Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1917-11-09

show her predetermined purpose 10 let
nothing however high or sacred, not even
the moral basis Of international relations,
interfere with the pursuit OF her military
or naval plans. Mr., Gerard reports that
in the interview which he had with the
Kaiser in May 1916 the Kaiser said ANY.
way there is no longer any international
law, and to that the Chancellor assented,
This is clearly the German position.
The restoration and reparation OF Bel.
GUM, the question OF Alsace Lorraine, the
Balkan problem, the German colonies, and
other such things, real and difficult prob
lens as they are, do not express the fun.
damental question at issue. The great
question underlying them all is whether
in fact justice as between nations as in.
terpreted by the rule of reason is again
to have authority in the world and to
command obedience Are we hereafter
to have any international law? II Ger.
man militarsm prevails, there is no fu.
ture for il in our generation at least, bHi
| German mih6ayiJm Is net ygoiRg 10 prevail
CAt this point the speaker was loudly ap.
plauded.) The authority of justice and
reason in international relations is going
to be restored but international law thus
reestablished must of necessity be
strengthened and perfected. think We
can predict with reasonable assurance
some of the ways in which that will be
done. Let us consider them.
One OF the most obvious results Of the
war will be the increased influence and
authority of the people in international
relations The trend towards democracy;
that is, towards republics or some form
OF government directly responsible to
public opinion, is clearly ioreshadowed ;
and the more the people OF country par.
ticipate in its governmental affairs, the
larger the control they must necessarily
exercise over its international relations.
This greater participation of the people
in the conduct OF international relations
must necessarily result in the discontin.
uanCe Of anything like secret treaties.
They are the natural implements of abso.
lutte governments and OF intrigue and are
wholly Incompatible with popular gov
ernmentS and straightforward dealing.
This by no means however, implies the
abolition of secret diplomacy, for diplo.
macy in its very nature must be more or
less secret and confidential.
There is one thing, not part of dplo.
macy but by custom attached to it, which
ought to be abolished, and that is the
presence of military and naval attaches
in connection with embassies and lega.
tons. The system is wrong in principle.
1t contemplates the reception into a
country Of military and naval officers,
freed by diplomatic immunity from the
authority of the law when it is perfectly
well known that the only purpose of their
being there is to seek out information re.
garding military and naval resources and
plans
look also as a result of the war to see
the rules of international law more clear
ly defined and perhaps even codifed, The
moral basis of international law is immu-
table and its great essential principles
are well established, but their application
to immediate cases in view of the great
changes of all kinds which have come
into the world in recent years is not so
clear
There has always been much discussion
whether in fact the accepted rules govern
ing international relations were entitled to
be called law at all A law, as we ordi.
narily understand it, whether it be divine
or human, implies some superior author.
ity with power to enforce it, Inter
national law to considerable degree at
least has lacked this one essential element
of a law.
In eor,o ,,,o,, nv IL, soma form, thara &c
bound to come an authority superior to
the law of any one nation and that supe
rior authority will give at last to inter
national law that sanction for which it
has been waiting so long
Another great change which | believe
with equal confidence will come into in
ternatonal law is that its enforcement
will be regarded not as the concern of the
nations alone Immediately affected but in
many cases as the concern of all. Here
tofore in international law there has been
no well defined and generally accepted
principle which has made disputes be-
tween two nations the concern of the
whole world AS matter of policy other
nations have sometimes interviewed, but
upon the ground that its interests were
affected. In the future the world is not
going to consider international disputes
as necessarily limited to the nations i'm
mediately involved. There will be plenty |
of such questions so limited, just as there
are in municipal law, but as in municipal
law there are certain things which the
state considers as an attack upon its |
peace and security so hereafter in inter
national law certain acts will be regarded .
as derogatory of the peace and safety of
the world. In international law we shall
have criminal as well civil procedure.
Whether or not the relations of nations
should rest upon moral or wholly I'M
moral basis is not new conflict in the
world In 1913, almost exactly four Centu-
ries ago Machiaveli, whose name has be-
come attached to all that is bad in diplo-
macy, set forth in his book entitled The
Prince" the present German doctrine that