterprise of private individuals or Corporations who, having exploited an undeveloped area, find its administration beyond their capacity and call in the Mother Country to take it over for a considera- tion. In all these cases it may be said that the motive has been primarily that of self-interest, and secondarily only that of the interests of the ‘local inhabitants. In some cases, indeed, the conse- quences have been to the advantage of the latter; for example, although economic reasons took us to 1 Throughout this chapter, the term European is used of the Highly Developed Nations, as the Conference is held in a European land, It is, however, fully realised that the problems dealt with concern the United States, the British Overseas Dominions and Japan no less than European nations. 42 LESS DEVELOPED NATIONS India and strategic to Egypt, an impartial critic would probably not deny that the peoples of both countries have benefited by our administration. Now, in the age when it was conceived that the acquisition of territory for whatever reason con- ferred power and prestige on the occupying nation, this policy of grab was intelligible if not intelligent. But we have now learnt—even if we have not yet put our experience into practice—that this acquisi- tive policy inevitably leads to war between nations, and that however numerous the overseas possessions of a European Power, they can but provide a com- paratively small market for its goods, whereas it is the closing of the European market as a result of international rivalry that ruins trade and causes poverty. Let it be assumed that the Policy of Grab has been abandoned by the European Powers ; what then should be their attitude towards un- developed areas? Before answering this, there are one or two prior questions to be considered. (1) Is the control and administration of one country by another always unjustifiable, or may such control, if wisely directed, be to the benefit of the backward country? (2) In respect primarily of the undeveloped countries, to what extent can it be argued that European communities have any right to develop or exploit resources at present undeveloped? And have the present inhabitants of under-populated or under-developed countries any irrevocable right in those countries, or are their natural riches and resources to be regarded as the common possession of the human race? 43 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS It will be.convenient to take the second point first, as the motive for occupation has been in the past and will be in the future more commonly an economic one. A general answer to the two questions asked above would seem to be, that as the whole is greater than the part and the interests of the world’s population greater than those of the inhabitants of any single area, so the interests of the part and the smaller number must be subordinated to the whole and the greater number. The population of the world is increasing rapidly ; its needs are multiplying in even greater proportion. Raw materials are necessary to meet this growth, and as the raw materials of the older countries become exhausted, it seems difficult to contend that the raw materials of the backward areas should be allowed to remain undeveloped. Thus to the question, “ Have European communi- ties a right to develop in backward areas resources at present undeveloped?’ the answer would seem to be, ‘* Yes—subject to certain conditions which will be specified later—European countries have the right to develop (not to exploit) resources at present undeveloped.” The answer to the question, “ Have the present inhabitants any irrevocable rights in those coun- tries? ”? would seem to be that the inhabitants of under-populated and under-developed countries have no “irrevocable rights”? to the wealth found there, but have only such rights as they share with the remainder of the world, and such rights as those to which they become entitled by reason of their “functions.” Briefly this means: that the local 44 LESS DEVELOPED NATIONS inhabitants should be accorded whatever share of the latent wealth be considered necessary to their full and proper development, present and prospec- tive. They might reasonably be entitled to a ** first charge on the property.” That there should be no rights without functions, means that the inhabitants should not, as in the case of property owners and shareholders in Europe, be regarded as sleeping partners, but that they should also work and so earn their share. ‘The share to which they would be entitled by reason of their limited ownership and their “‘ functions ” might be determined by the International Board of Control which it is proposed should administer the develop- ment activities of the area in question. ‘The local inhabitants would also obtain a “ residual ”’ benefit in that their country would presumably stand to gain by being opened up and endowed with certain opportunities and facilities for increased local trade and profit. There is a further question: ‘ If it be agreed that natural resources of paramount importance for maintaining the standard of civilised life which are at present undeveloped in Africa, ought to be made available for the world, what limitations or restric- tions designed to protect the interests, moral or material, of the native population ought to be insisted upon?” ‘This question has already in part been answered in dealing with the share of the local inhabitants of the wealth to be developed in their country. But there are important interests other than this to be safeguarded. As regards other material interests, it goes without saying that any- 45 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS thing in the nature of indentured labour should be forbidden. It has already been suggested that the local inhabitants have indeed “ functions ”’ to per- form, but they should be induced to work for a fair wage and under proper conditions. For the rest, it will suffice to say that in order that their moral and material interests may be safe- guarded, the whole policy adopted by the Inter- national Board of Control should be wholly other than that hitherto adopted by individual nations. In this respect the inhabitants most undoubtedly — have ‘‘rights”’; the country is theirs in that it is their home, and it should not be regarded as the property of the foreigners who come there for trading purposes. It is recognised that in practice © many difficulties arise. Railways and roads must be constructed, public security established and many other means adopted to attain the end in view, 1.é. the development of the country. But it is sug- gested that the means at present adopted in most cases go far beyond the needs of the case, and that they invariably have as their ultimate end the com- plete occupation of the country for the benefit of the foreigners who are engaged in the exploitation, and not for the benefit of the local inhabitants. From this cause ensues much trouble. Laws, institutions and a whole paraphernalia of Govern- ment are set up for the benefit of the Europeans ; land is appropriated for dwellings and recreations ; bars, cinemas, and all the other so-called amenities of civilisation are introduced. Gradually the country loses its local and acquires a foreign, or worse still a hybrid character. The process of 46 LESS DEVELOPED NATIONS Europeanisation in backward countries is well known, and so are its evils. ‘To avoid this it is considered that the character of the institutions and of the administration set up should be wholly determined by the conditions and requirements of the greatest number, that is, of the local inhabitants, and not by those of the favoured few, the Europeans. Gradu- ally the local inhabitants, wisely guided, will raise themselves to the standard of the new-comers (in cases where that standard is higher). But until that time, the new-comers must refrain from any interference in local customs, traditions and the mode of life of the natives, and must impose upon themselves a self-denying ordinance in respect of some of the comforts and amenities (terms in many cases synonymous with evils) to which they are accustomed at home. As regards the nature and purpose of the control established, it is not desired to enter at length into a question necessarily difficult and complicated and varying, moreover, in different cases. As to the nature of the control, perhaps it will suffice to say that the best steps to take would be to establish a municipal or local form of Government, to ensure that, in respect of their every-day lives, the local inhabitants be governed according to their ideas and needs, and that, in respect of those questions and activities affecting the exploitation, there should be an International Superstructure, in other words, a system of Reserved (to the International Board) and Transferred (to the Local Government) subjects. As to the purpose of the control, this should be undoubtedly to fit the people to govern themselves 47 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS in respect at all events of local matters ; and it would not appear to be difficult to effect this object without in any way prejudicing the development of the country by the International Board. By the system of reserved and transferred subjects mentioned above it should be possible to administer and finance the latter through the representatives of the local inhabitants and by local taxation, and as regards the former (namely, all those additional administrative and financial measures adopted for the development of the country) it would seem but proper that they — should be controlled and financed by the Inter- national Partners, a portion of the expenditure being debited if necessary to the local revenues in respect of the share of the localinhabitants. In this manner the evils which arise from attempting to impose on a backward country, whose inhabitants form a majority of the total population, a form of govern- ment devised to suit the needs of the foreigners who are in a minority, would be avoided. It is there that the shoe always pinches. The inhabitants of backward countries can to-day justifiably advance two serious complaints. One that foreigners who come to their country imme- diately and as of necessity establish the standard of efficiency in government to which they are them- selves accustomed, but which is wholly beyond the comprehension and attainment of the local inhabit- ants. Secondly, that quite logically, in order to maintain this standard they increase the number of foreign officials and make no attempt to educate the natives in the art of self-government. ‘Thus it is that self-government is either very slow in the 48 LESS DEVELOPED NATIONS coming, or, if, for political reasons, it be suddenly adopted, the local inhabitants are wholly incompe- tent to carry it out. How can we determine at what stage a country has the right to become self-governing? ‘This is a difficult question to answer, but it is suggested that at all events a condition prior to the grant of inde- pendence be, not that the “‘ backward ” country has been endowed with the administrative and cul- tured standards of a fully developed country, but rather that it should have shown a potential ability to govern its people according to their own needs. That a backward country has been given a Con- stitution and Universal Suffrage would not appear to constitute a title to independence, nor does it indicate fitness therefor. Rather the reverse is the case. It indicates in most cases supreme ignorance on the part of its native rulers of the real needs of their own country. It would appear quite sufficient to entitle such backward country to independence in the cases under consideration, where there is a local Government and an International Board, that the local Government should, on the one hand, have shown a due appreciation of the needs of its people and a competence to govern justly and humanely, and, on the other hand, should have displayed no signs of xenophobia towards the stranger within its gates. It would not thereafter be difficult to con- vert the system of reserved and transferred subjects, as obtaining between the local Government and the International Board, into a Treaty granting inde- pendence limited by the foreign obligations already incurred. What backward countries require and do £ 49 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS not at present get, is, it is believed, management of their own affairs and freedom to live their own lives. And now a word as to the International Board. This would appear to be the only system to adopt to enable the world’s undeveloped resources to be placed at the disposal of European Powers without leading to trade rivalry and ultimately to war. If ever an Economic Board of Control be established in Europe as part of the League of Nations, the local Boards of Control, set up in undeveloped areas, would be the natural offshoots of such Board. But what then, it may be asked, is the difference be- tween this system and that of the Mandate? It is suggested that it is something wholly different. In theory under the mandate system the manda- tory :—(a) Is trustee for the local inhabitants and takes charge of their country until its people are able to govern themselves. (4) Is pledged to avoid discrimination in favour of its own trade against that of other countries. In some cases, however, Mandatories would appear to have substituted Sovereignty for trusteeship, and to have furthered their own trade at the expense of both their European rivals and of the local inhabit- ants. One reason, at all events, for this is apparent. The Mandatories have incurred heavy expenditure in the mandated areas and have then not unnaturally claimed some return for their money. II. Socrat RELATIONS Having suggested what the relations from a political, economic and administrative point of view 50 LESS DEVELOPED NATIONS might be between the Greater State or States and the Backward Country, there remains the no less important and difficult question of the relations, public and private, social and personal, between the two communities and the individual members of each. These relations will necessarily vary according to place and circumstance; but there would appear to be a few fundamental principles capable of universal application. It should in the first place be recog- nised that what we call Western Civilisation with its laws and practice and conventions is not neces- sarily