TOWARDS THE PEACE THAT SHALL LAST

War must pass away like human sacrifice.

At every stage of warfare in the past, men and women in all nations have endeavored to abate and lessen it. Their repeated endeavors have been answered by repeated wars, until the present war in Europe completes the works of death, desolation, and tyranny.

In spite of this, these protests against war are destined to succeed; as once before in the history of the race, the sentiment of pity, of respect for human life, called a halt to senseless slaughter.

There came a time in the history of the Greek and Jewish people when a few set their faces against human sacrifice as a religious rite of their highest faith,—bound up, like our wars, with old fealties and solemn customs and with their most desperate fears. Humble men and women, out of sheer affection for their kind, revolted. In face of persecution and ridicule, they warned their countrymen that in pouring human blood upon altars to the gods, they wrought upon their kind more irreparable wrong than any evil against which they sought to forefend. Finally, there came to be enough people with courage and pity sufficient to carry a generation with them; and human sacrifice became a thing of the past.

It took the human race many centuries to rid itself of human sacrifice; during many centuries more it relapsed again and again in periods of national despair. So have we fallen back into warfare, and perhaps will fall back again and again, until in self-pity, in self-defense, in self-assertion of the right of life, not as hitherto, a few, but the whole people of the world, will brook this thing no longer.

OUR RIGHT TO PROTEST

We have a right to protest against war.

By that opportunity, now ours as never before, to weigh the case against war and to draw the counts from burning words spoken by those who protest and who are of all peoples—we make single judgment and complete indictment.

By that good fortune which has placed us outside the conflict; by that ill fortune by which the belligerent and his rights have heretofore bestrode the world; by mine-strewn channels, and by international codes which offer scant redress—we speak as people of a neutral nation.

By the unemployed of our water-fronts, and the augmented misery of our cities; by the financial depression which has curtailed our school building and crippled our works of good-will; by the sluicing of human impulse among us from channels of social development to the back-eddies of salvage and relief—we have a right to speak.

By the hot anger and civil strife that we have known; by our pride, vain-glory, and covetousness; by the struggles we have made for national integrity and defense of our hearthstones; by our consciousness that every instinct and motive and ideal at work in this war, however lofty or however base, has had some counterpart in our national history and our current life—we can speak a common language.

By that comradeship among nations which has made for mutual understanding; by those inventions which have bound us in communication and put the horrors of war at our doors; by the mechanical contrivances which multiply and intensify those horrors; by the quickening human sympathies which have made us sensitive to the hurts of others—we can speak as fellow-victims of this great oppression.

By our heritage from each embattled nation; by our debt to them for languages and faiths and social institutions; for science, scholarship and invention; by the broken and desolated hearts that will come to us when the war ends; by our kinships and our unfeigned friendships—we can speak as brothers.

By all these things, we hold the present opportunity for conscience-searching and constructive action to be an especial charge upon us; upon the newcomers among us from the fatherlands; and upon the joint youth of all the peoples of the two Americas.

WHAT WAR HAS DONE AND IS DOING

Its Blights

War has blighted Life.

War has brought low our conception of the preciousness of human life as slavery brought low our conception of human liberty.

It has benumbed our growing sense of the nurture of life; and at a time when we were challenging Reichstag, Parliament, and Congress with the needlessness of infant mortality and child labor, it entrenches a million youths with cold and fever and impending death.

It has violated humanity.

It has thwarted the chance of our times toward the fulfilment of life, and scattered like burst shrapnel the hands of the sculptors and the violinists, the limbs of the hurdlers and swimmers, the sensitive muscles of the mechanics and the weavers, the throats of the singers and the interpreters, the eyes of the astronomers and the melters—every skilled and prescient part of the human body, every type of craft and competence of the human mind.

It has set back our promptings toward the conservation of life; and in a decade when England and France and Russia, Germany and Austria and Belgium, have been working out social insurance against the hazards of peace, it throws back upon the world an unnumbered company of the widowed and the fatherless, and of aged parents left bereft and destitute.

It has blocked our way toward the ascent of life, and in a century which has seen the beginnings of effort to upbuild the common stock, has cut off from parenthood the strong, the courageous and the high-spirited.

Its Injuries

It has in its development of armaments, pitted human flesh against machinery.

It has wrested the power of self-defense from the hands of free-men who wielded lance and sword and scythe, and has set them as machine-tenders to do the bidding of their masters.

It has turned effort into destruction.

It has brought strange men to the door-sills of peaceful people; men like their own men, bearing no grudges one against another; men snatched away from their fields and villages where their fathers lie buried, to kill and burn and destroy till this other people are driven from their homes of a thousand years or sit abject and broken.

It has stripped farms and ruined self-sustaining communities, and poured into a bewildered march for succor, the crippled and aged and bedridden, the little children and the women great with child unborn.

It has razed the flowing lines in which the art and aspiration of earlier generations expressed themselves, and has thus waged war upon the dead.

It has tortured and twisted the whole social fabric of the living.

It has burdened our children and our children’s children with a staggering load of debt.

It has inundated the lowlands of the world’s economy with penury and suffering unreckonable, hopelessly depressing standards of living already much too low.

It has rent and trampled upon the net-work of world cooperation in trade and craftsmanship which had made all men fellow-workers.

It has whetted a lust among neutral nations to profit by furnishing the means to prolong its struggles.

It has blasted our new internationalism in the protection of working women and children.

It has distracted our minds with the business of destruction and stayed the forward reach of the builders among men.

It has conscripted physician and surgeon, summoning them from research and the prolongation of life to the patchwork of its wreckage.

It has sucked into its blood and mire our most recent conquests over the elements—over electricity, and air and the depths of ocean; and has prostituted our prowess in engineering, chemistry and technology, to the service of terror and injury.

It has bent our achievements in transportation into runways, so that neither volcanoes nor earthquakes, nor the rat-holes of famine, but only the plagues can match war in unbounded disaster.

Its Wrongs

It has in its compulsory service made patriotism a shell, empty of liberty.

It has set up the military independent of and superior to the civil power.

It has substituted arbitrary authority and the morals of foot-loose men who escape identity in the common uniform, for the play of individual conscience, and that social pressure which in household and village, in neighborhood and State, makes for individual responsibility, for decency, and fair play.

It has battened on apathy, unintelligence and helplessness such as surrender the judgment and volition of nations into a few hands; and has nullified rights and securities, such as are of inestimable value to the people and formidable to tyrants only.

It has threatened the results of a hundred martyrdoms and revolutions, and put in jeopardy those free governments which make possible still newer social conquests.

It has crushed under iron heels the uprisings of civilization itself.

Its Evils

It has poisoned intelligence.

It has turned the towers of art and science into new Babels, so that our philosophers, and men of letters, our physicists and geographers, our economists and biologists and dramatists, speak in strange tongues, and to hate each other has become a holy thing among them.

It has made were-wolves of neighboring peoples, in the imaginations of each other.

It has put its stamp upon growing boys and girls, and taught them to hate other children who have chanced to be born on the other side of some man-made boundary.

It has massed and exploded the causes of strife, fostering religious antagonisms and racial hates, inbreeding with the ugliest strains of commercialism, perverting to its purposes the increase of over-dense populations and their natural yearning for new opportunities for enterprise and livelihood.

It has not only shattered men’s breasts, but loosened the black fury of their hearts; so that in rape, and cruelty, and rage, we have ancient brutishness trailing at the heels of all armies.

It has found a world of friends and neighbors, and substituted a world of outlanders and aliens and enemies.

It has lessened the number of those who feel the joys and sorrows of all peoples as of their own.

It has strangled truth and paralyzed the power and wish to face it, and has set up monstrous and irreconcilable myths of self-justification.

It has mutilated the human spirit.

It has become a thing which passeth all understanding.

STRIKING HANDS

We must join in throwing off this tyranny.

We have heard the call from overseas of those who have appealed to men and women of good-will in all nations to join with them in throwing off this tyranny upon life.

We must go further; we must throw open a peace which shall be other than a shadow of old wars and a prelude to new. We do more than plead with men to stay their hands from killing. We hail living men. As peace-lovers, we are charged with the sanctity of human life; as democrats and freemen we are charged with its sovereignty.

By the eight million natives of the warring States living among us without malice or assault one upon another, let us leave the occasions of fighting no longer for idle war boards to decide.

By the blow our forebears struck at barbarism when they took vengeance out of private hands, let us wrest the manufacture of armaments and deadly weapons from the gun-mongers and powder-makers who gain by it.

By those electric currents that have cut the ground from under the old service of diplomacy, and spread the new intelligence, let us put the ban upon intrigue and secret treaties.

