The Washington times., 1921-11-14
HISTORY YDOTTED
bYATTEMPT PTSTO
PREVENT WARS
Present Arms Conference Most
Likely to Succeed, Ayers
Noted Writer.
NEW WAYS FOR OLD
War Has Ceased to Be q
Profitable Business.
BY MARY ROBERTS RINEHART
Famous Authoress.


Famous Authoress.
In the winter Of 1912 eight men
Of different nationalities sat about
table in an obscure hunting lodge
in Europe. Before each man was
pen, ink, and writing pad and as
they discussed they made notes on
the pad. They had been called by
one of the great autocrats of the
world, and they were playing the
old game of hidden diplomacy. Their
counters were human lives and the
prizes were smaller nations. In the
center of the table lay a map Of Eu-
rope.
The Spy Outwitted.
Spies guarded the forest without,
and a spy, unsuspected, was among
them in the room. He brought In
the wood for the fire. But he got
nothing for his risk, for, when the
meeting was over each man tore his
memoranda into small bits. and him
self carried them to the fireplace and
burned them.
Such has been much of the worlds
diplomacy in the past. The noun
tains of Canada, the wild places Of
outh America, China, Africa, all have
seen these small and furtive meet
ings, and out Of not one of them
has come peace, but war. For peace
Is open, and war Is bred In dark
ness.
But to offset them have been
peace movements of various sorts. In
the tenth and eleventh centuries the
~F Cnd
which forbade fighting between Satur-
day night and Monday at noon. That
1t was generally used to polish armor
and to sharpen swards and battle
axes is beside the point. 1t operated
quite as effectively as more preten-
tious peace conferences since.
Since that time there have been in
Vulnerable conferences to promote
peace. After the Napoleonic wars
they sprang up like mushrooms,
talked and disbanded, without result
Since 1899 there have been eighteen
international peace conferences, all
OF them failures. Brought about by
the demand from below Of tax-burden-
ed. war-weary peoples. they have been
checked at the top by the ambition
or greed on the part of some govern
ing class or ruler. and by the i'm
possibility of obtaining concerted
action.
The 1907 Hague.
But In one thing. the most i'm
portant Of all these international con-
crosses, the one at The Hague in 1907,
felt that II had made a distinct step
forward. 1t had not succeeded in Sc
curing peace, but forty-four out of the
- 81
world had signed articles reducing as
far as possible the inhumanities Of
war.
1t forgot, however. or ignored the
fact that any laws may be broken by
any outlaw nation IL 1t is allowed to
arm to a point stronger than it's neigh
Dor. The Hague convention had tied
up the dog, but left 1t its teeth to
chew itself free when it put disarma-
ment on the table as unfinished busi-
ness"
How futile II was to make rules for
war under those circumstances Is
shown by the way in which Germany
violated her agreements the moment
she launched her great army. And
those humanitarian laws which had
been designed to lessen the suffering
and barbarity of war she broke first.
1t was, for instance, strictly forbid
den by The Hague convention to use
or deleterious gases. Ger
many used them as early as October.
1914, at the great battle Of Ypres.
Projectile or explosives were forbid
den to be launched from the air. and
dum-dum bullets were not to be used.
Undefended towns and buildings
were exempt from bombardment under
this agreement. Historical buildings
and monuments were forbidden to be
destroyed, and the right of pillage
after capture was denied to any COM
batant. All broken.
The rules made by the Geneva con-
vention in 1864 for the protection of
the sick and wounded were formally
adopted, some thirty of them. They
the absolute sanctity and
safety of all activities under the Red
Cross, protected doctors, nurses. hos
pitals, hospital ships and all human
itarian personnel, forbade the shelling
Of ambulances. and permitted the sal
wage of the dead and wounded.
German Infidelity.
The Hague convention also gave to a
rising en- masse the rights
and privileges of belligerents. Yet 1t
will be remembered that when the Bel
gian people rose they were met with
the reign Of terror.
The rights of neutrals were care
fully formulated and to be strictly re-
spected. And the Germans sank the
After a careful reading Of this mo-
mentous document, bulky and tech
nical, about the only rule which ap-
pears to have been observed in the
UNI nff
were to receive from their captors
Cultivate the International Sense, 20 much
needed In these momentous days. by reading