an improvement in every respect upon Eastern Civilisation. To assume that it is in every respect better and to act on that assumption results in a double evil. It leads to the introduction from the West into the East of positive evils or undesirable practices ; secondly, to the weakening and finally the disappear- ance of good and desirable practices, the heritage of the “backward” people. One or two examples may be cited. There is the question of Hospitality. The need for offering hospitality to friends or strangers is no longer as urgent in the West as it used to be. Modern conveniences of accommodation and com- munication, etc., enable travellers to make pro- vision for themselves. A sort of artificial hospi- tality, a relic of the natural custom, has therefore grown up and too often consists of a vulgar ostenta- tion or the supply of liquor, not for the purpose of refreshing the weary traveller, but because it is con- ventional or, possibly, because it stimulates the 5t INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS conversation which would otherwise be lacking. The desirable practice of literally feeding the hun- gry and clothing the naked has given place to the less desirable practice of doing one’s friends well. In the East, hospitality is still for the most part natural and takes a practical form because it is needed. But the artificial Western form is being gradually introduced and the European’s good feel- ings, if he has any, are not infrequently shocked by being offered a whisky and soda by his Eastern host, not so much because it comes natural to the latter to do so, as because he feels the guest expects it of him, and he wishes to show he is up-to-date and civilised. Eastern hospitality is indeed at times profusely lavish, but it must be remembered that it is offered out of respect to the guest, and is a natural form of the prevailing custom. Then there is the question of family life, the responsibility of parents and children towards one another. Without going into a detailed examina- tion of different economic conditions obtaining in West and East and their causes and consequences, it may be said in general terms that Western legisla- tion and practice now tends to substitute State and private provision for old persons and children for the assistance, originally and naturally made by children for their parents in old age, and by parents for their children in adolescence. In the East, provision is still made by one genera- tion for the other and is regarded as a natural obligation, and any failure to perform it brings obloquy on the delinquent. New economic condi- §2 LESS DEVELOPED NATIONS tions are unfortunately altering this. But these family virtues are still worth preserving and would seem to approximate closer to the teaching of the New Testament than does the practice now followed in the West. Then there is the question of women. A super- ficial knowledge of the condition of women in the East leads many well-meaning reformers, especially women, to desire to liberate their poor sisters, and to introduce them to what they believe to be a better and a brighter life. ‘There is indeed ample room for reform. Such questions as child-marriage and divorce, in most Eastern lands, stand in urgent need of reform. But it is necessary to proceed carefully, partly because conditions in the East vary utterly from those obtaining in the West, and partly and perhaps chiefly because unless the reforms are carefully introduced there creep in many abuses and evil consequences. Where, however, it is a matter of introducing more scientific knowledge, ¢.g. regarding the care of children, the prevention of disease, and the adoption of sanitary measures, reformers are on safe ground, and the field for improvement is unlimited. As regards the personal and social relations which should obtain between the members of the Western and Eastern communities, the question is difficult. It may perhaps be laid down as a general principle, that colour, as such, should be no bar to personal and social intercourse. If there be destinctions which it is necessary to observe, it is not seen why they should differ from those found convenient in any Western country. But apart from this the idea that the white 53 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS man loses caste by having friendly relations with the native, is not only an erroneous but an extremely mischievous one. A greater man than any used to associate with publicans and sinners and with each and all the members of what must have been a very mixed Society inthe days of the Roman administra- tion of Palestine. He certainly lost no caste in the eyes of these humble folk, although He shocked the feelings of the Scribes and Pharisees. And so now, the good Christian need have no ~ fear of losing anything by such contact, while the opportunities for giving and receiving much are immeasurable. In point of fact it has ever been found that the white man who is known amongst his own people as a “‘ gentleman ”’ can safely partici- pate in the work and play of the native com- munity in which he finds himself. The undesirable Westerner should return to his own country. He corrupts the native and debases the civilisation of the country to which he belongs. Furthermore the attitude of mind, very common among Englishmen, which despises or ridicules the mode of life and habits of the members of other races is one of the main causes of social discontent and political dis- affection in many backward countries administered by Europeans. Its negative form is exclusiveness, its positive form is to deny to members of the local community the use of the European clubs and other places of recreation. This attitude is not only impolitic but is essentially unchristian. Another difficult problem is that of Education. To deny to backward peoples the advantages of education is wrong and retards their progress: to 54 LESS DEVELOPED NATIONS give them an unsuitable kind of education is also wrong and may well lead to retrogression. It all turns upon what is meant by Education. It is suggested that in the circumstances envisaged, the education given should be such as is calculated to make its recipients good citizens of the country in which they dwell; and that the attempt to give them an education suitable for life in a western and more advanced country should be avoided. As local conditions improve so can the nature of the education given be adapted to meet that progress. But too advanced a system of education has much the same effect on a backward people as champagne has on children. Milk is the best diet to starton. ‘This question is complicated by the fact that in most backward countries there is now a small class, usually known as the “ intelligentsia,’’ who demand the latest thing that Europe can give in the way of education. ‘Those administering a backward country are very apt to fall into the error of setting the standard of education given, by the needs of the minority, urged thereto by their insistence, and not by those of the majority. As already stated, to feed the mind of backward people with intellectual matter, which they are not yet able to assimilate, is fraught with grave consequences to all concerned. Nevertheless, the minority must be provided for. If they cannot obtain the higher education they demand in their own country, they will resort to Europe and there imbibe not only the book-learning they desire, but much else that is evil. It appears necessary therefore, and indeed it is a duty to provide higher education for those capable 55 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS of assimilating it, partly because it is wrong to deny it to them, and partly because there is a direct advantage to be gained by so doing. ‘That advan- tage can be obtained, on condition that employment for those, who have received such a training, be found. One of the greatest dangers in a backward country is the presence there of a class of young person who has received an European training but also has no means of utilising it. Scope should be found, therefore, wherever possible for these young people in the administration and development of their own country. The practice of administration and the responsibilities and duties it carries with it has a most broadening and sobering effect. Further- more, by including those members of the native population, who are fitted for it in the Civil Service of the country, another great and most common evil is avoided, namely the retention of all legislative and executive power in the hands of the Westerners, with the inevitable result that the administration becomes more and more estranged from the needs and sympathies of the natives, and the day of self- government is definitely postponed. The general principles then which it seems should guide us, as individuals and as a community of Western race in a backward country, are that we should not act as though our ideas and conventions and practices were of necessity and in all respects better than those of the individuals and community amongst whom and in which we find ourselves ; that we should seek to preserve, rather than uproot, what is good and that we should be careful lest we introduce what is evil. Secondly, that 56 LESS DEVELOPED NATIONS where innovations, be they social, cultural, or administrative, do appear to be desirable, it should be remembered that they should be introduced in a gradual manner, and in proportion to the progress made by the native population, and their capacity to enjoy and benefit by them. 57 ie (i sie CHAPTER IV THE POSITION OF RACIAL MINORITIES CHAPTER IV THE POSITION OF RACIAL MINORITIES Ovr general aim is to seek a basis, founded upon Christian principles, for the relations of majorities and minorities within a political community. But we have felt obliged to restrict the scope of our consideration to the “ Minority Problem ”? com- monly so named, 2. é. to the class of minorities dealt with under the new Treaties (1919-1923) since the war. There are the racial, religious, or linguistic minorities inhabiting the various States of Central Europe and the Near East. Consequently, we are unable to deal here with the historical aspect of the question—the rights of “aliens” in antiquity, the development of religious toleration in modern times, the régime of the “‘ Capitulations ”? in the Levant, or with other contemporary problems such as the rights of Conscientious Objectors (Quakers and War Service; Doukhobors and the communal ownership Or yangectc..ctc.). I. Tue Present SiTuATION 1. Gravity of the problem.—Because we restrict our present review to the problems of Central Europe and the Near East, we do not mean to imply that any of the Great Powers are free from guilt in 61 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS their treatment of minorities. But there is no ques- tion that the minority problem, at the present time, is most urgent in those regions above named, or that it constitutes there the most serious menace to the peace of the world. ‘There is no more fertile cause of dissensions and wars than the grievances, usually real but not infrequently exaggerated, of racial or religious or linguistic minorities. It is a delicate enough subject to handle when the minorities form a small fraction of an established and firmly-based State. When, asin half a dozen countries in Europe and the Near East to-day, they constitute a large and formidable hostile faction in a country, which either did not exist at all, or existed in some quite > other form, before the war, the task of endeavouring to improve relations between the dominating section and the dominated makes as heavy a draft as could be conceived on goodwill, sound judgment, and restraint. 2. The Peace Treaties and particular grievances.— By “‘ Minorities’? we mean communities, whether dwelling in a definite area or more or less scattered in a territory, who differ in race, religion, or language from the majority of the inhabitants of the country, those communities, however, being citizens of the State concerned. In reference to the minorities whose circumstances are a cause of unrest and dis- satisfaction in Central Europe and the Near East, they are distinct both in race and language, and often also in religion, from the majority of their new fellow-citizens. The break-up of Austria and Hungary, and the separation of districts from Ger- many and Russia, resulted in the creation of new 62 RACIAL MINORITIES States, in the annexation of large provinces to already existing States, and this involved the enforced transference from one Power to another of the allegiance of vast numbers. ‘The principle governing in the main this reconstruction of the Map of Europe was that known as the “ Right of self-determination.”’ ‘This was intended to secure that people of the same nationality should be united under some one national government, and, so far as this could be carried out, it satisfied the spirit of nationalism and tended to solve the vexed question of “‘ Minorities.”” But unfortunately there was no homogeneous land that could be so easily handled, and while a majority, and even a great majority, of residents in a territory might be of the same language, race, and tradition, there were, side by side with these, large populations whose sympathies, speech, and racial affinities were all with those from whom the fortune of war had severed them. The case of Transylvania and the Banat, ceded from Hungary to Roumania, is a typical instance of this. The application of the principle of “ self- determination ” was rendered the more difficult by the fact that while there are districts where the population is preponderantly of one nationality, in the main, these are so widely distributed that one village is found to be Roumanian and the neigh- bouring village Hungarian. It must be admitted also that the obligations involved in secret treaties and the demand for strategical frontiers seriously modified the carrying out of the principle in several instances, and created more minorities. It is also to be borne in mind that this settlement was mainly 63 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS and inevitably a case of “‘the spoils to the con- querors,” and that only in a very few cases was any plebiscite taken to ascertain the wishes of the in- habitants, and that, even then, the decision of the majority did not always take effect. In Turkey, the question of the Minorities was solved in part by massacre, in part by “‘exchange of population.” Thus the treaties, while they assuredly suppressed certain injustices, maintained a good many of the former ones, and also created new ones. All these treaties were, so far as clauses affecting — minorities were concerned, on the same lines. ‘They stipulated for protection of life and liberty and free exercise of religion as rights common to all; they conceded to all residents in a land where the treaty came into force the privilege of nationalisation ; they insisted on equality before the law and in admission to public services, on free use of the mother tongue in social and business life, in religious services, in the press and public meetings and in courts of law; on the liberty to maintain at their own expense schools and charitable and religious institutions ; on the right to instruction in their own mother tongue in the State primary schools in localities where minorities were a large element in the population, and to a fair share in any grants given by the Government or by municipalities for educational, religious, or charitable ends. These are very admirable provisions, and it is a matter of congratulation that on this score there is no quarrel with the treaties. ‘The leaders of the minorities, and indeed enlightened men of all parties, admit that the carrying out of these clauses, 64 RACIAL MINORITIES in the letter and in the spirit, would conduce to contentment and loyal citizenship. It is difficult to see what more statesmanship and forethought could have done than these clauses and this mode of procedure secure. ‘The treaties were not signed without protest, and this generally turned on an alleged infringement of a State’s sovereignty, or on the allegation that acceptance was a badge of inferiority, as all other States did not voluntarily adopt the same obligations. ‘The answer given was that the public law of Europe had long made it a condition of the recognition of new States, or of enlarged States by the great Powers, that these accept certain principles of government, and that the only difference in the present arrangement was that the guarantee was now vested, not in the Great Powers, but in the League of Nations. As, how- ever, these principles are the axioms of political freedom in all civilised communities, there seems no valid reason why they should not be universally adopted, since they are carried out by all enlightened States. The only instance where mutual obliga- tions have been ratified formally is in the special case of Upper Silesia, where Germany and Poland have accepted parallel obligations. Whether the treaties are as effective in practice as they are excellent in theory is unfortunately open to grave doubt. There has been one reference of a dispute as to the interpretation of the treaties to the Permanent Court of International Justice, where Poland was confiscating the property and expelling Germans from the country on the plea that their tenure was illegal. The Court has decided against 65 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Poland, but how far that decision has had practical effect isnot known. Itisalsoa fact beyond challenge that in all these countries where such treaties operate, there is hardly a considerable minority, if indeed there be one, which is not dissatisfied, and in several countries they are embittered by alleged violations of the treaty conditions. ‘These grievances vary greatly in character, and if allowance is made for offended national sympathies, there is probably little that time and patience on both sides will not heal in most of the “‘ Treaty” lands; but in the more serious cases, they turn mainly on the question of language and schools, and it is with these graver instances we are concerned. Not religious zeal, but an intense nationalism is the source from which spring the disabilities and hardships inflicted on minorities. ‘This causes an intense enthusiasm for the State speech, which is a foreign tongue to vast numbers of the new citizens, » and an intolerance of or only a grudging toleration of other languages. Names of towns and streets are changed; no other than the speech of the State is allowed in the law courts; teachers in schools are, after a short respite, compelled to pass an examina- tion in the new national tongue; the mother tongue of the minorities is more and more subordinated to the State speech. All this is but a continuation and aggravation of practices from which the present majorities suffered under a former régime. It is much more agreeable to the natural man to be guided by the rule to do to others as you have been done by, than to follow the golden rule of doing to others as you would be done by. Bad as these con- 66 RACIAL MINORITIES ditions may have been in the past, there are many cases where it is universally affirmed that they are much worse now. ‘This means that the schools of minorities, in the view of those to whom they are dear, live a threatened life. It must be remembered that these are entirely supported by the contribu- tions of the members of the minorities, and are regarded as vital both for the preservation of the speech of their fathers and of their Church life. II. PrincipLes We have stated the problem in outline; our next duty is to inquire—What is the Christian rule of life? and what does its application require of majorities and minorities in their relations to one another ? All we can do is to indicate the enormous extent of this problem. Obviously men are only beginning to learn how to live together! The twentieth cen- tury must find a new principle of association. In the precepts and in the example of Jesus Christ, the law of unselfish human neighbourliness is clearly fundamental. ‘‘ Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” As members of one family, individuals, groups and nations will realise themselves, and achieve maturity in proportion as they rise out of the self-seeking, particularist attitude of mind which is commonest to-day. The old ways have failed to give value, either to the individual or to the group ; and the tendency of recent political thought reveals itself in a reaction against the State and a con- centration upon the multiple group life. 67 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS The true relation of individual to group, and of individual and the group to the State—these are matters which cannot be settled in a day or even in a generation. In our haste we demand a machine- made plan which can be set going by merely pressing the button. But who will produce the plan? The League of Nations? We are asking the impossible. All this is a matter of growth, a process which may occupy the whole of the twentieth century. But perhaps there is more in the Christian idea of ‘“‘neighbourliness’’ than we have imagined. In any case, there are political thinkers to-day who maintain that we must get back in politics to ** neighbourhood groups,” and that it is only through such groups that the individual can take his place and fulfil his creative function in the State. What we desire to point out is that the present stipulations of the Minority Treaties are really a makeshift ; they do not in any final sense solve the problem of the true relation of a group to the State. They ask for “toleration,” and so far, so good; but mere toleration is insufficient. No solu- tion can be satisfactory which does not allow for the creative functioning of each group or minority within a State. Much may be learned in this respect from the experience of America. One recent writer says: ‘‘ Our different immigration theories show clearly the growth of the community idea. First came the idea of amalgamation: our primary duty to all people coming to America was to assimi- late them as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. The people reacted against the melting-pot theory, and said, ‘ No, we want all the Italians have to offer, RACIAL MINORITIES all the Syrians can give us, the richness of these different countries and civilisations must not be engulfed in ours.’ So separate colonies were advo- cated, separate organisations were encouraged. Many articles were written and speeches made to spread this thought. But now a third idea is emerging—the community 1dea. We do not want Swedes and Poles to be lost in an undifferentiated whole, but equally we do not want all the evils of the separatist method; we are trying to get an articulated whole. We want all these different peoples to be part of a true community—giving all they have to give and receiving equally. Only by a mutual permeation of ideals shall we enrich their lives and they ours.” 4 The problem to-day is the discovery of the kind of federalism which will make the parts live fully in the whole, the whole live fully in the parts. III. RECOMMENDATIONS Having indicated briefly the magnitude of this unsolved problem, we must now revert to the imme- diate matter of the Peace Treaties, and of how the existing machinery may be rendered effective and how it may be improved. Special mention should be made of the subject of frontiers. What is most needed in order to achieve the contented settling down of the minorities in Eastern Europe is the promotion of such measures—cultural, economic, political, and military—as would tend to make 1 The New State, by M. P. Follett, p. 106. 69 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS frontiers matter less than they do. This could be achieved to some extent by equalising the treatment of minorities on different sides of frontiers. ‘The Minorities Treaties constitute an important step in the right direction, but they are not yet being faith- fully carried out, and they do not go far enough. In order to be fully effective they should be made of universal application in all countries that are members of the League of Nations. The aim of all legislation for minorities should be complete equality of treatment; anything else is harmful to the majority as well as to the minority concerned. It is satisfactory that each State which has accepted the minority clauses recognises them as fundamental laws of the country. And there is still a more important characteristic of these stipulations. They differ in form from earlier conventions dealing with similar questions. This change of form is a consequence of the new system of international relations inaugurated by the establishment of a League of Nations. Formerly the guarantee for such provisions was vested in certain Great Powers ; under the new system the guarantee is entrusted to the League, and disputes arising out of the provi- sions in question are to be submitted to the Inter- national Court of Justice. ‘The procedure of bring- ing grievances before the League needs to be made simpler and more precise. ‘Thus, as far as possible, disputes will be removed from the political to the legal sphere—a fact which should facilitate impartial decisions. But the League of Nations in its stewardship can only work by moral suasion, and needs the support 70 RACIAL MINORITIES of public opinion. With a stronger public opinion behind it, the League would be able to set up a permanent Minorities Commission, one of whose duties should be to evolve a Common Law for Minorities. It has been suggested that the different minorities should themselves institute a Commusston for co-operative action which would be in direct contact with the League of Nations, both in regard to the building up of a Minorities Code and to the settlement of particular disputes. The “ National Council of the World Alliance for Promoting International Friendship through the Churches”? can do something in these lands by bringing men of good-will, Christians of different confessions together for common counsel and com- mon action, The “ League of Nations Union” has a committee on minorities, and urges closer supervision by the League of Nations, and at the same time does what it can to increase the influence of the League in its guardianship of the rights of minorities. Every encouragement needs to be given to the leaders of minorities to make known the con- ditions under which they labour in frank friendly communication to those in closest ecclesiastical fellowship with them in other lands, and especially in Britain and America. ‘The treatment of minori- ties will provide the acid test for discovering the stage of political freedom reached in these lands where the problem presses. If Christian men are to fulfil their own responsibility for the preservation of the peace of the world and the removal of those causes that imperil it, they must take pains to inform themselves on the facts, and that will be 71 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS greatly helped by all that draws all sections of the Church of Christ into closer fellowship. If eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, certainly publicity is needed to keep public opinion informed and alert. The obvious duty is to bring our influence and our nation’s influence to bear in order to secure the fulfilment in the letter and in the spirit of these treaties that safeguard the rights of minorities. 72 CHAPTER V INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND RELIEF AND RECONSTRUCTION i bs a CHAPTER V INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND RELIEF AND RECONSTRUCTION In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ commanded all Christians to do unto others as they would that others should do to them; in the parable of the Good Samaritan He showed that charity should not be confined to one’s own people, and finally He summed up the Law and the Prophets in the two great Commandments, “‘ Love God” and “‘ Love thy neighbour.” ‘The second great commandment is the principle, and the only principle, upon which international relations can be based by Christians. Through Early Christian and medizval times on into the nineteenth century, the Church has always in some form or other recognised its duty in the matter of charity, even beyond the bounds set by nationality or race, though she cannot be acquitted of failure to recognise and seize opportunity. From the early nineteenth century onwards charitable relief from one nation to another has developed in four well-marked stages. 1. The phase of private enterprise-—During this stage the action of the Church as such and of Chris- tian people is marked. ‘The Evangelical Revival had its fruits in the suppression of slavery and the slave trade: the work of the Society of Friends lay behind the Prison Reform movements. 