For we hold that not soldiers, nor profit-takers, nor diplomats, but the people who suffer and bear the brunt of war should determine whether war must be; that with ample time for investigation and publicity of its every cause and meaning, with recourse to every avenue for mediation and settlement abroad, war should come only by the slow process of self-willing among men and women who solemnly publish and declare it to be a last and sole resort.

America must lead the nations.

With our treated borderland, 3000 miles in length without fort or trench from the Atlantic to the Pacific, which has helped weld us for a century of unbroken peace with our neighbors to the north, we would spread faith not in entrenched camps but in open boundaries.

With the pacts of our written constitutions before us which bind our own sovereign States in amity, we are convinced that treaty-making may be lifted to a new and inviolable estate, and lay the foundations for that world organization which for all time shall make for peace upon earth and good-will among men.

With our experience in lesser conflicts in industrial life, which have none the less embraced groups as large as armies, have torn passions and rasped endurance to the uttermost, we can bear testimony that at the end of such strife as cleaves to the heart of things, men are disposed to lay the framework of their relations in larger molds than those which broke beneath them.

With our ninety million people drawn from Alpine and Mediterranean, Danubean, Baltic, and Slavic stocks; with a culture blended from these different affluents, we hold that progress lies in the predominance of none; and that the civilization of each nation needs to be refreshed by that cross-breeding with the genius and the type of other human groups, that blending which began on the coast lands and islands of the Ægean Sea where European civilization first drew its sources from the Euphrates and the Nile.

We must lead through our own ideals in the war on war.

With memories of the tyranny which provoked our Revolution, with the travail still upon us by which we in our turn have paid for the enslavement of a people, with the bitterness only now assuaged which marked our period of mistrust and reconstruction, we bear witness that boundaries should be set where not force, but justice and consanguinity direct; and that, however boundaries fall, liberty and the flowering-out of native cultures should be secure.

With our fair challenge to the spirit of the East and to the chivalry of the West in standing for the open door in China when that Empire, now turned Republic, was threatened by dismemberment, we call for the freeing of the ports of every ocean from special privilege based on territorial claims, throwing them open with equal chance to all who by their ability and energy can serve new regions to their mutual benefit.

With the faith we have kept with Cuba, the regard we have shown for the integrity of Mexico and our preparations for the independence of the Philippine Islands, we urge the framing of a common colonial policy which shall put down that predatory exploitation which has embroiled the West and oppressed the East and shall stand for an opportunity for each latent and backward race to build up according to its own genius.

By our full century of ruthless waste of forest, ore and fuel; by the vision which has come to us in these latter days of conserving to the permanent uses of the people, the water power and natural wealth of our public domain, we propose the laying down of a planetary policy of conservation.

For the sake of freedom.

By that tedium and monotony of life and labor for vast companies of people, which when war drums sound, goads the field worker to forsake his harvest and the wage-earner to leap from his bench, we hold that the ways of peace should be so cast as to make stirring appeal to the heroic qualities in men, and give common utterance to the rhythm and beauty of national feeling.

By the joy of our people in the conquest of a continent; by the rousing of all Europe, when the great navigators threw open the new Indies and the New World, we stand for such a scheming-out of our joint existence that the achieving instincts among men, not as one nation against another, nor as one class against another, but as one generation after another, shall have freedom to come into their own.

Jane Addams, Lillian Wald, Paul U. Kellogg.

APPENDIX
PEACE PROPOSALS AND PROGRAMS

PEACE PROPOSALS AND PROGRAMS
1. INTERNATIONAL

Neutral Conference for Continuous Mediation, Stockholm

Ford Neutral Conference at Stockholm.

To the Governments, Parliaments and Peoples of the Warring Nations:

A conference composed of delegates from six neutral countries—Denmark, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States—has been convened at Stockholm upon the initiative of Henry Ford to work for the achievement of an early and lasting peace, based upon principles of justice and humanity. This conference represents no government. It has no official sanction. It represents the good will of millions throughout the civilized world who cannot stand idly by while the deadly combat rages unchecked. It does not attempt to impose its judgment upon the belligerents, but its members, as private individuals, unhampered by considerations which restrain governments, have resolved to do everything within their power to promote such discussion as may tend to bring the belligerents together on just and reasonable terms.

Through a thousand channels utterances have already reached the conference pleading that a long continuance of the struggle will mean ruin for all, but as both sides believe that only complete victory can decide the issue, ever new sacrifices of blood and treasure are made, exhausting the present and impoverishing the future. Still, we are convinced that an agreement between the warring nations might even now be reached were certain universal principles to be accepted as a basis of discussion; principles which cannot be violated with impunity, whatever the military results of the war.

The first duty of a neutral conference, then, is to call attention to those universal principles and concrete proposals upon which agreement seems possible, and upon which there may be founded a peace that will not only satisfy the legitimate demands of the warring nations themselves, but also advance the welfare of humanity at large. The neutral conference does not propose to discuss all the issues at stake. Nor does it desire to set forth a plan for the construction of a perfect world. But it emphasizes the universal demand that peace, when it comes, shall be real, insuring mankind against the recurrence of a world war. Humanity demands a lasting peace.

In presenting this appeal to governments, parliaments and peoples for discussion and comment the neutral conference hopes that no formal objection may prevent its sympathetic consideration both by those in authority and by the people whom they represent.

(A) Right of Nations to Decide Their Own Fate.—History demonstrates that dispositions contrary to the wishes of the peoples concerned bring with them the danger of future wars of liberation. Hence the acceptance of these principles appears generally to be regarded as an essential prerequisite to the satisfactory settlement of this war; namely, that no transfer of territory should take place without the consent of the population involved, and that nations should have the right to decide their own fate.

It follows that the restoration of Belgium must first be agreed upon before there can be an understanding between the belligerent powers. Furthermore, the occupied French territory should be returned. A reconsideration of the difficult Alsace-Lorraine question is also an absolute necessity. The independence of Serbia and Montenegro should be assured.

In its wider interpretation, the principle of the right of nations to decide their own fate postulates the solution of a problem like the Polish question by guaranteeing the union of the Polish nation as an independent people. Further applications would be the adjustment of the frontiers between Austria and Italy, as far as possible, according to the principle of nationality; autonomy for Armenia under international guarantee, and the solution of various national questions in the Balkans and in Asiatic Turkey by international agreement.

(B) Economic Guarantees.—Economic competition is generally admitted to be one of the causes of the present war. Hence the demand becomes more and more insistent that the economic activity of all peoples should be afforded development on equal terms. The recognition of the principle of the open door in the colonies, protectorates, and spheres of influence would be an important step in this direction, as would also the internationalization of certain waterways, e. g., the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus. The German colonies ought to be returned, the exchange of colonies made possible by satisfactory compensation, and Germany’s access to the Near East guaranteed.

(D) Parliamentary Control of Foreign Policy.—Effective parliamentary control of foreign policy should be established, so that secret treaties and secret diplomacy may no longer endanger the most vital interests of the nation.

(E) International Organization.—Far more important, however, for the welfare of humanity than the solutions thus far suggested is the creation of an international organization, founded, upon law and justice, which would include an agreement to submit all disputes between States for peaceful settlement. Hence the almost universal opinion that in the coming treaty of peace the principle of such an international order of justice must be accepted.

(F) Disarmament.—Equally important with the insistence upon an international organization is the demand that disarmament be brought about by international agreement.

(G) A World Congress.—In order to bring about the creation of an international order of justice it will be necessary to secure the adherence thereto of both belligerents and neutrals. The difficulties that result from the present catastrophe do not affect the warring nations alone. They affect the whole world. In their settlement the whole world should participate. A world congress should therefore be called together. Such a congress should concern itself with more than the immediate questions arising out of this war. Problems like that of guaranteeing political and spiritual freedom to special nationalities united with other peoples, though not direct issues of this war, are nevertheless of vital importance to the future maintenance of peace.

In the foregoing an attempt has been made to suggest a possible approach to the task of uniting again the international bonds that have been torn asunder in this fratricide war. Whatever may be the ultimate solution, there is abundant evidence of the growing conviction among belligerents and neutrals alike that the hope of the world lies in the substitution of law and order for international anarchy. The neutral conference, therefore, feels justified in hoping that the end of this war will witness the institution of an international order of justice which shall make possible an enduring peace for all mankind.

Easter, 1916.

Central Organization for a Durable Peace

The Hague.

Central Organization for Durable Peace.

An important international gathering was held at The Hague from the seventh to the tenth of April, 1915. The meeting, for which arrangements had been made by the “Dutch Anti-War Council,” who sent invitations to a limited number of persons, was composed of more than thirty people, belonging to the following countries: United States of America, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Hungary, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. Letters of sympathy were also received from Denmark, France, Italy, Russia and Spain.

