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THE WELSH OUTLOOK NOTES OF THE MONTH The League When in the future the history of Peace of the turbulent times in which we live comes to be written per- haps no figure will stand out with more distinction than that of the President of the United States. The scheme which he has projected for the future pre- servation of the peace of the world has already won the support of experienced statesmen in many lands. It has been approved by Mr. Lloyd George, Mr. Asquith, Mr. Balfour, Lord Hugh Cecil, Viscount Bryce, General Smuts and others in the British Commonwealth, and by prominent men of affairs and thinkers in France, Italy, and Russia as well as in neutral countries. There can be no nobler ideal than a League of Nations formed to preserve the peace of the world and every true human heart the world over must earnestly desire to see such an ideal realized. A league strong enough to make war impossible would mean the creation of a new earth where international hatreds and misunderstandings would gradually cease to exist. As Viscount Bryce, in a recent speech, pointed out, perpetual peace can be secured in two ways. One of them is a change of heart in the peoples of the world, a diminution of those passions of national hatred and vanity which prompted aggression, a stronger respect for the rights of others and the growth of the sentiment of human brotherhood. This would be the best and completest remedy, the fullest deliverance from these evils, but it would be, at the best, a very slow remedy." It is the remedy the Man of Nazareth lived to teach and died to enforce, a fact which the so-called Christian nations of the world have never adequately realized. For in the twentieth century of the Christian era we have the greatest war the world has ever seen, and all the nations actively engaged in it, with one exception, call themselves Christian. Yet all this notwith- standing, the above remedy is the only radical JULY, 1917 guarantee of an undisturbed world peace. The world tragedy that is being enacted before our eyes these days has forced thoughtful men to ask whether some prompt means cannot be discovered to render a second performance of the tragedy an impossibility. The solution offered by President Wilson is "to turn to account among all nations which desire peace, that spirit of peace, by forming a combination, each of whose members would pledge itself to employ its material and economic forces to protect each and every one of the others from aggression, while at the same time providing a pacific means of settling disputes by arbitration and conciliation." To effect this is a gigantic task. It is a task impossible to accomplish without the sup- port of an overwhelming public opinion in all the countries disposed to try the experiment. Alternate Several alternate plans are already Suggestions being suggested, two of which deserve attention. One is a com- bination of the Anglo-Saxon races, namely the British Empire and the United States. The chief argument advanced in support of this scheme is that such a combination would be more work- able than a larger agglomeration of nationalities some of which would have little in common with the others. But such a league as this would immedi- ately engender suspicion and jealousy everywhere. The Anglo-Saxon world must henceforth realize that it must make common cause in this matter with every other nation that is pacifically inclined. The feeling of nationality, if fostered on narrow and exclusive lines, must develop into an international menace. Another school would only include in the League such countries as have adopted the re- publican form of government. According to this idea Britain and Italy must become republics before they can be admitted into the League. A young