75 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS The pioneer agency in all forms of international relief and social service has been the foreign missionary enterprise. In the Orient, and Africa and the Near East, the establishment of hospitals and dispensaries, the training of doctors and nurses, although later on taken up on a large scale by Governments, was initiated almost exclusively by the foreign missionary societies. Other phases of relief pioneered by missionary societies have been industrial missions and orphanages, often the direct result of famines. Private enterprise of the Churches, however, has’ never been sufficient to cope with such disasters. In the case of India, the Government has had to step in and, by establishing famine works and dis- tribution of food, to supplement private enterprise. During the war and post-war period there have been not a few examples of relief on a large scale attempted by the Churches as such. ‘The most out- standing example has been the work of the Society of Friends in Relief and Reconstruction all over Europe, Russia and the Near East. Between 1914 and 1923 the British Society of Friends raised and distributed from Friends and other Christian people money and gifts in kind amounting to £2,000,000. In giving specific facts throughout this paper we are selecting for illustration, and in no way pre- tend to give an exhaustive list of relief enterprises under any headings. 2. The phase of non-Governmental public enter- prise.—The devoted work of Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War, 1854, led to the foundationof the Red Cross Societies in 1870. Special Relief Funds have been raised over and over again for various 76 RELIEF AND RECONSTRUCTION crises in the Orient. The City of London has fre- quently taken the lead in international charity, e. g. the Mansion House Fund for famine and earth- quake sufferers in Japan, 1906; Messina, 1909; floods in Paris, 1910; sufferers from the Balkan War, 1913, and funds for war sufferers in Russia, France, Italy, and Belgium, 1914-18. War and post-war conditions have led to immense developments in public relief enterprise on a scale unknown before.} In the United States the American Relief Adminis- tration and the American Red Cross during and since the war have raised and administered on behalf of the distressed areas of Europe hundreds of millions of dollars. A large public fund can usually raise money more quickly and administer it more speedily and efh- ciently than in the case of private enterprise. ‘The Churches, while in certain cases not abandon- ing their own relief enterprises, have shown a sense of the best way to fulfil Christ’s command to feed the hungry, by encouraging their members to give through public funds and by allowing appeals to be made for these public funds in the congregations. 3. Lhe phase of Government relief enterprise.— Governments acting as such can meet a crisis more speedily and efficiently than even large non- Governmental efforts, ¢. g. a Government can com- mand the services of its soldiers, sailors, ships, rail- ways, etc. to convey relief. It is scarcely realised 1'To give but one British fexample, the British Red Cross raised and distributed between ,October 1914 and June 30, 1920, no less a sum than (21,885,035. 77 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS how much in the war and post-war period has been done by the Governments as such for the relief of suffering. Not long after the Armistice, the Italian Govern- ment voted for the relief of suffering in Austria. At the end of 1919, the Argentine Republic asked its Congress for authority to expend nearly £1,250,000 on behalf of Vienna. By June 21, 1920, the British Government had allocated: (1) £13,017,414 in the form of advances to Govern- ments for relief and reconstruction; (2) £473,293 in the form of free gifts to various approved relie societies, under the {1 for £1 system, by which the British Government doubled contributions to the approved societies. Belgium, Austria, Roumania, Czecho-slovakia, Jugoslavia, Serbia, Poland, Esthonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Montenegro, Armenia, and Palestine all benefited. Immediately after the Armistice, the U.S.A. Government placed: $100,000,000 (gold) at Mr. Hoover’s disposal for distribution through the American Relief Administration in Central Europe, and during the Russian famine Congress granted $20,000,000 and $4,000,000 worth of medical supplies to the same. In 1921, during the famine, the Japanese Government gave China 500,000 bushels of rice. In some of these cases the money or goods were given in the form of a loan, but were ~ none the less in a real sense international relief. 4. The phase of international enterprise —Inter- national relief effort, whether non-Governmental or Governmental, possesses certain advantages over any form of national effort, private, public, or 78 RELIEF AND RECONSTRUCTION governmental. An international effort presup- poses international organisation, and where inter- national organisation already exists, in time of crisis, machinery can at once be put into operation which would otherwise have to be created. During the war, the advantage of the existence of an international Red Cross organisation was at once evident. Only its existence could have made possible, for example, the wonderful work which was done at the Red Cross Headquarters in Geneva, in obtaining information for the relatives of the im- prisoned, missing, or dead. In like manner the existence of the world’s organisation of the Y.M.C.A. enabled a remarkable social, religious, and educa- tional work to be done amongst prisoners of war and in prisoner of war camps all over the field on both sides. But by far the most striking results in the domain of international effort are those accomplished by the League of Nations. Making use of Dr. Nansen, the League organised (1) the return of prisoners of war to their different countries ; (2) the care of Russian refugees, and (3) later, after the war between Turkey and Greece, relief in the Near East. The League has also dealt with epidemic disease, the traffic in women and children, and the traffic in dangerous drugs; while the Committee on In- tellectual Co-operation is doing much to unite the universities of the world in relieving the famine of books and instruments that is threatening the intellectual ruin of Europe. Concluston.—Christian people in general have not seldom throughout history shown a sense of duty 79 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS towards their neighbour, even when that neighbour belonged to another race or nation. ‘The Churches have encouraged their members to take part in public enterprise for other nations. Serious weak- ness, however, in the position of the Church is manifest when we pass from the sphere of private or public non-Governmental effort to Govern- mental and international effort. Not only, to the shame of Christendom, are there still large numbers who call themselves Christians who nevertheless would refuse aid to the enemies of their nation, but, what is still more serious is the slumber of con- science which has deprived Governments and inter- national agencies of the vigorous backing of the Christian Church. ‘The Church has again and again failed in her opportunity to mould public opinion through moulding the opinion of her own members and getting them to take vigorous action. ‘Those who know the history of Dr. Nansen’s efforts in 1921 to get Governments united in contributing to Russian Famine Relief, assure us that his failure was in several instances due to the fact that Governments, while themselves willing to act, felt that they had not the support of public opinion. Without exaggeration hundreds of thousands of people died because the Russian railways were so out of repair that relief could not be got through in time. Nothing but prompt and united action on the part of Govern- ments could have provided funds and organisation of the kind which could secure the quick repair of the railways. ‘This action Nansen failed to obtain. In several instances, statesmen told him that they were anxious to act, but that the opinion of the 80 RELIEF AND RECONSTRUCTION country was not behind them. If the conscience of the Church had been aroused, she could have secured action on the part of the Governments. Contrast with this example what appears to have been the fairly intimate connection between the resolutions passed by the Federal Council of the Churches in the United States with regard to a war- less world, and the action of the United States in calling the Washington Conference to consider diminution of armaments. When the Church will, she can. It would appear, then, that Copec should seek (1) to rouse the conscience of Christian people from its sub-Christian condition in the matter of charit- able relief to alien or enemy countries; that (2) in particular it should be made clear to the Christian Church that the best way of giving in times of crisis is to secure the action of public bodies, and very specially of Governments; that (3) the strengthening of international organisations in time of peace is the best way to secure efficient inter- national relief action in war or other time of strain. We do not wish to be understood as recommend- ing that all relief enterprise should be left to Govern- ments and international bodies. ‘These can do what private enterprise can never do, but there are things of vital importance which can be accomplished better by private enterprise than by any form of non-religious public effort. Private relief enter- prise, especially when undertaken definitely in the name of Christ, can be carried on in a far more intimate and human way. Workers can be care- fully selected in relation to character. ‘Time can be given to the development of natural human G 81 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS relationships. Again, private enterprise is free from danger of suspicions always apt to attach them- selves to public, national, or Government efforts, e.g. that they are established in order to promote trade or some political end. Resutts oF INTERNATIONAL RELIEF ENTERPRISE IN PROMOTING INTERNATIONAL GOOD-WILL One would be blind indeed if one did not see the tremendous reactions of relief on the international situation. Undertaken to meet one human need, relief succeeds in meeting other and deeper needs. Nothing contributes so much to the development of good international relationships to-day as inter- national relief. China has never forgotten the fact that the Government of the United States remitted part of the Boxer indemnity and returned it to be used in promoting education. ‘The name of Hoover, and with his name his nation, is taught by mothers all over Europe to their children as the symbol of all that is friendly in international rela- tionships. Relations between Germany and other countries are strained enough, but over and over again in Germany, one has been told how far more bitter would be hatred if it had not been that the heart of Christian people in Britain and other Jands had been interpreted to German mothers and children and to professors and students through the work of the Friends and of European Student Relief. Japan will never forget that after the earth- quake, before any other nation sent help, relief was already on its way from China. 82 RELIEF AND RECONSTRUCTION Through relief, not only are hearts changed to- wards the relieving country, but in the giving countries also, relief, especially when money is raised from the young for the young, does a tremendous work of education in international understanding. The world is full of causes which may precipitate war at any moment—hatred, suspicion, prejudice and irritation ; nevertheless, in a surprising way, one finds in every country ever-increasing groups of people who, in spite of almost desperate circum- stances, do believe that disinterested love is not dead, and who, because of that faith, do not despair and do not hate. “‘'The Interpreter took Christian into a place where was a fire burning against a wall, and one standing by always casting much water upon it, yet did the fire burn higher and hotter. Then said the Interpreter: This fire is the work of grace. It is wrought in the heart. He that casteth water upon it to put it out is the Devil, but in that thou seest the fire, notwithstanding, burn higher and hotter, thou shalt see the reason. So he had him about to the back-side of the wall, where he saw a man with a vessel of oil, of the which he did also continually cast into the fire.’ Where the fire of good-will burns to-day in international relationships, the oil is the work of international relief and reconstruction. 