New Ulm review., 1922-03-15


if necessary, overcome opposition to their
designs At the Hague Conference her
government frankly defended war and
armies as agencies Of international legls-
lation and it's militarism prevented those
conferences from moving in the direction
Of disarmament France assumes SINH
larly aggressive attitude in the existing
tableau Of Europe. Unless eVshe relaxes,
the Genoa Conference will fail as a sub
stitute for war as completely as the Hague
Conferences. AS long as France by virtue
of her military superiority, fiourishes a
foreign policy to which other nations
would not submit if it were not for her
military superiority, Mr.. Lloyd George
cannot substitute conference for war as
a method of bringing about political re-
adjustments in Europe. q.
We are calling attention to this char
acteristic Of conference as an agency Of
international adjustment because, if it
is not understood, its prestige as a method
which as the only possible substitute for
war and revolution. it is important to
preserve, may suffer from it's ill-advised
and careless use. Conference is govern
ment by unanimous consent. It consti-
tutes, as Mr.. Hughes pointed out in his
speech at the last plenary session Of the
Conference, the kind of tribunal session
of the Conference, the kind Of tribunal in
which the dissenting minority opinion
prevails. The power which it confers on
a minority of insisting on being consulted
is it's peculiar virtue, but it is a virtue
which in the present. state of international
public opinion brings with it corresponds
ing weakness For at present the neces-
sity of unanimity .confers more power
upon an unscrupulous, self-centred and
powerful minority than it does on one
which is scrupulous and disinterested.
A conference assemblies usually under
somewhat critical conditions. Decisions
are necessary. Every member of the con-
ference exposes himself to moral pressure
by the majority not to insist on his own
policy at the expense of breaking up the
conference IL In so far as the conference
is composed of members who are honestly
seeking fair adjustment by general con
sent, such pressure is desirable and useful,
but in so far as it's less scrupulous mem
bers may use it to coerce a reluctant as
sociate to consent to unprincipled deci-
sions, then it becomes a dubious tribunal
for disinterested nation to join. It was
predicament Of this kind in which Presi-
dent Wilson found himself in Paris. He
was the dissenting minority, but if he
pushed his dissent to the point of break
ing up the conference, he would expose
himself in weak position to the attack
Of his American enemies and could be
accused with plausibility of instigating
European revolution and postponing the
much needed peace. His motives for
agreeing to decisions of which he did not
approve were more powerful than those
of his associates, and they naturally took
advantage of his weakness. The result
was his signature Of the unprincipled bar
gain of the Treaty Of Versailles.
In his speech of Jan. 21st Mr.. Lloyd
George declared with entire truth that
the only possible escape from the existing
European snarl was! conference, and he
characterized conference as a method of
bringing the nations to the test Of reason
and not Of force These assertions are
to our mind emphatically and entirely
true, but they imply on the part Of
conference as a method Of bringing reason
rather than force to- bear on international
dissensions an infrmity against which the
more disinterested nations must guard.
If the majority Of the members of a con-
ference are seeking an agreement by con
sent and only one exceptionally powerful
nation opposes the general disposition, it
is, important that conference should pro-
vide some expedient to. deal with his pre-
dicament. Unless conferences are to be
blackmailed by intractable and unscrupu-
lous minorities, their members must face
the necessity of venting and sometimes
using. a non-physical weapon for over
coming the resistance Of the offender.
The most available weapon is obvious