The object of the meeting was not to suggest steps to bring the war to an end, but to consider by what principles the future peace of the world could be best guaranteed. After full discussion a minimum program was unanimously adopted.

MINIMUM-PROGRAM

1. No annexation or transfer of territory shall be made contrary to the interests and wishes of the population concerned. Where possible their consent shall be obtained by plebiscite or otherwise.

The States shall guarantee to the various nationalities, included in their boundaries, equality before the law, religious liberty and the free use of their native languages.

2. The States shall agree to introduce in their colonies, protectorates and spheres of influence, liberty of commerce, or at least equal treatment for all nations.

3. The work of the Hague Conferences with a view to the peaceful organization of the Society of Nations shall be developed.

The Hague Conference shall be given a permanent organization and meet at regular intervals.

The States shall agree to submit all their disputes to peaceful settlement. For this purpose there shall be created, in addition to the existent Hague Court of Arbitration (a) a permanent Court of International Justice; (b) a permanent international Council of Investigation and Conciliation. The States shall bind themselves to take concerted action, diplomatic, economic or military, in case any State should resort to military measures instead of submitting the dispute to judicial decision or to the mediation of the Council of Investigation and Conciliation.

4. The States shall agree to reduce their armaments. In order to facilitate the reduction of naval armaments, the right of capture shall be abolished and the freedom of the seas assured.

5. Foreign policy shall be under the effective control of the Parliaments of the respective nations.

Secret treaties shall be void.

Union of International Associations: Brussels

Secretary-General: Paul Otlet.

Union of International Associations.

Project of World-Charter (“Charte Mondiale”), by M. Paul Otlet.

1. Court of arbitration and court of justice.

2. Council of inquiry and conciliation.

3. Council of States, taking in concert diplomatic, economic and military measures. International armed force consisting of national contingents under an international general staff.

4. International Parliament with two houses—the lower composed of delegates from the various Parliaments; upper, of delegates from the international associations representing the fundamental social forces.

5. No annexation and no right of conquest. Guarantee of rights of minorities. Freedom of nationalities.

6. Democratic control of foreign policy. Suppression of alliances and of secret treaties.

7. Considerable reduction of armies, and application of war budgets to education, etc.

8. Freedom of commerce, at least in colonies.

9. Woman suffrage. Reform of education and of the press.

International Bureau of Peace (Bureau International de la Paix)

President: H. La Fontaine.

International Bureau of Peace.

1. Neutral States should be called to participate in the peace negotiations, because a permanent peace ought to be guaranteed by the signature of all the powers of the world.

2. No annexations must take place without the consent of the populations concerned. In all the States of diverse nationalities the rights of minorities must be guaranteed.

3. There should be established an international organization of States, with permanent bodies and especially an international tribunal before which will be brought international disputes.

4. Armaments must be reduced according to general agreement and placed under an international control. All industrial establishments occupied with the manufacture of munitions must be expropriated.

5. Diplomacy in all the nations must be put under the control of parliaments and public opinion. All treaties and agreements which are not made public and have the ratification of the representative bodies of the nation are to be considered null and void.

6. All alliances, offensive or defensive, are to be prohibited.

7. To all colonies without distinction must be applied the principle of the “open door.” No State shall be able to impose a tariff system on another. The development of free trade through international agreements must be furthered.

8. The public institutions and the honor of each nation are to be protected against foreign insult by penal regulations internationally devised and guaranteed by an international judicial body.

9. A new peace conference is to be called with the object of establishing the permanent character of the institution and ensuring its automatic reunion.

International Congress of Women

The Hague, Holland, April 28th, 29th, 30th, 1915

International Congress of Women.

In a preparatory meeting of English, German, Belgian and Dutch women, held at Amsterdam (February, 1915), the following resolutions were drawn up to be put before the International Congress:

I. Plea for definition of terms of peace.

Considering that the people in each of the countries now at war believe themselves to be fighting, not as aggressors but in self-defense and for their national existence, this International Congress of Women urges the Governments of the belligerent countries, publicly to define the terms on which they are willing to make peace and for this purpose immediately to call a truce.

II. Arbitration and conciliation.

This International Congress of Women, believing that war is the negation of all progress and civilization, declares its conviction that future international disputes should be referred to arbitration or conciliation; and demands that in future these methods shall be adopted by the governments of all nations.

III. International pressure.

This International Congress of Women urges the Powers to come to an agreement to unite in bringing pressure to bear upon any country which resorts to arms without having referred its case to arbitration or conciliation.

IV. Democratic control of foreign policy.

War is brought about not by the peoples of the world, who do not desire it, but by groups of individuals representing particular interests. This International Congress of Women demands therefore that Foreign Politics shall be subject to Democratic Control; and at the same time declares that it can only recognize as democratic a system which includes the equal representation of men and women.

V. Transference of territory.

This International Congress of women affirms that there should be no transference of territory without the consent of the men and women in it.

VI. Women’s responsibility.

This International Women’s Congress is convinced that one of the strongest forces for the prevention of war will be the combined influence of the women of all countries and that therefore upon women as well as men rests the responsibility for the outbreak of future wars. But as women can only make their influence effective if they have equal political rights with men, this Congress declares that it is the duty of all women to work with all their force for their political enfranchisement.

VII. Women delegates in the conference of the powers.

Believing that it is essential for the future peace of the world that representatives of the people should take part in the Conference of the Powers after the war, this International Women’s Congress urges, that among the representatives women delegates should be included.

VIII. Woman suffrage resolution.

This International Women’s Congress urges, that in the interests of civilization the Conference of the Powers after the war should pass a resolution affirming the need in all countries of extending the parliamentary franchise to women.

IX. Promotion of good feeling between nations.

This International Congress of Women, which in itself is evidence of the serious desire of women to bring together mankind in the work of building up our common civilization, considers that every means should be used for promoting mutual understanding and good will between the nations and for resisting any tendency to hatred and revenge.

Resolutions of Women’s International Peace Congress at The Hague

I.—WOMEN AND WAR

1. Protest.

We women, in International Congress assembled, protest against the madness and the horror of war, involving as it does a reckless sacrifice of human life and the destruction of so much that humanity has labored through centuries to build up.

2. Women’s Sufferings in War.

This International Congress of Women opposes the assumption that women can be protected under the conditions of modern warfare. It protests vehemently against the odious wrongs of which women are the victims in time of war, and especially against the horrible violation of women which attends all war.

II.—ACTION TOWARD PEACE

3. The Peace Settlement.

This International Congress of Women of different nations, classes, creeds and parties is united in expressing sympathy with the suffering of all, whatever their nationality, who are fighting for their country or laboring under the burden of war.

Since the mass of the people in each of the countries now at war believe themselves to be fighting, not as aggressors but in self-defense and for their national existence, there can be no irreconcilable difference between them, and their common ideals afford a basis upon which a magnanimous and honorable peace might be established. The congress therefore urges the governments of the world to put an end to this bloodshed and to begin peace negotiations. It demands that the peace which follows shall be permanent, and therefore based on principles of justice, including those laid down in the resolutions adopted by this congress—namely:

That no territory should be transferred without the consent of the men and women in it, and that the right of conquest should not be recognized.

That autonomy and a democratic parliament should not be refused to any people.

That the governments of all nations should come to an agreement to refer future international disputes to arbitration or conciliation, and to bring social, moral and economic pressure to bear upon any country which resorts to arms.

That foreign politics should be subject to democratic control.

That women should be granted equal political rights with men.

4. Continuous Mediation.

This International Congress of Women resolves to ask the neutral countries to take immediate steps to create a conference of neutral nations which shall without delay offer continuous mediation. The congress shall invite suggestions for settlement from each of the belligerent nations, and in any case shall submit to all of them, simultaneously, reasonable proposals as a basis of peace.

III.—PRINCIPLES OF A PERMANENT PEACE

5. Respect for Nationality.

This International Congress of Women, recognizing the right of the people to self-government, affirms that there should be no transference of territory without the consent of the men and women residing therein, and urges that autonomy and a democratic parliament should not be refused to any people.

6. Arbitration and Conciliation.

This International Congress of Women, believing that war is the negation of progress and civilization, urges the governments of all nations to come to an agreement to refer future international disputes to arbitration and conciliation.

7. International Pressure.

This International Congress of Women urges the governments of all nations to come to an agreement to unite in bringing social, moral and economic pressure to bear upon any country which resorts to arms instead of referring its case to arbitration or conciliation.