83 ai. paphe a hea rn | F a i ; i a uf ae CHAPTER VI CHRISTIANITY AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS CHAPTER VI CHRISTIANITY AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS Wuen, on the 11th November, 1918, the World War ceased, great aspirations surged to the front. The war had been waged in order to put an end to war; millions of the best and the bravest had passed into the valley of death, happy in the belief that, through their supreme sacrifice, humanity would enter upon a new life in which all men would realise that they are brothers. Fired with this spirit, the statesmen of the Allied Powers met at Versailles, and the first document to which they set their hand was the Covenant of the League of Nations. It was a short document, of twenty-six articles of a dry and business-like char- acter; but between the lines may be read the spirit that inspired it. The preamble deserves to be quoted, as it shows the purpose of its authors. It runs as follows : “The High Contracting Parties, in order to promote international co-operation and to achieve international peace and security by the acceptance of obligations not to resort to war, by the prescription of open, just and honour- able relations between nations, 87 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS by the firm establishment of the understandings of international law as the actual rule of conduct among Governments, and by the maintenance of justice and a scrupulous respect for all treaty obligations in the dealings of organised peoples with one another, Agree to this Covenant of the League of Nations.” ‘International Co-operation”? and ‘‘ Peace”: in other words, Fellowship and Love. Then, Openness, Justice and Honour. ‘* Law as the rule of conduct.” ‘A scrupulous respect for all treaty obligations.” What are these but the laws of Christ applied to nations? Or, let us quote from the articles. By Art. 8 “the members of the League recognise that the maintenance of peace requires the reduction of national armaments”; they “‘ agree that the manu- facture by private enterprise of munitions and implements of war is open to grave objections,” and they undertake to exchange full and frank information as to the scale of their armaments. By Art. 10 the members of the League “ under- take to respect and preserve as against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all members of the League.” | By Arts. 12 and 13 the members agree that “ if there shall arise between them any dispute likely to lead to a rupture they will submit the matter either to arbitration or to inquiry by the Council,” and that they “ will carry out in full good faith any 88 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS award that may be rendered,” and will “ not resort to war against a member of the League which complies therewith.” The 14th Article required the Council of the League to formulate plans for the establishment of a Permanent Court of International Justice. ‘This has now been done, and many States have con- sented to be bound by the decision of that Court in any dispute that may arise between them. In Art. 22 are to be found provisions to secure fair treatment to the weaker races of the world. Hitherto, civilised nations have brought into the darker regions of the earth little but degradation ; but now the Covenant. declares that ‘ the well- being and development of such peoples form a sacred trust of civilisation,’? and has entrusted the tutelage of them to “ advanced nations”? who can “best undertake this responsibility.” And it is further laid down that the territories concerned must be administered ‘‘ under conditions which will guarantee freedom of conscience and religion,” and ‘the prohibition of abuses such as the slave trade, the arms traffic and the liquor traffic.” Lastly, there is Art. 23, under which the members of the League agree that they will “‘ endeavour to secure and maintain fair and humane conditions of labour for men, women and children both in their | own countries and in all countries to which their commercial and industrial relations extend’; to “secure just treatment of the native inhabitants of territories under their control”; to supervise the “‘ trafic in women and children, and the traffic of opium and other dangerous drugs,’ and to take 89 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS steps for the “ prevention and control of disease,” and (Art. 25) the “ mitigation of suffering through- out the world.” ‘The spirit that underlies the preamble and all these articles is that which inspired the command- ment, ‘‘ Ye should do unto others as ye would they should do unto you,” and if it be given effect to, and the articles quoted above be loyally and earnestly put into operation, the Covenant of the League may become the golden rule of international Christian Brotherhood. ‘Thereby, civilisation, which at this moment appears to be on the brink of disaster, may yet save itself by a bold application of Christianity. Will the nations who constitute the League, and who believe in a reign of law, recognise that love is the fulfilling of the law? If they fail to grasp this great Christian truth they will fail in everything. The basis of the League must be love, and if it rests on any other founda- tion, then, though it speak with the tongues of men or of angels, it will become but as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Two questions now arise: Is the League fitted to discharge its great task, and, is it trying to do so? To answer those questions it is necessary to consider in the first place what kind of organisation has been put at the disposal of the League for initiating and developing its international work. _ The actual machinery established at Geneva consists of an Assembly, a Council and a Secretariat. The Assembly includes three delegates appointed by each of the fifty-four States that constitute the League. With these come substitutes and Govern- 90 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS ment officials and experts. Altogether, there will be five or six hundred persons assembled in Geneva of different races, languages and religions, spending a month in every year in close contact with one another, and learning thereby to know each other and to understand each other’s point of view. In the whole history of the world there has never been a similar gathering, and this is now a permanent part of organised human society. Invention, science, art, commerce and many other human activities have been gradually drawing the nations together, and now there is at last established a forum in which their spokesmen can consult on matters of common concern and where the conscience of mankind may find expression. The Council of the League possesses similar features. It consists of ten members, elected mostly by the Assembly, and so chosen as to represent as far as possible the different portions of the globe or groups of nations. ‘To this body are relegated the administrative functions of the League, and especially the duty of mediation in the event of dispute between the members of the League. In its hands rest the peace of the world and the growth of good-will and international tolerance. And the permanent Secretariat is equally im- portant. It also contains officials drawn from almost every State. They live and labour together in constant touch with one another. And, by this means, an international solidarity is making itself apparent. When men of all races are inspired by one purpose and work in concert to attain one end the result is bound to be remarkable. In the go! INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Palais des Nations at Geneva there is assembled a large staff of qualified and enthusiastic workers whose mind is unceasingly directed to the problem of how to bring Peace on Earth. It is no longer to be left to a few diplomats, at the last moment when war is imminent and two nations are burning with hatred, to struggle with the hopeless task of keeping combatants apart; but it is to be a perma- nent duty of a skilled, international department to foresee danger, to devise means of avoiding it and to develop in advance methods whereby the forces of right and reason may prevail over the hitherto unchecked passions of mankind. So far, it may be asserted that the League of Nations draws its powers from an instrument that is based upon Christian principles, and has at its disposal an organisation calculated to encourage the growth of international fellowship. ‘There remains the query, does it, or does it not, fulfil the task so laid upon it? The League is but a human institution, and as such cannot be expected to reach perfection. But even its most active critics must allow that during the three years that it has been at work it has done much to justify its creation. By the exercise of its powers of mediation it has warded off at least three possible wars. The dispute between Finland and Sweden as to the Aaland Islands, in 1921; the disturbances on the frontier between Albania and Serbia in 1922; and the crisis that arose between Italy and Greece in September 1923 were episodes which, had there been no League of Nations, would almost inevitably have led to war. These 92 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS events proved that nations, on the brink of war, are willing to submit their case to an outside authority which they know to be disinterested and believe to be inspired by lofty motives. In these three instances’: the Council of the League has shown capacity and an honest desire to fulfil loyally its duties under the Covenant. At the very outset of its work, the League ap- proached the question of disarmament. After long investigation conducted by specially qualified com- missions a scheme has been produced by which it is proposed that treaties shall be concluded between member States containing provision for both mutual defence and mutual disarmament. The draft con- vention for this purpose was approved by the Assembly in September 1923 and now awaits consideration by the Powers. ‘The first article con- tains the following words : “The High Contracting Parties solemnly declare that aggressive war is an international crime and severally undertake that no one of them will be guilty of its commission.” The fact that a declaration of this kind should have been agreed to unanimously by representatives of fifty States marks a distinct advance in public opinion. % The functions of the League, however, do no end with the preventing of war. It is concerned with numerous subjects of an international char- acter. It has prepared conventions for the preven- tion of the trade in opium and noxious drugs, and for putting a stop to the hateful traffic in women for immoral purposes and the sale of obscene and 93 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS pernicious literature. It has established an Epidemic Commission whose “‘ magnificent work in organising the European sanitary zone”? has been formally recognised. In connection with relief of refugees from Asia Minor and with the co-operation of volunteer organisations, it fed more than 800,000 people for seven months, settled large numbers of them on the land and arranged for the transference of many thousands from one country to another. In thanking the League for this work, the Greek representative said, ‘The prestige enjoyed by the League in the East is due not merely to the lofty ideal of which it is the symbol, but also to the character and abilities of the persons sent to act in its name. So correct is their conduct, so noble their qualities of mind and heart, so scrupulous their solicitude never to wound the legitimate amour propre of the countries which they visit, that in a very short time they obtain the confidence of the Governments with which they deal.” With the devoted assistance of Dr. Nansen, the Council of the League repatriated some 400,000 prisoners who would otherwise have languished in distant parts of Siberia and elsewhere, and through the efforts of Dr. Kennedy and Miss Jeppe it rescued from ‘Turkish harems over 1000 women and children. ‘lhe Mandates Commission of the League has given unceasing attention to the conditions of | the native populations that, by the Peace Treaty, have been placed under the care of the great Powers. An inquiry into the practice of slavery has been commenced. ‘The complaints by racial or religious minorities have been investigated and 94 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS certain of these have been referred to the Permanent Court of International Justice. ‘The State of Albania has received attention, and with the aid of a financial adviser from Holland appointed by the League the administration of this hitherto disturbed country has been put on a satisfactory basis. The action of the League in rescuing Austria from the financial chaos into which it fell after the war is too well known to require description. In alluding to this at Geneva in September 1923, Count Mensdorff, formerly Austrian Ambassador in London and now the first delegate of Austria to the League of Nations, used the following words : “The crowning achievement and success of the work undertaken by the League on behalf of Austria will ever be a glorious chapter in the history of the League, while the history of Austria will ever contain a chapter devoted to her gratitude to the League of Nations.” But, whilst giving this record of work done by the League of Nations in its attempt to give effect to the high purposes of those who brought it into being, we must not leave it to be inferred that there is no fault to be found with it. On the contrary, many of its actions have been deservedly condemned by those who rightly think that the States of the League have not always set the interests of justice and good-will above national or selfish considerations. The decision in the case of Upper Silesia was too much influenced by political associa- tions to commend itself to all lovers of equity. The failure to regulate the difference between Poland and Lithuania with regard to Vilna was due to a 95 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS reluctance on the part of one Power to go counter to the wish of an ally. The Italian-Greek episode showed up some of the Powers in the worst possible light. In that instance a unanimous decision to insist that the League should be the arbiter would have insured immediate acceptance of its authority, and would have avoided the perpetration of what was an act of injustice; but unanimity was unattain- able even for so reasonable a demand. ‘The fact is that some of the nations which have joined the League have shown that they are quite unable to throw off the methods of the old diplomacy, the scheming and the subterfuges and the playing off one State against the other, which have hitherto been considered to be the proper thing. And the process of continually arming one’s self or one’s allies despite the solemn assertion of the desirability of a reduction of national armaments contained in the treaty of peace, is a sign that we are yet far from having attained the ‘‘ open, just and honour- able relations between nations” prescribed in the preamble to the Covenant. If the Christian prin- ciples upon which the League was founded are to be anything more than a blind behind which Machiavellianism creeps back into its former haunts, Governments must alter their way of looking at international morality. They must Christianise their feelings towards each other. They must search out the good in a neighbour’s actions instead of seizing upon whatever they can find of evil in them. ‘hey must recognise that in the League there is the germ of a great international system capable of producing untold blessings for the human 96 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS race, which it is their duty to nurture and bring to maturity. The Covenant of the League is indeed a great step forward, but in the nature of things it cannot be the final word in an international constitution. As experience shows the necessity and as public opinion provides the opportunity, the Constitution will be developed and improved, so