Welsh Journals

SUPPLEMENT TO THE WELSH OUTLOOK FORM THE LEAGUE OF PEACE NOW. By Sir Henry Jones, Professor of Moral Philosophy, The University of Glasgow. "ALL hands are needed to save the State after the war," XjL wrote a friend to me the other day, and 1 thought he had expressed very neatly a highly practical truth, too easily overlooked. We are inclined to assume that all grave dangers to the State will be over once we have thoroughly overcome the enemy and secured the terms of a satisfactory peace; or that, if the dangers will not be all over, they must surely not distract our attention now, while we are fighting for alMhat makes life worth living. There is just one thing which at present we may say about the coming peace it must not be a German peace, and it must not be inconclusive. On that the will of the Allies is definitely and finally set; and I hope and believe that no sacrifice the future may bring will shake their resolve. dangerous Assumptions as to Peace. But a dangerous assumption is apt to go along with this.' good and wise resolution. We are apt to think that once our cause has triumphed on the battlefield, a con- clusive and final peace will come as a matter of course that its main conditions are plain, and that once fixed it will stand for ever. And lulling ourselves with these comforting thoughts we turn our minds and wills to the more pressing matter of the undecided war. This is an unwise attitude for the Allied people to take; and if they Persist in it, it may defeat their great purpose. In the first place, the terms of the peace we would impose SEPTEMBER, 1918. are not likely to be perfect I know nothing perfect in the life of States. Even after every care has been taken to secure a permanent peace, seeds of decay are apt to lurk within its conditions. One State will think that it has not got all its rights, another that it has been called upon to make too great a sacrifice; and the sense of injustice will act as a corrosive. In the next place, the peace, however settled and however wise its terms-, must be applied to external circumstances, and these are constantly changing and making new demands. Hence, like every other law laid down, though permanent in principle, it is modified to some degree by every case on which it is brought to bear. It is not enough to rest the peace on firm foundations; these foundations, planted as they must be in the stream of changing events, must be kept in repair and continually strengthened. Even the Allied resolve on peace will have to be_constantly renewed, like every other good quality, whether national or individual. Good pur- poses decay when out of exercise. Virtues not in operation die. The State, like personal character, must be forever building-, if it is to be built at all. Need of a League of Nations and a permanent Organ. A most important and pressing consequence follows. The States of the world, even if they were all at one in their resolve to maintain a perfect peace, must have the