8. Democratic Control of Foreign Policy.

Since war is commonly brought about not by the mass of the people, who do not desire it, but by groups representing particular interests, this International Congress of Women urges that foreign politics shall be subject to democratic control, and declares that it can only recognize as democratic a system which includes the equal representation of men and women.

9. The Enfranchisement of Women.

Since the combined influence of the women of all countries is one of the strongest forces for the prevention of war, and since women can only have full responsibility and effective influence when they have equal political rights with men, this International Congress of Women demands their political enfranchisement.

IV.—INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

10. Third Hague Conference.

This International Congress of Women urges that a third Hague Conference be convened immediately after the war.

11. International Organization.

This International Women’s Congress urges that the organization of the Society of Nations should be further developed on the basis of a constructive peace, and that it should include:

(a) As a development of The Hague Court of Arbitration, a permanent International Court of Justice to settle questions or differences of a justiciable character, such as arise on the interpretation of treaty rights or of the law of nations.

(b) As a development of the constructive work of The Hague Conference, a permanent international conference holding regular meetings, in which women should take part, to deal not with the rules of warfare but with practical proposals for further international cooperation among the States. This conference should be so constituted that it could formulate and enforce those principles of justice, equity and good-will in accordance with which the struggles of subject communities could be more fully recognized and the interests and rights not only of the great Powers and small nations, but also those of weaker countries and primitive peoples, gradually adjusted under an enlightened international public opinion.

The International Conference shall appoint: A permanent council of conciliation and investigation for the settlement of international differences arising from economic competition, expanding commerce, increasing population and changes in social and political standards.

12. General Disarmament.

This International Congress of Women, advocating universal disarmament and realizing that it can only be secured by international agreement, urges as a step to this end that all countries should, by such an international agreement, take over the manufacture of arms and munitions of war and should control all international traffic in the same. It sees in the private profits accruing from the great armament factories a powerful hindrance to the abolition of war.

13. Commerce and Investments.

The Congress urges that in all countries there shall be liberty of commerce, that the seas shall be free and the trade routes open on equal terms to the shipping of all nations.

Inasmuch as the investment by capitalists of one country in the resources of another and the claims arising therefrom are a fertile source of international complications, this congress urges the widest possible acceptance of the principle that such investments shall be made at the risk of the investor, without claim to the official protection of his government.

14. National Foreign Policy.

This International Congress of Women demands that all secret treaties shall be void, and that for the ratification of future treaties the participation of at least the legislature of every government shall be necessary.

This International Congress of Women recommends that national commissions be created and international conferences convened for the scientific study and elaboration of the principles and conditions of permanent peace which might contribute to the development of an international federation. These commissions and conferences should be recognized by the governments and should include women in their deliberations.

15. Women in National and International Politics.

This International Congress of Women declares it to be essential, both nationally and internationally, to put into practise the principle that women should share all civil and political rights and responsibilities on the same terms as men.

V.—THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN

16. This International Congress of Women urges the necessity of so directing the education of children that their thoughts and desires may be directed toward the ideal of constructive peace.

VI.—WOMEN AND THE PEACE SETTLEMENT CONFERENCE

17. This International Congress of Women urges that in the interests of lasting peace and civilization the conference which shall frame the peace settlement after the war should pass a resolution affirming the need in all countries of extending the parliamentary franchise to women.

18. This International Congress of Women urges that representatives of the people should take part in the conference that shall frame the peace settlement after the war, and claims that among them women should be included.

VII.—ACTION TO BE TAKEN

19. Envoys to the Governments.

In order to urge the governments of the world to put an end to this bloodshed and to establish a just and lasting peace, this International Congress of Women delegates envoys to carry the message expressed in the congress resolutions to the rulers of the belligerent and neutral nations of Europe and to the President of the United States.

These envoys shall be women of both neutral and belligerent nations, appointed by the international committee of this congress. They shall report the result of their missions to the International Women’s Committee for Constructive Peace as a basis for further action.

20. Women’s Voice in the Peace Settlement.

This International Congress of Women resolves that an international meeting of women shall be held in the same place and at the same time as the conference of the Powers which shall frame the terms of the peace settlement after the war, for the purpose of presenting practical proposals to that conference.

Conference of Socialists of the Allied Nations

London, Feb. 14, 1915.

I

Socialists of Allied Nations.

This conference cannot ignore the profound general causes of the European conflict, itself a monstrous product of the antagonisms which tear asunder capitalist society and of the policy of colonial dependencies and aggressive imperialism, against which international Socialism has never ceased to fight, and in which every government has its share of responsibility.

The invasion of Belgium and France by the German armies threatens the very existence of independent nationalities, and strikes a blow at all faith in treaties. In these circumstances a victory for German imperialism would be the defeat and the destruction of democracy and liberty in Europe. The Socialists of Great Britain, Belgium, France, and Russia do not pursue the political and economic crushing of Germany; they are not at war with the people of Germany and Austria, but only with the governments of those countries by which they are oppressed. They demand that Belgium shall be liberated and compensated. They desire that the question of Poland shall be settled in accordance with the wishes of the Polish people, either in the sense of autonomy in the midst of another State, or in that of complete independence. They wish that throughout all Europe, from Alsace-Lorraine to the Balkans, those populations that have been annexed by force shall receive the right freely to dispose of themselves.

While inflexibly resolved to fight until victory is achieved to accomplish this task of liberation, the Socialists are none the less resolved to resist any attempt to transform this defensive war into a war of conquest, which would only prepare fresh conflicts, create new grievances, and subject various peoples more than ever to the double plague of armaments and war.

Satisfied that they are remaining true to the principles of the International, the members of the Conference express the hope that the working class of all the different countries will before long find themselves united again in their struggle against militarism and capitalist imperialism. The victory of the Allied Powers must be a victory for popular liberty, for unity, independence, and autonomy of the nations in the peaceful federation of the United States of Europe and the world.

II

On the conclusion of the war the working classes of all the industrial countries must unite in the International in order to suppress secret diplomacy, put an end to the interests of militarism and those of the armament makers and establish some international authority to settle points of difference among the nations by compulsory conciliation and arbitration, and to compel all nations to maintain peace.

III

The Conference protests against the arrest of the deputies of the Duma, against the suppression of Russian Socialist papers and the condemnation of their editors, as well as against the oppression of Finns, Jews, and Russian and German Poles.

Conference of Socialists from Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Holland, Held at Copenhagen

Socialists of Neutral Nations.

The Conference states that Capitalism, in its imperialistic form, expressed by the constantly increasing armaments, and by arrogant politics of aggrandizement, supported by the secret and irresponsible diplomacy of the Great Powers, have now led the world to the catastrophe predicted and always warned against by the Social Democracy.

In this moment, when the world is struck with terror at the horrible devastation this war has caused, the Conference desires to give expression to the firm and strong will to peace, existing within the nations represented at the Conference.

The delegates are of opinion that the chief aim of the conference is to be the strengthening and uniting of that public will which, undoubtedly, in all countries, demands the end of the war in such a way that a permanent peace may be secured. To realize this aim, the conference addresses itself to the democratic workmen, particularly to those of the belligerent countries, pointing at the same time to those principles of international solidarity and proletarian conception of justice which have been sanctioned at all our international congresses. These principles were expressed by the Congress of Copenhagen, 1910, in the following way:

The parliamentary representatives of the Social Democracy are bound to work in order to realize the following aims:

1. International compulsory arbitration.

2. Restriction of the preparations for war ending in final disarmament.

3. Abolition of secret diplomacy with full parliamentary responsibility as to foreign politics.

4. Recognition of the right of self-determination of nations, of resistance to oppression and war-intrigues.

The Conference considers it the duty of all socialistic parties to be active in order to render possible an early conclusion of peace, and to work energetically in favor of such conditions of peace as may form a basis of international disarmament and of the democratization of foreign politics.

The Conference protests against the infringement of international right in the case of Belgium and expresses a hope that the Social Democracy in all belligerent countries will in the strongest way possible oppose every violent annexation at variance with the right of self-determination of the peoples.

The Conference, thus, reiterates the principles of peace of the International, and summons the International Bureau to convoke the social democratic parties to joint deliberation, if not earlier, at least at the beginning of the negotiations of peace, in order to examine the conditions of peace, because the Conference considers it absolutely necessary that the conditions of peace be not stipulated without the collaboration of the working men and women, or against their will, and summons the working class in all countries to concentrate their efforts in order to realize a permanent peace throughout the world. This war, with all its horrors, has only been possible, because the Capitalist class of the different countries still holds the power in its hands. The Conference hence summons the Socialists to work with the greatest energy in order to conquer the political power, so that Imperialism may be ruined, and that the International Social Democracy may fulfil its great mission of emancipating the people.

