Norwich bulletin., 1919-07-11

was to be secured, the authority with out which, as they had come to see it, it would be difficult to give assured effect either to this treaty or to any other international understanding up- on which they were to depend for the maintenance of peace. The fact that the covenant of the league was the first substantive part of the treaty to be worked out and agreed upon, while all else was in solution. helped to make the formulation of the rest easier. The conference was, after all, not to be ephemeral.
 Concert of Nations Was to Continue.
 The concert of nations was to con- tinue, under a definite covenant which had been agreed upon and which all were convinced was workable. They could go forward with confidence to make arrangements intended to be permanent The most practical of the conferees were at last the most ready to refer to the league of nations the superintendence of all interests which did not admit of immediate determi- na ton, of all administrative problems which were to require a continuing overnight-what had seemed a Goun- sel of perfection had come 10 seem a plain counsel of necessity. The league of nations was the practical states mans hope of success in many or the most difficult things he was attempt ing.
 And it had validated itself in the thought of every member of the con- ference as something much bigger, instrument for carrying out the pro- visions of a particular treaty. It was universally recognized that all the peoples of the world demanded of the conference that it should create such a continuing concert of free nations as would make wars of aggression and spoliation such as this that has just ended forever impossible. A cry had gone out from every home in every stricken land from which sons and brothers and fathers had gone forth to the great sacrifice that such sacri- flee should never again be exacted. It had been exacted because one nation desired dominion and other nati / ; had known no means of defence eN- cept armamentS and alliances.
 War had lain at the heart of every arrangement of the Europe-of every of the world-that pre- ceded the war. Festive peoples had been told that fleets and armies, which they toiled to sustain, meant peace; and they now knew that they had been lied to; that fleets and armies had been maintained to promote na- tional ambitions and meant war. They knew that no old policy means any thing else but force. force-always force And they knew that it was in- tolera ble. Every true heart in the world, and every enlightened judg ment demanded that at whatever cost of independent action, every govern ment that took thought for it's people or for justice or for ordered freedom should lend itself to a new purpose and utterly destroy the old order of politics. Statesmen might see difficulties, but the people could see none and could brook no denial. A war in which they had been bled white to beat the terror that lay concealed in every balance. The monster that had resorted to arms must be put in chains that could not be broken. The l united power of free nations muGt put a stop to aggression. and the world must be given peace. If there was not i the will or the intelligence to accon7 plish that now. there muse be anotl / and a final war and the world must I be swept clean of every power that | could renew the terror.
 The league of nations was not mere | ly an instrument to adjust and rem | edy old wrongs under a new treaty | of peace. it was the only hope fer l mankind. Again and again had the | demon of war been cast out of the | house of the peoples and the house swept clean by a treaty of peace, only | to prepare a time when he would en- ter in again with spirits worse than | himself.
 The house must now be given a ten- ant who could hold it against all | such. Convenient, indeed indispensa- ole, as statesmen found the newly planned league of nations to be for
 ~>1tinued on Page Thirteen)