Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1920-10-22

COVENANT GIVES EXPLANATION |
OF VITAL PROVISIONS.
New York, Oct. 16.-The no.
ton that the League of Nations |
can have any power to send
troops to war is charac-
terized as a campaign delusion
born of political necessity" by
David Hunter Miller, who was
an expert advisor to the Ameri.
can Peace Commission in Paris.
With J. B. Hurst, of the British,
Foreign Office, Mr.. Miller drew
up the final covenant of the
League of Nations.
Miller recently returned from
Europe, where he has been
studying conditions and observ-
ing the League of Nations. He
lis a prominent member of the
New York bar, and during the
war served as a special assistant
in the State Department. He
first went to Paris soon after the
armistice as a member Of the
mission of Col E. M. House.
1.-THE idea that the League of
Nations has or could have any
power to direct any portion of
] the military forces of the United
States to engage in foreign wars.
or any other wars, is a campaign
deiusion born of political neces-
sity," Mr.. Miller said, ANY
| man who seriously put forward
any such idea outside of the
United States would be laughed
at if it could be supposed that
anyone would listen to him.
Every one has heard of the
French proposal at Paris to add
a clause to the covenant provid-
i ing that the League of Nations
should have an international
military force. The French idea
was that for the protection of
France and of any country sim
llarly situated to France, some
sort of international military
force was necessary. The pro.
lposal was not accepted, but how
Iabsurd it would have been tc
make it, if the league had power
Ito direct the American army and
1.-THE British navy to engage in
lwar.
| In the otncial commentary of
the Swiss government regarding
| Article X of the covenant, it is
Isaid :
The council according to this
Particle may give only counsel
| (advice) and not direct orders. 81
| This official commentary of
the Swiss government was made
UP for the purpose of advising
1.-THE Swiss people as to the exact
meaning of the covenant in ad.
vance OF their plebiscite as to the
entry of Switzerland into the
league; and to no country in the
lworld did entrance into the lea
lgue mean as much as it does to
Switzerland. A democratic re-
public, the home of liberty in the
center of Europe; country made
Iup of diverse racial elements; a
|eountry which has a century-old
traditions Of neutrality in every
conceivable war, and a country
lot feeble military strength, ex.
Icept possibly for some purposes of
defence. Switzerland is state
whose vital interest were more
bound up in a new world order
than those of the greatest and
most powerful republic in the
world could possibly be.
No amount of misrepresenta->
ton and no amount of deliberate
alsehood can conceal the fact
that Article x provides only for
advice; and so restricted are its
provisions that there cannot even
be advice if any one sitting in
the council dlssents. Those who
are mlsrepresenting the provis-
ions OF the covenant, in the hope
that misrepresentation will aid
in gratifying their lust for public
place, are driven first to say that
advice means compulsion-that
is to say that, after all, while
advice does mean advice, Con-
gress would in some way or other
be constrained to vote as it was
advised-an insult to our nat
lonal legislation which century
and quarter disproves.
The fact is that Artical x of
the covenent is a thought for
peace and not for war. The
article contemplates the union of