Copenhagen, Jan. 17-18, 1915.

PEACE PROPOSALS AND PROGRAMS
2. UNITED STATES

League to Enforce Peace

OBJECTS

League to enforce Peace.

1. An International Court to try all justiciable questions.

2. A Council of Conciliation for consideration of non-justiciable questions.

3. Use of joint economic pressure and military force against signatory beginning hostilities contrary to terms of alliance.

4. Formulation and adoption of a code of international law.

The League’s proposal is that economic pressure and military force shall be used to compel signatory Powers to take their international differences to the court for adjudication rather than to the battlefield. It frankly hopes to promote peace and aid its establishment by using economic and military force.

National Peace Convention,
HELD UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE EMERGENCY PEACE FEDERATION, CHICAGO,
February 27 and 28, 1915.

National Peace Convention.

1. Foreign policies of nations should not be aimed at creating alliances for the purpose of maintaining the “balance of power,” but should be directed to the establishment of a “Concert of Nations,” with

(a) An international court for the settlement of all disputes between nations;

(b) An international congress, with legislative and administrative powers over international affairs, and with permanent committees in place of present secret diplomacy;

(d) The embodiment in international law of the principle of non-intercourse, as the sanction and enforcement of international obligations.

2. The gradual reduction and final abolition of national armaments should be accomplished upon the adoption of this peace program by a sufficient number of nations, or by nations of sufficient power to ensure protection to those disarmed; such reduction should be graduated in each nation according to the degree of disarmament elected in other nations, and should be progressive until complete abolition is finally attained.

3. The manufacture of armaments for private profit should be prohibited, and the export of munitions of war from one country to another should be directly under governmental control.

4. The protection of private property at sea, of neutral commerce and of communications should be secured by the neutralization of the seas, and of such maritime trade routes as the Dardanelles and the Panama and Suez Canals.

5. National and international action should be aimed at the removal of inequitable trade barriers and other more fundamental economic causes of war.

6. The democracies of the world should be extended and reinforced by general application of the principles of self-government and of universal adult suffrage.

7. No province should be transferred from one government to another without the consent of the population of such province.

8. No treaty, alliance, or other arrangement should be entered upon by any nation, unless ratified by the representatives of the people; treaties for securing delay before commencing hostilities, and adequate machinery for insuring democratic control of foreign politics should be created.

World Peace Foundation

Boston, Mass.

World Peace Foundation.

1. No territory should be transferred from one nation to another in disregard of the inhabitants, nor any readjustment be made of which the effect would necessarily be to sow the seeds of future war.

2. As the alliances and ententes of Europe have proved their incapacity to safeguard the welfare of the people, the nations of that continent should establish and maintain a representative council in order to insure mutual conference and concerted action.

3. Competition in armaments should end. The nations should agree to abandon compulsory military service and to limit military force to purposes of police and international defense.

4. All manufactures of arms, armaments and munitions for use in war should hereafter be national property. No private citizen or corporation should be permitted to engage in such manufacture. The export of such goods for use in armies and fleets should be prohibited.

5. No neutral nation should permit its citizens to make loans to belligerents for war purposes. As our own State Department has said: “Loans by American bankers to any foreign nation which is at war are inconsistent with the true spirit of neutrality.”

American School Peace League

American School Peace League.

1. A Concert of Europe. The surest method of establishing permanent peace is to bring about a Concert of Europe, based upon the knowledge that, with nations as with individuals, cooperation and not conflict is the law of progress. In order to insure mutual conference and concerted action, there should be organized a representative Council whose deliberations and decisions would be public. This would mark the end of offensive alliances and ententes which have proved their inability to safeguard the real and permanent interests of the people.

2. Nationality Must be Respected. No territory should be transferred from one nation to another against the will of the inhabitants, nor should any readjustments be made which might breed fresh wars. National boundaries should coincide as far as possible with national sentiment. No terms of settlement should be regarded as satisfactory if they impose upon any nation such harsh and humiliating terms of peace as would be inconsistent with its independence, self-respect, or well-being. All idea of revenge should, of course, be rooted out.

3. Limitation of Armaments. Since the policy of huge national armaments has lamentably failed to preserve peace, competition in armaments should end. The nations should agree to have no military forces other than those maintained for international police duty. Militarism should be abandoned by all nations, because they recognize the absolute futility of force as a means of advancing the moral or material well-being of any country. To facilitate the elimination of militarism, the conditions of peace should stipulate that all manufactories of arms, armaments, and munitions for use in war shall hereafter be national property. No private citizen or corporation should be permitted to engage in such manufacture.

Program of Women’s Peace Party

Organized in Washington, January 10, 1915.

Women’s Peace Party.

1. The immediate calling of a convention of neutral nations in the interest of early peace.

2. Limitation of armaments, and the nationalization of their manufacture.

3. Organized opposition to militarism in our own country.

4. Democratic control of foreign policies.

5. The further humanizing of governments by the extension of the franchise to women.

6. “Concert of Nations” to supersede balance of power.

7. Action toward the gradual organization of the world to substitute law for war.

8. The substitution of an international police for rival armies and navies.

9. Removal of the economic causes of war.

10. The appointment of our Government of a commission of men and women, with an adequate appropriation, to promote international peace.

Program of Women’s Peace Party

Washington, January, 1916.

1. That no increased appropriations for war preparations be voted during the present session.

2. That a joint committee be appointed to conduct a thorough investigation with public hearings, and report within the next six months upon the following matters:

a. The condition of our military and naval defenses with special reference to the expenditures of past appropriations;

b. The probability of aggressive action by other nations against the United States by reason of antagonism with respect to race, trade, national expansion, property holding in foreign lands and other causes of war;

c. The possibility of lessening by legislative or diplomatic action the sources of friction between this country and other nations.

3. That action be taken to secure by our Government the immediate calling of a conference of neutral nations in the interest of a just and early peace. (To that end we endorse the principles embodied in House Joint Resolution 38.)

4. That action be taken to provide for the elimination of all private profit from the manufacture of armaments.

5. That action be taken which shall provide Federal control over unnaturalized residents.

6. That action be taken to bring about the creation of a joint commission of experts representing Japan, China, and the United States to study the complex and important question at issue between the Orient and the United States and make recommendations to the various governments involved.

7. That action be taken to convene the Third Hague Conference at the earliest possible moment and that all voting American delegates shall be civilians who represent various important elements in the country, including if possible the business, educational and labor interests and women, and that the delegates from the United States be instructed to advocate world organization and a peaceful settlement of all international difficulties.

One change was made in the platform adopted by the party a year ago. Economic pressure, instead of an international police, was urged as a substitute for rival armies and navies.

New York Peace Society

New York Peace Society.

In the platform of the New York Peace Society appear these five “conditions of a permanent peace”:

1. A union of a sufficient number of Powers to guarantee permanent peace by the maintenance of military force which can be used at need as a police against any Power which threatens hostilities.

2. A treaty which shall not only arrange the boundaries of the States and their colonies, but also guarantee the territories so established against attack either from within or without the league.

3. The removal of enmities. (a) By making peace in a generous spirit at the close of the present war, and before the forces on either side shall have been completely crushed. (b) By respecting racial affiliations in the adjustments of territory made in the treaty of peace.

4. A renewal of the conferences at The Hague, the meetings to be held so frequently as to constitute a Standing Committee of the nations for promoting measures of common interest, and for removing in their incipient stages causes of contention.

5. A treaty agreement to refer all differences within the league for adjudication either to arbitration or to a permanent court.

“The present war,” says the platform in part, “has made it clear that the arming of all nations menaces the peace of all. A common reduction of armaments under an international agreement seems to present itself as the sole condition of tolerable security and welfare of all. Such a consummation would give to humanity its own possible compensation for the unparalleled tragedy of the war.”

Socialist Party of America

Socialist Party of America.

I. Terms of peace at close of present war

must be such as to protect the nations from future wars and conserve the identity of the smaller nations.

1. No indemnities.

2. No transfer of territory, except upon consent and by vote of the people within the territory.

II. International Federation—United States of the World.

1. Court or courts for the settlement of all disputes between nations.

2. International congress, with legislative and administrative powers over international affairs, and with permanent committees in place of present secret diplomacy.

3. International police force.

III. National disarmament.

1. National disarmament shall be effected immediately upon the adoption of the peace program by a sufficient number of nations, or by nations of sufficient power so that the international police force developed by the terms of the program shall be adequate to insure the protection of the disarmed.

2. No increase in existing armaments under any circumstances.

3. Pending complete disarmament the abolition of the manufacture of armaments and munitions of war for private profit.

4. International ownership and control of strategic waterways, such as the Dardanelles, Straits of Gibraltar, and the Suez, Panama and Kiel Canals.