as always to provide the basis for further progress in removing the causes of war and in strengthening the growing bonds which unite the peoples of the world in the common tasks of mankind. Further, the Constitution of the League needs to be completed without delay so as to bring to its aid the forces of good in all the countries of the world. So long as great nations such as the United States of America, Germany and Russia stand out- side of the League, the League cannot exercise the full moral power which is essential to its success. The absence of the States mentioned is due partly to an unwillingness on their side to join the League, and partly to a reluctance displayed by some of the existing members to admit them to membership. It is urgently necessary that all the Governments of the world should make an earnest attempt to remedy this defect in the League and establish a system of universal co-operation in international affairs. But it is not sufficient to appeal to Governments. Governments are only what their people make them, and the fate of the League really rests with the people. It is, therefore, the nations themselves who must be made to understand the usefulness of H 97 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS the League, its functions and its possibilities. It is they who must learn that it is righteousness that exalteth a nation, and that a League of Nations can only prosper if it is based on justice, on toler- ance and on love. It should be the special duty of the Christian Churches to inculcate this lesson, for by it alone they can hope to lead mankind into the path of peace. And, above all, if the League of Nations is to become, as it might become, the embodiment of the Christian ideal of universal brotherhood, it will need all that the Churches can offer in the way of work and prayer. ‘The League, as yet, is but an instrument of human construction; but if used by men with honest purpose and high motives it will surely gain the Divine favour which alone will enable it to regenerate mankind. CHAPTER VII (I) THE CHRISTIAN IDEAL AND THE NATIONS (I) THE NATURE AND BASIS OF A CHRISTIAN WORLD ORDER ) %. Ce . he « ase ws, TAP 7 ‘9d \y ahh eat ’; 4 14 CHAPTER VII (1) THE CHRISTIAN IDEAL AND THE NATIONS Wuart is the Christian ideal of the Social Order? The Christian ideal is that of a family—all men children of the one Father—a great family with diversities of character, temperament, ability, but all united in a common brotherhood by the spiritual bonds of a common faith and a common ideal of life—of the way to live. The narrow nationalism of the Jew and his belief in his superiority because he was God’s chosen, could find no place in a social order in which, because they are in Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, but all meet on equal terms as children of a common Father. In such a social order, distinctions of nationality, race, language, class fade into insignificance compared with the spiritual bond of Christian fellowship. The Christian ideal was at first frankly cosmo- politan, and Christians lived in a cosmopolitan world, for all the known civilised world was within the framework of the one Empire. The main problem of political philosophy which concerned the early Christians either as thinkers or citizens was the relation of the Church to the Empire. The Church did not condemn nationalism, for it did not recognise its existence. It did not preach IOI INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS internationalism, for the nations of the civilised world had been swallowed up in Rome. During the centuries following the fall of Rome, the Church came to stand as the one bond of union to all the warring groups into which society had been dissolved in Western Europe. ‘They were groups of quarrelling children, but still children, and their membership in the spiritual family was a higher bond than racial or other affinity. It was still a very real bond of union. It was through the unity of the Church that the English tribes came to realise their political unity. Tue Meprzavat IpEAL Later on we come to the ideal of medieval Christendom which prevailed throughout Central and Western Europe. According to that ideal, the nations of Europe were regarded as a single com- munity, subject to Pope and Emperor, as Vice- regents of God the invisible King, and unified by possession of a common creed and the acceptance of common principles of conduct. The revival of classical learning undermined the medizval ideal, and the revolt of the human spirit against the intellectual monopoly of the Church, and still more the revolt of conscience against its corruption, destroyed the unity of Western Christendom. Tue REFORMATION IDEAL Henceforth each nation became a separate unit, owing allegiance to none—a_ sovereign State, 102 THE CHRISTIAN [DEAL supreme. Men’s affection and loyalty became centred in the State, its interest became para- mount. The Church itself became nationalised : the Church of England, of Sweden, of Germany. Men went back’a long way towards the idea of a tribal God whom each Church invoked for pro- tection and prayed to lead their forces to victory. Under the predominance of nationalism the Churches lost international vision. Moreover, the break-up of the Church in each nation into a number of Churches caused men to lose the vision of the Kingdom of God and regard the work of the Church as consisting solely in dealing with individual souls. Thus men came to think the Churches had nothing to do with international politics and that in questions between nations the writ of God’s law did not run. ‘The interest of the State was supreme. It is remarkable that while the growths of nationalism and individualism were destroying the moral unity of Christendom, a series of remarkable inventions, railways, steamboats, telegraphs, etc., were drawing the whole world together and making it one economic unit. There was no part of the earth’s surface which produced what satisfies man’s wants, and no people, however savage, that was not brought within the trade system. Economic sut not Morat Unity Thus there came into being a world united as an economic unit, but not united as a moral unit, a world in which each nation pursued its own interests. 103 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Hencerivalry, jealousy, competition for raw materials, hostile tariffs, armaments, and eventually a world war. But the war, or the peacemakers after the war, by the insistence on the principle of self- determination, multiplied nationalities, increased friction, and started the new nations on their career with the spirit of hate roused by the war seething in them. In Europe to-day, excluding Great Britain and Russia, there are twenty-five separate sovereign States, twenty-five groups of people passionately devoted to their separate nationality, full of suspicion and hatred of their neighbours. With what result?) Impediments to trade which prevent the return of economic prosperity, and armaments but slightly less extensive and costly than existed in Europe in 1914. Unity 1n SPIRIT If moral unity be not recovered, and the people of Europe recognise they are brethren, members of one family, and learn to live as such, the peoples of Europe are doomed. How can this sense of moral unity be regained under modern conditions? We cannot revive either the ideas or the organisation of the Medieval Church in their original form. We must seek unity less in outward form than in unity of spirit: in the recognition that the various’ nations, sovereign States though they be, are members of a family, and must seek to establish family relations with other groups if they are to be blessed by God and prosper. They must also recognise that their sovereignty is subject to the 104 THE CHRISTIAN IDEAL sovereignty of Christ, whose law is supreme over all. Christian belief in the Unity of God necessi- tates the repudiation of the idea that there can be one standard of conduct for men acting in groups, and another when acting as individuals. Tue Law or Curist But what is Christ’s law? What are the prin- ciples which should be applied to the treatment of nation by nation? ‘There are certain broad ruling principles accepted by all who profess and call themselves Christians. 1. Fustice.—lf the power which rules the universe be personal and have any moral character at all, He must be righteous. “Thy right hand, O God, is full of righteousness”’; ‘‘ Righteousness looketh down from heaven”; so sings the Psalmist. ‘The central conception of God in the Old Testament 1s His righteousness, and therefore, for man, the way of righteousness is the way of life. Jesus, whom we regard as the revealer of God and of God’s will, places justice in the forefront. ‘“‘ Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness,” and then, and not till then, ‘‘ all things shall be added unto you.” No stable society, no stable political rela- tions can be built which rest on injustice. God has made man so that he can never rest content under a sense of injustice, and God has made the world so that there can be no permanent peace and happiness where there is injustice. But what is just is not always readily ascertained. Justice and legality are not identical. The 105 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS insistence on the letter of the law may lead to the perpetration of injustice. It does not follow that, what is justice in dealing with a nation of children, would be just when dealing with a nation of adults ; or that the treatment of primitive races should be identical with that of highly civilised peoples. Therefore, though we are bound as Christians to assert the authority of justice and law, and to fight against any glorification of violence and force, alike in the social and international spheres, at the same time, we believe that every existing system of law and justice is incomplete, and will have to be continually renewed as the Spirit of God guides men into a fuller understanding of the mind of God and of His idea of justice. As the way in which humanity ascertains what is Just is by reason, it becomes a Christian duty to favour the reference of conflicting international interests to tribunals, whether set up by arbitration treaties, or as perma-_ nent Courts, such as that established at the Hague by the League of Nations. 2. Ihe brotherhood of man.—It is part of the Christian belief that men stand to one another in the relation of brothers, because they all are children of God. Christians believe that it is God’s inten- tion that men shall recognise this relationship, and in this spiritual kinship find a bond of union which shall transcend all barriers of nationality, race, colour, or social status. We have to carry this principle of brotherhood into international relations—a difficult task, for there are deep prejudices to be overcome, but all the more necessary. In the words of the Declaration 106 THE CHRISTIAN IDEAL of Principles put forth by the World Alliance for Promoting Friendship through the Churches: “‘ we are convinced the time has come when a strenuous effort should be made by all Christians to realise all that is implied in Christ’s teaching of the brotherhood of mankind,-and to impress alike on themselves and upon others that here alone lies the hope of permanent peace among the nations, and of any true solution of social and industrial problems.” 3. Love-—The cement which binds a family together is affection. Affection expresses itself in care for one another, in interest in one another’s welfare, in helping one another. Christians believe that affection, love, is the essential characteristic of God, that, in St. John’s terse phrase, “‘ God is Love.” If God is Love, it follows that the greatest power in the world is not force but love, and that the power of God is the power of love. It is expressed in the words of one of the Collects in the Church Prayer Book: ‘‘God, who declarest Thy Almighty power most chiefly in showing mercy and pity.” Those who really believe in God as revealed in Christ do not put their trust in chariots and horses, do not believe that a satisfactory society of nations can be created by force, or by the advance of selfish interests, or by the acquisition of wealth. “‘ Woe to the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay.” In a world in which the supreme power is love, we believe it is impossible to advance human happiness 107 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS and develop human character by armies and navies. ‘lrue civilisation does not go forward on a powder cask, but by the growth of love, which expresses itself in care for others, self-sacrifice, and mutual helpfulness or co-operation. Armaments are a danger morally and physically, and therefore Christians must desire their reduction and their ultimate destruction. The weapons of love are forgiveness of injuries ; doing good to them that hate you and despitefully use you; conquering the hearts and influencing the wills of men by good; overcoming evil, not by coercive force, but by goodness. It is not necessary to illustrate the method of love and the power of love as manifested to us in the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, whom we believe to be the express image of God, Very God of Very God. Nor is it necessary to show how Jesus emphasises to His disciples the importance of the spirit of love and the practice of love. All Christians, whatever ecclesiastical label distinguishes them, are at one in believing in one moral standard, in Justice, Human Brotherhood, the Power of Love, and the necessity of overcoming evil by the methods of Love. NEED oF CHRISTIAN UNITY The question which concerns us is what Christians can do, under the circumstances and conditions of modern life, to secure the recognition of these great principles and their application by Christian methods to all international relations. If the testimony of Christians is to be effective, it must be a united 108 THE CHRISTIAN IDEAL testimony. But, as far as we can see, the groups of Christians are not likely to unite in one Church organisation in our day, for there are differences of faith and order which have a long history behind them and are not yet extinct or resolved. But notwithstanding these obstacles to organic unity, there is a very real unity, among all who profess and call themselves Christians; there is a Unity of Spirit, and of Spiritual Ideals. All acknowledge Christ as Lord, all believe in the Christian ideals of Justice, Brotherhood, Love, Forgiveness, and love’s method of conquering evil by good, and all ought to disbelieve in the efficacy of violence and methods of force. What is needed in order to give effect to Christian ideals, and make them a power, is for the Churches to realise their Unity of Spirit, and devise an organ which shall give expression to it. That this can be done, is evidenced by the work of the World Alliance for the Promotion of Inter- national Friendship through the Churches. This organisation is only in its infancy. It is, however, an encouraging fact that it has succeeded in bring- ing together in twenty-six countries all the non- Roman ! confessions, and inducing them to elect in each country a Council of representatives of the Churches, whose avowed object is the application of Christian ideals to international affairs, and co-operation with Christians in other countries in 1 The term non-Roman is employed because, though the co- operation of individual Roman Catholics has been secured, the co-operation of the Roman Catholic Church officially has not yet been secured. 