The Washington herald., 1918-06-25

OF the formation OF league OF ma
tons, the necessity Of such . plan
and the agreements necessary to the
success Of such . league. have been
fully set forth by viscount Grey. for
ner British foreign secretary. These
statements were given out by the
British Information Service. Viscount
Grey's statement, in part, follows:
This war IL the greatest trial Of
which there Is any record In history.
II war does not teach mankind new
lessons that will so dominate thought
and feeling of those who survive II
and those who succeed the survivors
a. to make new things possible. then
war Will be the greatest catastrophe
as well as the most grievous trial and
suffering Of which mankind has any
record.
Therefore. It does not follow that
q league OF nations to secure the
peace of the world will remain i'm
possible because 1t has not been pos
sible hitherto.
First the idea must be adopted
with earnestness and conviction by the
executive heads Of state. II must
become an essential part Of their po-
lltical policy. one OF their chief rea-
sons for being or continuing to be
responsible for the policy OF their
state.
This Country Observed.
Wilson and his country have had
In this matter the great advantage Of
having been for more than two years
and Q half before April. 1917. able to
observe the war as neutrals, free from
GnNn - nNz -.
all thought and energy Of belligerents.
They were able not only to observe
but to reflect and to draw conclusions
One Of the conclusions has been that
II the world OF which they form an
important part is to be saved from
what they consider disaster. they
must enter the war against Germany.
Another has been that II national
liberty and peace are to be secure
In future there must be q League of
Nations to secure them.
Germany has to be convinced that
force does not pay; that the policy
of her military rulers inhict intoler-
able and also unnecessary suffering
upon her and that when the world Is
free from menace OF these military
rulers, with their sharp swords,
shining armor and mailed fists, Ger
many will find peaceful development
assured and preferable to expansion
by war and will realize that con-
dition Of true security for one nation
Ia the sense Of security on the part
Of all nations.
Till Germany feels this to be true
there can be no League of Nations.
In the sense intended by President
Wilson
Second Condition.
The second condition essential
to the foundation of the mainte-
nance OF the League of Nations Is
that governments and peoples of the
States willing to found it under
stand clearly that it will impose
some limitation upon the national
action of each, and may entail some
inconvenisnt obligation. Smaller
and weaker nations will have the
rights that must be respected and
unheld by the league.
Stronger nations must forego the
right to make their interests prevail
against the weaker force, and all
States must forego the right in any
dispute to resort to force before
other methods of settlement by con-
ference, concilliation. or. IL need
be, arbitration have been tried.
This II limitation
The obligation is that IL any ma
tion will not observe this limita-
tion upon its national actions, IL it
breaks agreement which in the ba-
sis of the league, rejects all peace
full methods of settlement and re-
sorts to force against other nations,
they must one and all use their
combined force against II. The eco
nomic pressure that such league
could use would in itself be very
powerful, and the action Of some
OF the smaller States composing the
league could. perhaps. not go be-
yond the economic pressure, but
those States that have power must
be ready to use all force, economic,
military or naval, they possess.
GeFmans Broke Rule.
I'VE are now in the fourth year
OF the war. The application of
scientific knowledge and inventions
Of science during the war has made
1t more terrible and destructive
each year. The Germans have abro-
gated all previously accepted rules
of warfare. The use Of poisonous
gas. firing from the sea upon open
undefended towns, and the indis-
criminate bombing OF big cities from