5. Neutralization of the seas.

IV. Extension of democracy.

1. Political democracy.

(a) The declaration of offensive war to be made only by direct vote of the people.

(b) Abolition of secret diplomacy and the democratic control of foreign policies.

2. Industrial democracy.

Radical social changes in all countries to eliminate the economic causes of war, such as,

(a) Federation of the working classes of the world in a league of peace.

(b) Socialization of the national resources, public utilities and fundamental equipment of industry of the nations.

(d) Immediate and progressive amelioration of the conditions of labor.

V. Immediate action.

1. Efforts to be made in every nation to secure the official adoption of the above program, by the governing bodies at the earliest possible date. The adoption of the program (contingent upon its acceptance by a sufficient number of the nations to ensure its success) to be immediately announced to the world as a standing offer of federation.

2. The federation of all the possible peace forces that can be united in behalf of the above program for active propaganda among all nations.

3. Efforts through the international and the national organizations of the Socialist party of all nations to secure universal cooperation of all socialist and labor organizations in the above program.

David Starr Jordan’s Resolutions as to Rational Terms of Peace

David Starr Jordan.

Whereas, The Great War in Europe is working havoc without parallel among the best racial elements in all nations concerned, thereby exhausting the near future and bringing subsequent impoverishment to the race;

Whereas, An intolerable burden of sorrow and misery is thrown on the women and children of Europe, those who had no part in bringing on the war and no possible interests to be served by it;

Whereas, No possible gain, economic or political (the restoration of Belgium being secured), can compensate any nation for the loss, distress and misery involved in this war and aggravated by each day of its continuance;

Whereas, No probability appears that military operations in any quarter can of themselves bring the war to its end;

Whereas, A sweeping victory tends to leave an increasing legacy of hate, with seeds of future wars;

Resolved, That the rational interests of the civilized world demand that the war be brought to a speedy close; and

Resolved, That a way to honorable and lasting peace may be possible along the following lines:

1. Recognition of the fact that no nation can establish rule or dominion over any other civilized nation, large or small, that peace cannot be maintained by the overruling power of any one nation, but rather by international agreements of those nations which reject aggressive war.

2. Guaranteed security to the small States of Europe, with relief of peoples held in unnatural allegiance.

3. The freedom, under international guarantees, of the High Seas and of the channels of trade, with immunity of commerce from belligerent attack.

4. The removal of hampering tariff restrictions.

5. Compensation to Belgium, as determined by impartial arbitration.

6. The neutralization of Constantinople, with adequate safeguarding of the rights of Christian and Jewish peoples within the Ottoman Empire.

7. An international conference to secure terms of peace; with reduction of national armament, the establishment of a supreme international tribunal, the maintenance of an international police force, accompanied by recognition of the stability of International Law.

May 13, 1915.

SIX LESSONS OF THE WAR

Nicholas Murray Butler.

First.—That the various Hague Conventions, solemnly entered into in 1899 and in 1907, have been violated frequently since the outbreak of hostilities, and that, obviously, some greater and more secure sanction for such Conventions must be provided in the future.

Second.—That in not a few instances the rules and usages of international law have been thrown to the winds, to the discredit of the belligerents themselves and to the grave distress, physically and commercially, of neutral powers.

Of course every one understands that international law is merely a series of conventions without other than moral sanction. If, however, the world has gone back to the point where a nation’s plighted faith is not moral sanction enough, then that fact and its implications ought to be clearly understood and appropriate punitive action provided for.

Third.—That any attempt to submerge nationalities in nations other than their own is certain to result in friction and conflict in the not distant future. Any attempt to create new nations, or to enlarge or diminish the area of nations, without having regard to nationality, is simply to organize a future war.

Fourth.—That the transfer of sovereignty over any given district or people without their consent, is certainly an unwise, and probably an unjust, action for any government to take, having regard for the peace and happiness of the world.

Fifth.—That the international organizations which had been carried so far in such fields as maritime law, postal service, railway service, and international arbitration, should be taken up anew and pursued more vigorously, but upon a sounder and a broader foundation, and made a certain means of protecting the smaller and the weaker nations.

Sixth.—That competitive armaments, instead of being an assurance against war, are a sure cause of war and an equally certain preventive of those policies of social reform and advance that enlightened peoples everywhere are eager to pursue.

Nicholas Murray Butler, quoted in N. Y. Times, May 16, 1915.

Chamber of Commerce of the United States

Chamber of Commerce of the U. S.

1. A more comprehensive and better-defined sea-law.

2. An international court.

3. A council of Conciliation.

4. International conferences for the better establishment and progressive amendment of international law.

5. Power to enforce agreement: The organization of a system of commercial and financial non-intercourse, to be followed by military force if necessary, to be applied to those nations entering into the foregoing arrangements and then going to war without first submitting their differences to an agreed-upon tribunal.

PEACE PROPOSALS AND PROGRAMS
3. GREAT BRITAIN

Union of Democratic Control

Union of Democratic Control.

1. No Province shall be transferred from one Government to another without the consent by plebiscite or otherwise of the population of such Province.

2. No Treaty, Arrangement, or Undertaking shall be entered upon in the name of Great Britain without the sanction of Parliament. Adequate machinery for ensuring democratic control of foreign policy shall be created.

3. The Foreign Policy of Great Britain shall not be aimed at creating Alliances for the purpose of maintaining the Balance of Power; but shall be directed to concerted action between the Powers, and the setting up of an International Council, whose deliberations and decisions shall be public, with such machinery for securing international agreement as shall be the guarantee of an abiding peace.

4. Great Britain shall propose as part of the Peace settlement a plan for the drastic reduction by consent of the armaments of all the belligerent Powers, and to facilitate that policy shall attempt to secure the general nationalization of the manufacture of armaments, and the control of the export of armaments by one country to another.

Fabian Society

London, July 17, 1915.

Proposed Articles of Settlement

Fabian Society.

The signatory States, desirous of preventing any future outbreak of war, improving international relations, arriving by agreement at an authoritative codification of international law and facilitating the development of such joint action as is exemplified by the International Postal Union, hereby agree and consent to the following Articles:

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A SUPERNATIONAL AUTHORITY

1. There shall be established as soon as possible within the period of one year from the date hereof (a) an International High Court for the decision of justiciable issues between independent Sovereign States; (b) an International Council with the double function of securing, by common agreement, such international legislation as may be practicable, and of promoting the settlement of non-justiciable issues between independent Sovereign States; and (c) an International Secretariat.

The Constituent States

2. The independent Sovereign States to be admitted as Constituent States, and hereinafter so described, shall be:

(a) The belligerents in the present war;

(b) The United States of America;

(c) Such other independent Sovereign States as have been represented at either of the Peace Conferences at The Hague, and as shall apply for admission within six months from the date of these Articles; and

(d) Such other independent Sovereign States as may hereafter be admitted by the International Council.

Covenant Against Aggression

3. It is a fundamental principle of these Articles that the Constituent States severally disclaim all desire or intention of aggression on any other independent Sovereign State or States, and that they agree and bind themselves, under all circumstances, and without any evasion or qualification whatever, never to pursue, beyond the stage of courteous representation, any claim or complaint that any of them may have against any other Constituent State, without first submitting such claim or complaint, either to the International High Court for adjudication and decision, or to the International Council for examination and report, with a view to arriving at a settlement acceptable to both parties.

Covenant Against War Except as a Final Resource

4. The Constituent States expressly bind themselves severally under no circumstances to address to any Constituent State an ultimatum, or a threat of military or naval operations in the nature of war, or of any act of aggression; and under no circumstances to declare war, or begin military or naval operations of the nature of war, or violate the territory or attack the ships of another State, otherwise than by way of repelling and defeating a forcible attack actually made by military or naval force, until the matter in dispute has been submitted as aforesaid to the International High Court or to the International Council, and until after the expiration of one year from the date of such submission.

On the other hand, no Constituent State shall, after submission of the matter at issue to the International Council and after the expiration of the specified time, be precluded from taking any action, even to the point of going to war, in defense of its own honor or interests, as regards any issues which are not justiciable within the definition laid down by these Articles, and which affect either its independent sovereignty or its territorial integrity, or require any change in its internal laws, and with regard to which no settlement acceptable to itself has been arrived at.

THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL

5. The International Council shall be a continuously existing deliberative and legislative body composed of representatives of the Constituent States, to be appointed in such manner, for such periods and under such conditions as may in each case from time to time be determined by the several States.

Each of the eight Great Powers—viz., Austria-Hungary, the British Empire, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States of America—may appoint five representatives. Each of the other Constituent States may appoint two representatives.