109 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS “‘ bringing about good and friendly relations between the nations, so that, along the path of peaceful civilisation, they may reach that universal good-will which Christianity has taught men to aspire after.” Thus there is created in these countries an organ which can speak for all who profess and call them- selves Christians. INTERNATIONAL EFFORT These twenty-six National Councils are all linked together by a duly elected International Committee. These representatives meet together in Conference every second year, and their Executive Committee every year. Thus the Churches are realising their union, are finding that Unity in Spirit is enabling them to take common action, and that the World | Alliance enables them to find a common voice, and speak to the world with that force and effective- ness which comes from union. At the meeting of the International Committee at Zurich in 1923, the most important question for consideration was the occupation of the Ruhr by the French, and what pronouncement the Com- mittee as representing the Churches should make as to what Christians should say and do regarding it. | After much discussion, a message, for the drafting of which the French, German and Belgian members were mainly responsible, was unanimously approved. In this message the Committee expressed their conviction that the only way whereby Europe can escape from its present difficulties lies in applying the spirit of Christ to the problem with which it is IIo THE CHRISTIAN IDEAL confronted; and that, in the case of the Ruhr, the Christian course would be to call in an inde- pendent body, before which all parties may lay their case, and leave it to that body to indicate such a system of mutual protection as will secure the safety of all people. This message was sent with a covering letter by the Archbishop of Canterbury as President of the Alliance to the Churches and the Governments of all the nations of Europe and the U.S.A. This illustrates how an international society such as the World Alliance can focus and give expression to Christian opinion. "TREATMENT OF MINORITIES In July, delegates from the Councils of the World Alliance in Hungary, Czecho-slovakia, Jugo- slavia, and Roumania met together as brother Christians to consider how they could co-operate in securing just treatment for the minorities. It was a meeting of persecutors and persecuted in friendly conference as Christians. ‘That is the way in which the World Alliance works. It secures the co-operation of Christians in an endeavour to find out the Christian solution of practical problems. British CounciL OF THE Worztp ALLIANCE In Great Britain, the World Alliance, at first tentative and composed of those who were per- sonally interested in international questions, is on the way to become a real mouthpiece of Christian III INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS opinion, for now the members of the British Council are officially appointed representative of all the non- Roman Churches in Great Britain. This Repre- sentative Council will spend some days each year in deliberation on international problems, seeking to obtain a fuller and more accurate statement of facts than is now available, as a basis whereon an enlightened appeal may be made to the Christian conscience of the Churches and the nations. . The aim and duty of the British Council will be to express the voice and conscience of Christianity in Great Britain in a way that has not been hitherto possible. | If prominence is given in this article to the work of the World Alliance, it is because this endeavour to promote international good-will through the organised Churches is of special interest to Copec. There are, however, other Christian organisations which demand support, because they too, in various ways, bring together from many nations those who profess faith in Christ, and thus promote inter- national friendship. Foremost among such organisations is that of the Student Christian Movement, at whose annual conferences young people of both sexes from the Universities of many nations meet and make friends. There are also the Y.M.C.A. and the Y.W.C.A., which by their international Congresses bring young persons of various nationalities into personal contact, and enable them, in spite of national and racial differences, to find a real unity in Christ. There is also the International Missionary Council, which brings together members of all Christian 112 THE CHRISTIAN IDEAL bodies who are engaged in missionary work for consultation as to the problems with which Chris- tians are confronted in various parts of the World. These are all organisations established by those who are avowedly Christian for co-operation among Christians, but the enumeration of the inter- national agencies, working for the promotion of good-will and co-operation between nations, would be very incomplete if no mention were made of the League of Nations. Though its organisation is political, the ideals of international co-operation and international justice which it embodies are essentially Christian. The Bishops at the Lambeth Conference speak thus of it: ‘‘ We commend to all Christian people the principles which underlie the League of Nations, the most promising and the most systematic attempt to advance towards the ideal of the family of nations, which has ever been projected.” It is true that the League is imperfect ; it does not as yet include in its membership three of the greatest nations, the United States, Germany or Russia, and even those nations who have signed its Covenant are not yet reconciled to the abandon- ment of threats of violence in order to attain their ends. Nevertheless, by bringing together the repre- sentatives of over fifty nations for annual conference on the welfare of the world, it is developing friend- ship and the spirit of co-operation, and proving how in many directions it is possible to advance the well-being of humanity by what are Christian methods. Allsuch organisations should receive the sympathy I 113 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS and support of the followers of Christ who desire to see His Will done and His Spirit prevail. Those who are unable to take active part in such international organisations, may still help in the work of promoting good-will by refraining from uttering harsh judgments of other nations, and by upholding love, sympathy and co-operation as the true Christian methods of healing the wounds of the war. (II) THE NATURE AND BASIS OF A CHRISTIAN WORLD ORDER It is clearly the duty of the Christian Churches in the sphere of international issues both to lay down certain basic principles, and, in some respects. at any rate, to pronounce upon immediate problems. But something more than this is needed if they are to fit themselves to fulfil the whole of their task. ‘They must be conscious of the goal towards which they steer; they must gain some clear vision of the whole world as the scene of God’s Kingdom. They have to think not only of how existing tangles may best be straightened out, but of the kind of . international order which they are seeking to promote, the sort of world which would result from the fact that Christian ideals and standards were bearing fruit in relations between peoples and governments. “‘ Christian living,” it has been well said, ‘‘ postu- lates the background of a common life in which Christian values are embodied ; ” and if this is true 114 THE CHRISTIAN IDEAL of the internal life of communities, it is equally true of their relations to one another. Before inquiring what special resources we, as Christians, have in our faith and traditions for the envisaging of an international order which would reflect the ideal of God for the world, let us consider —since we believe that Christianity, truly applied, will always give us not only the most ideal but the most genuinely practical result—what a study of history shows us to be the conditions of a stable world order. A stable world involves that certain common objects are sought, because certain common standards are accepted. ‘This arises spontaneously when a common faith is shared. Such a faith, moreover, gives birth to a common culture—coloured in a hundred ways by varieties of national temperament and local custom, but recognisable wherever that faith is shared, and taking form in institutions in which men moving from country to country, and city to city, can find something with which they are familiar, and which they can in some measure enjoy, co-operate with, and understand. It is clear that such a state of things amounts, over the area which it covers, to the most effective possible form of “internationalism” which can be imagined, for it is something which grows up naturally, as it were, from the very soil of civilisation ; it is not something imposed from above in obedience to intellectual or prudential considerations. It is an atmosphere, not an apparatus—though forms of organisation may arise to embody it. It is probably considerations such as this, dimly 115 : INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS apprehended, which have prompted some idealists to see in that singular and largely fortuitous pheno- menon, conventionally described as the British Empire, the germ of a civilising world influence in the truest sense. Such a view may turn out on closer inspection to be nothing but the offspring of nineteenth-century Imperialism, dressed up to conceal a nakedness held to be improper in a more fastidious age. But it is not always so; men are genuinely unsatisfied with the narrowness of national- ism, yet they do not know where else to turn for an alternative than to a “‘ commonwealth of nations ”’ arising, as they feel, by providential intention at the instigation of their own countrymen in every corner of the globe. This view would be more easily dismissed as merely naive or vainglorious, if held exclusively by Englishmen: it becomes more interesting when we find that it is not held only on such easily explicable grounds, or by those who might derive a specially complacent satisfaction in holding it. It must have been some such idea which was at the back of General Smuts’ mind when that Statesman declared that “the British Empire is the greatest thing in the world to-day.” He cannot have been glorying in the merely pic- turesque fact that the same flag flew in London and Sydney, in Cape Town and Calcutta, in Ottawa and Wellington. He must have been thinking that in a world of suspicion and opportunism, of racial hatreds and national jealousies, here is something which can act together because it has grown together, which can pool its ideas because every part acknow- ledges the sway of a common idea greater than itself, 116 j } ‘ a r - F f THE CHRISTIAN IDEAL and which forms, therefore, in a fissiparous world a saving nucleus of political culture. This ideal of the British Empire and its rdle in the world is not stated with the object either of suggesting that it sufficiently corresponds to reality, or that it would be adequate to our problem if it did. ‘This standpoint has been mentioned merely because it illustrates what may be urged as a vital but oft neglected truth, namely, that if man is finally to be satisfied with any form of human association for the major purposes of life, it must spring up, it cannot merely be set up. H. G. Wells has said somewhere, that the American ideal of international organisation is something that will not be set up like a pavilion, but which will grow like a tree. Whether this is the American ideal or not, whether indeed there is such a thing, is beside the point. But in any event, the ideal itself is a true one, and it is a truth that Christians have urgent need to recollect, in their efforts to bring order and stability to a world in disarray; for if they forget it, they will merely be contenting themselves with following secular leaders down devious paths, when what civilisation needs from them is that they should blaze a trail of their own. This is not to say that the Churches have no concern with international machinery already in existence. Organisations with intentions often excellent, with valuable achievements already to their credit, and still greater potentialities, are actually in being to-day, and undoubtedly have claims upon the sympathetic attention of Chris- tians. But even if such organisations were to fulfil 117 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS all our hopes of them and realise none of our fears, they could not by themselves suffice to pro- duce a true international order or serve as a sub- stitute for the Christian hope. ‘They could not do so, on the one hand, because they are concerned with arranging the terms upon which international relations of one kind or another can be carried on, rather than with the creation of a civilisation which would spontaneously assume an international char- acter; on the other, because, in many cases, their outlook is a predominantly secular one, they are therefore subject to the limitations such an out- look inevitably imposes. ‘This should not involve any reluctance on our part to work through such machinery. All that is here contended is that such organisations devised to tide over temporary perils cannot completely fulfil the requirements of © a Christian world order. If, as