The weekly Alaska citizen., 1919-05-12

" "SJs NoUs OU TVeO0SsCN D. Maurice,
 (Former British Director.G General of Military Operations.) NEW YORK, Saturday. April 12.- In no country is opinion today unani- nous on the question Of the wisdom of establishing a league of nations. IL would be very surprising if it were for, tho the conception which is em- bodied in the league is by no means new, it is only in the last few months that it has entered into the realm of practical politics.
 Until the fiery trial thru which tn. old world has just passed had chang ed the whole outlook of the peoples, of Europe. those who advocated inter. national cooperation and the sub missions of international differences to arbitration were regarded as well meaning and harmless idealists on a par with the advocates of the broth. erhood of man.
 The world has long been accus toned to the advocacy of ideals by those who are sincerely convinced that they are desirable and overlook the practical difficulties in the way of their realization. It has shrugged it's shoulders and gone about it's busi. ness leaving the idealists to talk in their societies and at their meetings
 Now it suddenly finds itself face to face with an entirely new state of affairs. The advocates of the ideals are no longer irresponsible philan. thropists but are to be found amongst the leading statesmen of every coun- try. men charged with the practical administration of the worlds af. fairs.
 Realize Meaning of War
 What has brot this startling change about? It is the realization by most of those who are responsible for the government of peoples of the mean. ing of modern war. Looking back at the terrible experiences of the last four and one-half years they are aghast at the power of science when 1t turns it's energies to destruction, and they are appalled, at the pros pect of another world war, when sci. ence will have perfected means of scattering broadcast death and deso lation which are today but in embryo.
 The war has proved conclusively that no international agreements can be relied upon to limit the develop. ment of means of destruction when once the passions of men are fully reused and human imaginations can. not picture the potentialities in twenty years time of the airplane. the airship, the submarine and of poi son gas.
 At the outbreak of the war Great Britain was able to maintain thirty six airplanes in the fields on the western front, at the signature of the armistice we could keep 1000 COT stantly in commission and had the war gone on that number would have been very rapidly increased.
 The use of the airplane to attack troops in battle was. when hostilities ceased, still in the stage of experi- ment and development while we should almost certainly have been able to bomb every large town in Germany during the spring of this year. That is the result of little more than four years of progress in one element.
 Must End Destruction
 Thinking over these facts practical statesmen have come to the con. clusion that if human activity is to continue on these lines the end must be the destruction of that civilization which they are charged to foster. For their bitter experience has taught them how complete is the exhaustion of Europe. how changed the outlook of those whom they govern.
 The peoples of the old world have had the normal course of their exist ence suddenly and drastically chang ed. they have found that laws and customs they had regarded as the laws of the Medes and Persians, have under stress of dire necessity dis appeared or been changed. They are all today demanding better conditions of life, some immediate return for the sacrifices which they have made. In any circumstances it will be d task of appalling difficulty to satisfy