Different Sittings of the Council

6. The International Council shall sit either as a Council of all the Constituent States, hereinafter called the Council sitting as a whole, or as the Council of the eight Great Powers, or as the Council of the States other than the eight Great Powers, or as the Council for America, or as the Council for Europe, each such sitting being restricted to the representatives of the States thus indicated.

There shall stand referred to the Council of the eight Great Powers any question arising between any two or more of such Powers, and also any other question in which any of such Powers formally claims to be concerned, and requests to have so referred.

There shall also stand referred to the Council of the eight Great Powers, for consideration and ratification, or for reference back in order that they may be reconsidered, the proceedings of the Council for America, the Council for Europe, and the Council of the States other than the eight Great Powers.

There shall stand referred to the Council for Europe any question arising between two or more independent Sovereign States of Europe, and not directly affecting any independent Sovereign States not represented in that Council, provided that none of the Independent Sovereign States not so represented formally claims to be concerned in such question, and provided that none of the eight Great Powers formally claims to have it referred to the Council of the eight great Powers or to the Council sitting as a whole.

There shall stand referred to the Council for America any question arising between two or more independent Sovereign States of America, not directly affecting any independent Sovereign State not represented in that Council, provided that none of the independent Sovereign States not so represented formally claims to be concerned in such question, and provided that none of the eight Great Powers formally claims to have it referred to the Council of the eight Great Powers or to the Council sitting as a whole.

There shall stand referred to the Council for the States other than the eight Great Powers any question between two or more of such States, not directly affecting any of the eight Great Powers and which none of the eight Great Powers formally claims to have referred to the Council sitting as a whole.

The Council shall sit as a whole for—

(a) General legislation and any question not standing referred to the Council of the eight Great Powers, the Council of the States other than the eight Great Powers, the Council for Europe or the Council for America respectively;

(b) The appointment and all questions relating to the conditions of office, functions and powers of the International Secretariat, and of the President and other officers of the International Council;

(d) The financial affairs of the International Council and International High Court, the allocation of the cost among the Constituent States, and the issue of precepts upon the several Constituent States for the shares due from them;

(e) The admission of independent Sovereign States as Constituent States; and

(f) Any proposal to alter any of these Articles, and the making of such an alteration.

Membership of the Council and Voting

7. All the Constituent States shall have equal rights to participation in the deliberations of the International Council. Any Constituent State may submit to the International Council sitting as a whole any proposal for any alteration of International Law, or for making an enactment of new law; and also (subject to the provisions of these Articles with regard to the submission of justiciable issues to the International High Court) may bring before the Council any question, dispute or difference arising between it and any other Constituent State.

When the International Council is sitting as the Council of the eight Great Powers or as the Council of the States other than the eight Great Powers each of the States represented therein shall have one vote only.

When the International Council is sitting as a whole or as the Council for Europe or as the Council for America, the number of votes to be given on behalf of each State shall be as follows:

As agreed to by the Hague Conference, the relative position of the States works out into the following scale of votes:

Austria-Hungary, the British Empire, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United States of America	20	votes	each
Spain	12	”
The Netherlands	9	”
Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, China, Roumania, Turkey	6	”	”
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico	4	”	”
Switzerland, Bulgaria, Persia	3	”	”
Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Serbia, Siam	2	”	”
The other Constituent States	1	vote	”

Legislation Subject to Ratification

8. It shall be within the competence of the International Council to codify and declare the International Law existing between the several independent Sovereign States of the world; and any such codifying enactment, when and in so far as ratified by the Constituent States, shall be applied and enforced by the International High Court.

It shall also be within the competence of the International Council from time to time, by specific enactment, to amend International Law, whether or not this has been codified; and any such enactment when and in so far as ratified by the several Constituent States shall be applied and enforced by the International High Court.

Whenever any Constituent State notifies its refusal to ratify as a whole any enactment made by the International Council, it shall at the same time notify its ratification of such part or parts of such enactment as it will consent to be bound by; and the International Council shall thereupon reenact the parts so ratified by all the Constituent States, and declare such enactment to have been so ratified, and such enactment shall thereupon be applied and enforced by the International High Court.

When any enactment of the International Council making any new general rule of law has been ratified wholly or in part by any two or more Constituent States, but not by all the Constituent States, it shall, so far as ratified, be deemed to be binding on the ratifying State or States, but only in respect of the relations of such State or States with any other ratifying State or States; and it shall be applied and enforced accordingly by the International High Court.

Non-Justiciable Issues

9. When any question, difference or dispute arising between two or more Constituent States is not justiciable as defined in these Articles, and is not promptly brought to an amicable settlement, and is of such a character that it might ultimately endanger friendly relations between such States, it shall be the duty of each party to the matter at issue, irrespective of any action taken or not taken by any other party, to submit the question, difference or dispute to the International Council with a view to a satisfactory settlement being arrived at. The Council may itself invite the parties to lay any such question, difference or dispute before the Council, or the Council may itself take any such matter at issue into its own consideration.

The Constituent States hereby severally agree and bind themselves under no circumstances to address to any other Constituent State an ultimatum or anything in the nature of a threat of forcible reprisals or naval or military operations, or actually to commence hostilities against such State, or to violate its territory, or to attack its ships, otherwise than by way of repelling and defeating a forcible attack actually made by naval or military force, before a matter in dispute, if not of a justiciable character as defined in these Articles, has been submitted to or taken into consideration by the International Council as aforesaid for investigation, modification and report, and during a period of one year from the date of such submission or consideration.

The International Council may appoint a Permanent Board of Conciliators for dealing with all such questions, differences or disputes as they arise, and may constitute the Board either on the nomination of the several Constituent States or otherwise, in such manner, upon such conditions and for such term or terms as the Council may decide.

When any question, difference or dispute, not of a justiciable character as defined in these Articles, is submitted to or taken into consideration by the International Council as aforesaid, the Council shall, with the least possible delay, take action, either (1) by referring the matter at issue to the Permanent Board of Conciliators, or (2) by appointing a Special Committee, whether exclusively of the Council or otherwise, to enquire into the matter and report, or (3) by appointing a Commission of Enquiry to investigate the matter and report, or (4) by itself taking the matter into consideration.

The Constituent States hereby agree and bind themselves, whether or not they are parties to any such matter at issue, to give all possible facilities to the International Council, to the Permanent Board of Conciliators, to any Committee or Commission of Enquiry appointed by either of them, and to any duly accredited officer of any of these bodies, for the successful discharge of their duties.

When any matter at issue is referred to the Board of Conciliation, or to a Special Committee, or to a Commission of Enquiry, such Board, Committee or Commission shall, if at any time during its proceedings it succeeds in bringing about an agreement between the parties upon the matter at issue, immediately report such agreement to the International Council; but, if no such agreement be reached, such Board, Committee or Commission shall, so soon as it has finished its enquiries, and in any case within six months, make a report to the International Council, stating the facts of the case and making any recommendations for a decision that are deemed expedient.

When a report is made to the International Council by any such Board, Committee or Commission that an agreement has been arrived at between the parties, the Council shall embody such agreement, with a recital of its terms, in a resolution of the Council.

When any other report is made to the Council by any such Board, Committee or Commission, or when the Council itself has taken the matter at issue into consideration, the Council shall, after taking all the facts into consideration, and within a period of three months, come to a decision on the subject, and shall embody such decision in a resolution of the Council. Such resolution shall, if necessary, be arrived at by voting, and shall be published, together with any report on the subject, in the Official Gazette.

A resolution of the Council embodying a decision settling a matter at issue between Constituent States shall be obligatory and binding on all the Constituent States, including all the parties to the matter at issue, if either it is passed unanimously by all the members of the Council present and voting; or where the proposed enactment does not affect the independent sovereignty or the territorial integrity, nor require any change in the internal laws of any State, and where such enactment shall have been assented to by a three-fourths majority of the votes given by the representatives present and voting.

The International Secretariat

10. There shall be an International Secretariat, with an office permanently open for business, with such a staff as the International Council may from time to time determine.

It shall be the duty of the International Secretariat to make all necessary communications on behalf of the International Council to States or individuals; to place before the President to bring before the Council any matter of which it should have cognizance; to organize and conduct any enquiries or investigations ordered by the Council; to maintain an accurate record of the proceedings of the Council; to make authentic translations of the resolutions and enactments of the Council, the report of the proceedings, and other documents, and to communicate them officially to all the Constituent States; and to publish for sale an Official Gazette and such other works as the Council may from time to time direct.

Subject to any regulations that may be made by the International Council, the International Secretariat shall take charge of and be responsible for (a) the funds belonging to or in the custody of the International Council and the International High Court; (b) the collection of all receipts due to either of them; and (c) the making of all authorized payments.