we believe, it is the mission of the Church to act as the pioneer of the Kingdom of God, she cannot look to the due fulfilment of her mission in any un- loading of her responsibilities upon bodies which do not acknowledge her unique sources of inspiration. For example, while Chapter VI shows how large an opportunity we believe to be open to the League of Nations in the world crisis of to-day, the League, | however we may regard it, is not and cannot be occupied with the tasks or directed to the aims which are fundamentally and specifically the business of the Church. The Church must look for the building of a Kingdom which finds expression in a corporate life springing up everywhere, in national and racial communities acknowledging the same 118 THE CHRISTIAN IDEAL values, however variously they seek to incarnate them, with consciousness of interwoven destinies and recognition of a common Ruler. Where, if anywhere, then, may we expect to find the Christian vision of a world order foreshadowed ? Surely in the place to which Christians (in this country at any rate) seem, strangely enough, to be the least accustomed to look for inspiration—that medizval age in which Christian teaching really inspired, and in a large measure dominated, social practice. It is because of this that we can speak not of a vague “‘ medieval Christianity,” but of a definite civilisation—Christendom. ‘The Middle Ages, when all their imperfections, spiritual and material, are faced and admitted, did exhibit an effort to bring every aspect of human society into relation with the purpose of God for the world. As a natural result there arose that sort of spiritual cosmopolitanism which found expression in the idea of Respublica Christiana—“ a single, universal community, founded and governed by God Himself.” The Universities, the Canon Law, Latin literature, political institutions, and the various features of the social order, all these, with national and pro- vincial variations, were part of a common culture mainly derived from the central fact of a common faith. It is not pretended, either that this conception was adequately understood by the age which gave birth to it, or, that it is applicable without the most considerable revisions and enlargements to the world of to-day. In regard to the first point, it is sufficient to recall that the whole of Eastern 11g INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Christianity fell outside the orbit of this conception, while our own island, though formally included in it, was, in practice, to some extent left outside. And in the latter regard we have only to consider that Christianity in our day claims to be, and to no small extent actually is, a world religion, a Faith for men of every race, colour and stage of develop- ment, to realise how vastly the medieval idea requires to be expanded before it can suffice to give us the inspiration and the guidance of which we are in need. But, none the less, it is here that the authentic message of Christianity is to be looked for—in posse if not im esse. It is through “ the uni- versal Church” that the world will attain to the ** spirit of truth, unity and concord,” an instinctive internationalism arising from ideas at work under- neath, not descending as a régime authoritatively | imposed. It is sometimes objected that even the large reservations and modifications already allowed for do not suffice to make the ideal of the Respublica Christiana one that has any relevance to our problems. We must not fail, so we are reminded, to allow for the secularisation of thought that has taken place since the medieval age. Let us, indeed, allow for it, since it is a fact; but do not let us sur- render to it. The secularisation of thought came about because, in a swiftly expanding world, religion failed to present a vision and a message compre- hensive enough to satisfy the intellect or sustain the heart of man. It may have arisen, it did largely arise, from a failure of the Church ; but it has proved a failure in its turn, and a failure, from the conse- 120 THE CHRISTIAN IDEAL quences of which a world, whose social practice has been long divorced from moral considerations, is now acutely suffering. It is useless to imagine that the Church can do anything to restore the world by proposing remedies which do not involve any challenge to a “secularised”’ opinion. Even if such remedies existed—and in certain limited and purely technical respects they can perhaps be discovered—there is small chance of their being applied effectively, if moral factors are to be left out of account. And without the sanction and dynamic power of a religious faith, moral principles will always find themselves subordinated to material considerations, as they have been in Europe for at least five centuries. If the Church is to fulfil its mission effectively in the international sphere, or in any other, it will only be by coming forward with an ideal and a programme which appeal to men’s imagination and kindle their enthusiasm precisely because they beckon away from the morasses into which a merely secular outlook has so fatally led mankind. It may be objected, again, that Christian bodies, which are so far from being at unity with each other, can have no guidance to offer to a disunited world. We would not seek for a moment to mini- mise the extent of the handicap to the work of God in the world, which Christian disunity imposes on every communion, and upon all individual members thereof. This handicap is, in very many ways, direct and indirect, immense. But it is our conviction—and a conviction to which, in our view, the very existence of the effort focused in our I2I INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Conference witnesses—that despite vital differences in matters of Order, Christians are already finding, and will increasingly find, that they can act in association in proclaiming the message of the King- dom and much that follows from it. Many of us, indeed, believe that in affirming the Kingdom of God as the regulative principle of Christian conduct, we are laying down the basis of Christian unity ; and that, when Christians of every communion come to understand all that is implied in the idea of the Kingdom, and their own part in advancing it, existing differences will not for long fundament- ally divide them. We must not be held back from struggling for the realisation of our vision of a world order because, for the present, we are not agreed on every issue amongst ourselves. What are the conditions which must be fulfilled if the Church is to “recover the initiative’’ and gain the leadership of those forces which are every- where aspiring (for the most part blindly) after a world order which shall be ‘‘a single, universal community, founded and governed by God Him- self’? ‘They are no doubt many, but it must be sufficient here to insist upon two. The Church must aim at manifesting Christianity as what it essentially is—a world religion; and it must at the same time © reveal it, as not only challenging everywhere those forces of ** the world ”’ which its members renounce, but actually projecting and, as far as lies within its power, building up a social fabric constructed in despite of them. As regards the first point, it must be clear that if the Church is to win the world it can only be by conceiving and presenting 122 THE CHRISTIAN IDEAL itself as a Society to which every part of the world has a unique and essential contribution to make. Yet it is this ecumenical character that the Church has in recent ages so largely lost. Even the vast extent of missionary effort scarcely avails to qualify this statement, since the Faith and the ceremonies associated with it are offered to men of other races in a far too exclusively European, or even national form. Even when we succeed in interpreting our religion in an international sense, we are too inclined to stop short at the confines of the white race; we fail to carry it forward to that inter-racial con- ception which is alone adequate to express its true content. Yet the problems we are apt to describe as international are often more correctly conceived as inter-racial. And if the Church is to meet them, it must do so as an inter-racial body in the fullest sense. We have hardly begun to realise how greatly Christianity might be enriched by incorporating the spiritual experiences and intellectual qualities of other races than our own, to say nothing of the developments in liturgical expression and ecclesi- astical art which a truly universal Church might be expected to manifest. The second point is of no less importance. It is widely realised, even in secular circles, that if ‘‘ internationalism ” is to be effective it cannot be sought apart from the struggle for liberty and justice within the nations themselves. Equally, the Respublica Christiana will never be anything but a memory or a dream, unless we couple with this ideal the struggle for the establishment of a dis- tinctively Christian social order, with the practices 123 ) INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS and institutions characteristic of it, in every corner of the globe. This involves as a first condition that every section of the Church should actively combat false imperialism, plutocracy, and oppression of every kind, and set itself to the elaboration and application of a Christian sociology appropriate to the conditions of the community in which it is at work, while bearing in mind the needs and potentialities of civilisation as a whole. ‘These are colossal tasks, but we must not for this reason be afraid to face them. For it is only the Church that has it in its power to plant everywhere that Tree “whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.” Signed : E. F. Wise (Chairman). Cuartes Ropen Buxton. Harotp J. Buxton. WynpHaAm DEEDES. W. H. Dickinson. W. Moore Epe. H. W. Fox. G. P. Goocn. Cart HeEatu. A. D. Linpsay. Joun D. MacGixp. CATHERINE MAarsHALL. Maurice B. ReckxirrT. Rutu Rovstr. CoNsTANCE SMITH. GrorcEeE YOUNG. 124. CHAPTER VIII RECOMMENDATIONS Tus Conference approves the Report of the Commission on International Relationships, and, accepting this Report as a basis, brings forward the following Resolutions : (1) The Christian faith is fundamentally opposed to the spirit of imperialism as expressed in desire of conquest, the maintenance of prestige, or the pursuit, in other forms, of the selfish interests of one nation at the expense of another. This Conference registers its strong opinion that Christian Churches should refrain absolutely from associating themselves with any policy conceived in this spirit. (2) From a healthy national patriotism should be evolved the spirit of international co- operation. Unity must be sought in variety, not in uniformity. (3) Moral principles accepted by Christians as binding between individuals in their political, economic, and social relations should be no less obligatory on nations in their dealings 125 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS with each other, and on the individuals of the same nation and community in their relations with those of another nation. (4) The Conference accepts the doctrine of uni- versal brotherhood and its implications. It therefore recognises the obligation on Christian nations, no less than on individuals, to utilise their surplus resources over and above those proportionally necessary for their own use, in assisting those nations who, for whatsoever reason, are less well sup- plied with this world’s goods, particularly those who are the victims of any special misfortune or disaster. (5) In international as well as in national relation- ships, the methods and results of industry and commerce must be judged by their con- tribution to the service of mankind. (6) In relations between more advanced and less advanced countries, the governing principle should be that of trusteeship. The administration and development of less advanced countries should not be under- taken by any single Power in its individual © interest, but as a trust, either directly by a League of Nations, or by one Power acting on behalf of the nations under a Mandate system. (7) The relations of racial, religious, and linguistic minorities within a State should be founded 126 RECOMMENDATIONS on principles of equality, goodwill, and respect for the creative functioning of each group; and the Christian Churches should do their utmost to see that these principles’ replace the spirit of jealousy and suspicion, and that public opinion of Christian nations secures their observance throughout the world. (8) The Churches, recognising that the youth of to-day is the nation of to-morrow, should urge that in every type of school an educational policy be carried out, which, while inculcating a loving service of country, should work for the development of a spirit of world brotherhood amongst the children, as amongst the adults, of all nations. (9) Whereas the principles embodied in the Covenant of the League of Nations, carried out in the spirit and in the letter, will promote international peace, the Churches should regard it as their particular care to assist the development of the work of the League by promoting such an atmosphere of good-will amongst men as will enable the League to secure the full application of these principles. (10) In view of the present world situation, the Conference urges the imperative need for the Churches to use all their resources and influence to create a public opinion which 127 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS will secure that the principles embodied in these resolutions form the basis of inter- national policy. ‘To this end it would commend the work of all such Christian agencies as promote good-will between nations and races: it would specially call attention to the work of the World Alliance for Promoting International Friendship through the Churches, in that it brings together the representatives of the various Christian Communions as such, and secures their co-operation all over the earth in cultivating the spirit necessary to peace. Above all, is there need that the Christian Church should unceasingly and faithfully explore and, at whatever cost, unflinchingly proclaim all that is involved for inter- national and inter-racial relationships in the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. a > es as ies BE ae EE ee Printin in Gkeat Berrain sy Ricarp Cray & Sons, LimITED, BUNGAY, SUFFOLK. I 1 1012 01145 88 $9 o c @