Evening star., 1944-09-01
Doom Of World Peoce
Seen With Coercion
Lawrence Warns of Undue Stress
on Use of Armed Forces
BY Dapid Laurence.


on Use of Armed Forces
BY David Laurence.
An undue emphasis is being placed on
the steps which the proposed interna-
tional security league is to take to pre-
serve world peace. All the discussion
thus far outside the conference here
seems to imply that physical force will
prove absolutely necessary whereas
among the representatives of the Unit
ed States, Great Britain and Russia, the
chief consideration is how to conduct
the new international organization SO
that the use Of military force will be
unnecessary.
Any organization which starts with
the premise that coercion by armed
forces is the only way to bring about
peace IS doomed to failure. For this
would mean merely the establishment
OF armed balances Of power.
World peace is feasible only when
there Is . prevention Of the sundry
causes that lead up to disturbances in
an area and they are kept from becoming
intensified over 4 wider area Any In
ternational organization which depends
by analogy on the fire apparatus alone
to do all the work and neglects fire pre-
vention Is not likely to succeed While
fires do occur, modern science and Or
ganization keep them from devastating
property and causing the extensive loss
nf
Nationalistic Questions.
So 1t is with war. The causes of war
can be divided into those which are sus-
ceptible of handling by a court and
those that arise, for instance, out of
nationalism or materialism or national
prides. The latter have been termed
"nonjusticiable" because they are not
legal but national questions and can
be settled only by disinterested tribunals
In the field OF diplomacy II settled at
all.
The world has not had any machin-
cry to deal with the nationalistic Ques-
tions that come out of the rights of
sovereign nations to do as they please.
The proposed world organization wiz
place a restraint on the right Of a ma
ton to disturb the peace. Thee wa,
In the Kellogg BRAND treaties q uni
versal declaration against aggression but
there was no provision to aid the VIC
tins of aggression or to defeat the
aggressor.
The devastating nature of this war
has brought sharply into focus the need
for international machinery to make all
sovereign nations behave so that threat
against world peace by any one of them
becomes . threat against all the rest
Of them.
But 1t is vital that a dispute not be
allowed to reach the point of national
anger which leads to an outbreak of
hostilities or starts the people Of q given
nation to thinking in terms OF more
armament 50 as to secure subsequently
by force that which Is being denied them
by the processes Of reason or persua-
sion.
So the new world organization will
provide many devices to get at the
roots Of war. One, Of course, Is to be
an international court of justice to deal
with legal questions and re-establish
codes of international law. Another Is
to develop machinery of investigation
80 that full publicity can be given to
disputes In their incipient stages and
ultimately a decision or report made by
the international security league.
No Coercion 1t Outset.
Nations will not be coerced from the
outset. They will be given every op-
portunity for anlicable adjustment of
disputes and for full debate It is only
when warnings from the executive
council or the assembly, or both, are
disregarded that the mechanism for
forcing disputants to accept arbitra-
tion or for the decision of impartisl
tribunals will be invoked. Indeed, it
is expected that the mere knowledge
that at the end of all the debating
processes lies the club Of force that will
bring about the adjustment of most
disputes before they can nare into
serious friction.
Member nations and nonmembers
would stand to lose so many advan-
tages by failing to cooperate that it
doesn't seem likely that the peace
OF the world will be disturbed again
unless it is disturbed by Russia or the
United States or Britain-the three
most powerful nations in the world.
The international organization would,
OF course, exclude from the council
any nation which has a dispute so it
could not vote on its own controversy.
The public opinion of the world can
alone restrain Britain, Russia and the
United States no matter how strongly
worded is the charter Of the proposed
organization, and it is because these
nations are trustees OF the peace Of
mankind that emphasis must inevitably
turn on the development Of their respon-
sibilities toward one another rather than
on the measures they are going to
take to enforce peace among other
nations.
The hope of the world still lies In tn.
voice OF reason and in the removal of
those economic conditions which bring
anarchy inside . nation and lead peo-
pie In desperation to follow any leader
even to war as q means of survival.
Reproduction Rishts Reserved.)
Nerve Warfare