The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-01-22
lNrERNATIC NAL PEACE.

! The Advertiser has very fully treated
| the Asiatic issues, which are now Il
the balance, alternately inclining either
way. The longer an ultimatum is de
| layed. the more chance there is of at
least temporary peace. 1t is probable
| that there may be two or three great
conflicts in the world before questions
| that are beyond arbitration are definite
| ~ closed.
The trend in the direction of aInicable
settlement of international difficulties,
however, is very marked and progress
sive. The United States has borne a
most honorable and effective part in
this movement, which may be said to
have originated, if we leave out VIII
liam Penn and his Quaker followers,
with the Swiss Confederation. In 1895
our Government was chiefly instru-
mental in influencing seventeen Amer
lean states to adopt the rule of arbi-
tration, to which a strong impulse had
been given in the Venezuelan dispute,
by the action of President Cleveland.
which secured the cooperation of Great
Britain. King Edwards recent visit
to France, which had an important
bearing upon the adoption of the pres
ent arbitration treaty between that Re-
public and the British Government, was
not only well-timed and admirably
managed, but it was a practical appli-
cation of a policy to which the great
and good Queen Victoria had largely
consecrated her life.
The establishment of The Hague
Tribunal, as the result of a conference
originally proposed by the Gar. was
a long step in advance. The refusal
of President Roosevelt to act as arbi-
traitor in that part of the recent diff
culties between Great Britain and Ger
many on the one side and Venezuela on
the other which was susceptible of that
mode of settlement, and the reference
to the International Court, gave Wig
orous impetus to the peace movement.
Frenchmen are taking a very conspicu-
Gus place, and it really seems that
point of union between the Teutonic
and Latin races has been uncovered.
If the news be correct that, notwith
standing it's sentimental friendship for
Russia, France declined in advance to
agree to become an ally of Russia, if
Great Britain should unite with Japan,
then at least one anticipation of the
has been realized. The
signs just now are pointing that way.
The economic argument for peace, as i
a necessity to the preservation of
has lately been pressed !
with crushing force. At the Internal
sional Congress of Peace, held last
at Rouen and Havre, the !
treaty was apostro-
phized as ga new way of SALVATION
and NJ. Trouillot, the French Minister
If Commerce, in one of the most irref-
'agable arguments and eloquent
speeches of the Twentieth Century, in
Tited the attention of the great Powers
@ the fact that, during each of thirty
'ears of armed peace, ten billions of
rancs or two billions of dollars had
'een expended in preparations for war.
The staggering aggregate is three hun
n dollars. In the French Chamber of
Deputies short time ago. NJ. Descha-
iel said that, in view of modern ten
Iencies, France desired to be in the
an of the most advanced policy and
ad no desire for the partition of Mo-
Deco or for the conquest of Siam. !
Baron d Estournelles de Constant be- +.
ore the French Deputies also warmly ;
commended President Roosevelt's sup
ort of The Hague Tribunal, as pouring
igor and consistency into the columns
lg made, with reasonable prospects. OF
uccess, to revive the Hay-Pauncefote
'reaty, which, in the United States :
enate in 1897, failed by a close vote.
In all directions the exigencies of
lodern civilization, displayed by in
facts and figures, and in
erpreted not only by statesmen and
ublicists but by scientific, philoso- :
hical, commercial, financial and in
ustrial bodies, are forcing the in
yitable conclusion. There may be d
wv unavoidable wars. but the dawn {
peace is clearly visible. q
X, coming from the seaside, was &C >