Welsh Journals

League as a Grand Alliance of States or as a World Unity. Are the Minorities to be treated, despite their protest and our English appeal, as the spoils of war, compensations perhaps to their present op- pressors for their past sufferings themselves? It depends if you look at them through the large end of the telescope. Are the Mandates to be made the excuse and occasion of exploitation or of eventual emanci- pation ? It depends whether you make the Covenant an instrument of justice or a cloak for tyranny. On one and all of these issues battle will be joined in Geneva this September. There will be THE PROBLEM OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY* OPINIONS no doubt differ as to what is the problem of the Twentieth Century. To some the abolition of cancer and poverty or the revival of religion and culture might seem the most important activity of mankind. The author of this remarkable book is, however, con- vinced that the abolition of war is by far the most immediate and urgent problem and it is probable that the majority of thinking people would agree with him. For if war remains as the dominant force in human relationships it may well happen that civilisation will almost disappear from large portions of the globe and with it all possibility of solving the other pressing problems of our time. If war, however, can be abolished, so much energy and power will be liberated for construct- ive effort that a new era in human progress will be begun. Though for centuries prophets, thinkers and scholars have made endless schemes to solve the problem, it was not until the horrors of the last war had brought the League of Nations into exist- ence that a practical plan was given a trial in the modern world. But Mr. Davies, while not be- littling the great advance made in the League, of which he has been from the first one of the fore- most advocates and supporters, is convinced that more remains to be done before the problem is solved. The result is this book of 800 pages, which is by far the most comprehensive survey of the subject ever attempted. The kernel of the book is a scheme for the crea- tion of an International Police Force, as the author prefers to call it, though by his own "The Problem of the Twentieth Century," by David Davies. London. Ernest Benn. 21/ no "crises," not even France and Italy will let their smouldering fires blaze up while the English Foreign Secretary is handy near by with his hose- pipe of cold water commonsense. But fiercely in every field these differences will be contested. Those who believe in this League with all its follies, weaknesses, and perhaps crimes, will watch anxiously to see if those who are fighting with the English can make of Peace the sublime understanding, the positive concep- tion of justice which ennobled the discourse of the Prince of Siam, or whether the others will make of it the panting respite of the gladiator before the next bloody onslaught. definition it has the organisation and weapons of ar Army, Navy and Air Force. Mr. Davies is, however, above all concrete, and in order to show that his idea is practicable, he is led into a con- sideration of other world machines which will be necessary if such a Force is to come into exist- ence. He has found it necessary, therefore, to work out the plan for a World State, in which the supreme international authority will be able to decide all international disputes and enforce the decisions with overwhelming force if they are challenged by any member or group of members of the community, of nations. Indeed, so anxious is Mr. Davies to meet all possible objections that he has tried to set them out fairly and in detail and to answer them in the book itself. Some- times it must be confessed he has gone outside his subject, as when he defends competition in business or condemns the "dole," neither of them theses which are germane to the main theme of the book. But this is only an occasional exuber- ance of spirit and almost all the 800 pages con- centrate a wealth of information and argument, often illustrated with timely and telling illustra- tions, in order to convince the most sceptical mind that only by the provision of concrete inter- national sanctions can peace be made secure. Mr. Davies urges that for ten years the League has attempted to reduce and limit armaments and has dismally failed because it has refused to tackle the problem of security. Security in inter- national affairs, he claims, can only be obtained by the same process as in national affairs, viz., the organisation of a Police Force controlled by an executive to protect the nations from attack and enforce the decrees of an International Court. He works out in great detail the means by which