THE INTERNATIONAL HIGH COURT

11. The International High Court shall be a permanent judicial tribunal, consisting of fifteen Judges, to be appointed as hereinafter provided. Subject to these Articles it shall, by a majority of Judges sitting and voting, control its own proceedings, determine its sessions and place of meeting, settle its own procedure, and appoint its own officers. It may, if thought fit, elect one of its members to be President of the Court for such term and with such functions as it may decide. Its members shall receive an annual stipend of ——, whilst if a President is elected he shall receive an additional sum of ——. The Court shall hear and decide with absolute independence the issues brought before it in conformity with these Articles; and shall in each case pronounce, by a majority of votes, a single judgment of the Court as a whole, which shall be expressed in separate reasoned statements by each of the Judges sitting and acting in the case. The sessions of the Court shall be held, if so ordered, notwithstanding the existence of a vacancy or of vacancies among the Judges; and the proceedings of the Court shall be valid, and the decision of a majority of the Judges sitting and acting shall be of full force, notwithstanding the existence of any vacancy or vacancies or of the absence of any Judge or Judges.

The Judges of the Court

12. The Judges of the International High Court shall be appointed for a term of five years by the International Council sitting as a whole, in accordance with the following scheme: Each of the Constituent States shall be formally invited to nominate one candidate, who need not necessarily be a citizen or a resident of the State by which he is nominated. The eight candidates severally nominated by the eight Great Powers shall thereupon be appointed Judges by the International Council sitting as the Council of the eight Great Powers. The remaining seven Judges shall be appointed by the International Council sitting as a whole, after selection by exhaustive ballot from among the candidates nominated by the Constituent States other than the eight Great Powers. On the occurrence of a vacancy among the Judges nominated by the eight Great Powers, the State which had nominated the Judge whose seat has become vacant shall be invited to nominate his successor, and the candidate so nominated shall thereupon be appointed by the International Council sitting as the Council of the eight Great Powers. On the occurrence of a vacancy among the other Judges, each of the Constituent States other than the eight Great Powers shall be invited to nominate a candidate to fill the vacancy; and the International Council sitting as a whole shall, by exhaustive ballot, choose from among the candidates so nominated the person to be appointed.

A Judge of the International High Court shall not be liable to any legal proceedings in any tribunal in any State, and shall not be subjected to any disciplinary action by any Government, in respect of anything said or done by him in his capacity as Judge; and shall not during his term of office be deprived of any part of the emoluments or privileges of his office. A Judge of the International High Court may be removed from office by a resolution of the International Council sitting as a whole, carried by a three-fourths majority.

The Court Open Only to State Governments

13. The International High Court shall deal only with justiciable questions, as defined in these Articles, at issue between the national Governments of independent Sovereign Sates, and shall not entertain any application from or on behalf of an individual person, or any group or organization of persons, or any company, or any subordinate administration, or any State not independent and Sovereign. The International High Court may, if it thinks fit, deal with a suit brought by a Constituent State against an independent Sovereign State which is not a Constituent State; or with a suit between two or more such States.

Justiciable Issues

14. The justiciable questions with which the International High Court shall be competent to deal shall be exclusively those falling within one or other of the following classes, viz.:

(a) Any question of fact which, if established, would be a cause of action within the competence of the Court;

(b) Any question as to the interpretation or application of any international treaty or agreement duly registered as provided in these Articles, or of International Law, or of any enactment of the International Council; together with any alleged breach or contravention thereof;

(c) Any question as to the responsibility or blame attaching to any independent Sovereign State for any of the acts, negligences or defaults of its national or local Government officers, agents or representatives, occasioning loss or damage to a State other than their own, whether to any of the citizens, companies or subordinate administrations of such State, or to its national Government; and as to the reparation to be made, and the compensation to be paid, for such loss or damage;

(d) Any question as to the title, by agreement, prescription, or occupation, to the sovereignty of any place or district;

(e) Any question as to the demarcation of any part of any national boundary;

(f) Any question as to the reparation to be made, or the amount of compensation to be paid, in cases in which the principle of indemnity has been recognized or admitted by all the parties;

(g) Any question as to the recovery of contract debts claimed from the Government of an independent Sovereign State by the Government of another independent Sovereign State, as being due to any of its citizens, companies or subordinate administrations, or to itself;

(h) Any question which may be submitted to the Court by express agreement between all the parties to the case.

The question of whether or not an issue is justiciable within the meaning of these Articles shall be determined solely by the International High Court, which may determine such a question whether or not formal objection is taken by any of the litigants.

If any State, being a party to any action in the International High Court, objects that any point at issue is not a justiciable question as herein defined, the objection shall be considered by the Court; and the Court shall, whether or not the objecting State enters an appearance, or argues the matter, pronounce upon the objection, and either set it aside or declare it well founded.

It shall be within the competence of the International High Court, with regard to any justiciable question in respect of which it may be invoked by one or more of the parties, summarily to enjoin any State, whether or not a party to the case, to refrain from taking any specified positive action or to discontinue any specified positive action already begun, or to cause to be discontinued any specified positive action begun by any person, company or subordinate administration within or belonging to such State, which in the judgment of the Court is designed or intended, or may reasonably be expected to change the status quo with regard to the question at issue before the Court, or seriously to injure any of the parties to the case. Any such injunction of the International High Court shall be binding, and shall be enforceable, in the same way as a judgment of the Court, in the manner hereinafter described.

Immediate Publicity for All Treaties, Existing and Future

15. No treaty or agreement between two or more independent Sovereign States shall be deemed to confer any right to invoke the International High Court, or shall be treated as valid, or be in any way recognized by the International Council or the International High Court, or shall be held to confer any rights, to impose any obligations, or to change the status or legal rights of any person, company, subordinate administration, district or State, unless a duly authenticated copy of such Treaty or Agreement has been deposited by one or all of the States that are parties to it, in the Registry of the International High Court, within twelve months from the date of these Articles, in accordance with any rules that may from time to time be made by the Court for this purpose; or in the case of a Treaty or Agreement hereafter made, within three months from the date of such Treaty or Agreement.

It shall be the duty of the officer in charge of the Registry immediately after deposit to allow the duly accredited representative of any Constituent State to inspect and copy any Treaty or Agreement so deposited; and promptly to communicate a copy to the International Secretariat for publication in the Official Gazette.

Undertaking to Submit All Justiciable Questions to the International High Court

16. The Constituent States severally undertake and agree to submit to the International High Court for trial and judgment every question, difference or dispute coming within the definition of a justiciable question as laid down by these Articles that may arise between themselves and any other independent Sovereign State or States; and at all times to abstain, in respect of such questions, from anything in the nature of an ultimatum; from any threat to take unfriendly or aggressive action of any kind with a view to redressing the alleged grievance or punishing the alleged wrongdoing; and from any violation of the territory of any other State or attack on the ships of such State or other military or naval operations, or other action leading or likely to lead to war.

Enforcement of the Decrees of the Court

17. When in any case upon which judgment is given by the International High Court, the Court finds that any of the parties to the case has, by act, negligence, or default, committed any breach of international obligation, whether arising by Treaty or Agreement, or by International Law, or by enactment of the International Council in accordance with these Articles, the Court may simply declare that one or other litigant State is in default, and leave such State voluntarily to make reparation; or the Court may, in the alternative, itself direct reparation to be made or compensation to be paid for such wrong, and may assess damages or compensation, and may, either by way of addition to damages or compensation, or as an alternative, impose a pecuniary fine upon the State declared in default, hereinafter called the recalcitrant State; and may require compliance with its decree within a specified time under penalty of a pecuniary fine, and may prescribe the application of any such damages, compensation, or fine.

In the event of non-compliance with any decision or decree or injunction of the International High Court, or of non-payment of the damages, compensation, or fine within the time specified for such payment, the Court may decree execution, and may call upon the Constituent States, or upon some or any of them, to put in operation, after duly published notice, for such period and under such conditions as may be arranged, any or all of the following sanctions—viz.:

(a) To lay an embargo on any or all ships within the jurisdiction of such Constituent State or States registered as belonging to the recalcitrant State;

(b) To prohibit any lending of capital or other moneys to the citizens, companies, or subordinate administrations of the recalcitrant State, or to its national Government;

(c) To prohibit the issue or dealing in or quotation on the Stock Exchange or in the press of any new loans, debentures, shares, notes or securities of any kind by any of the citizens, companies or subordinate administrations of the recalcitrant State, or of its national Government;

(d) To prohibit all postal, telegraphic, telephonic and wireless communication with the recalcitrant State;

(e) To prohibit the payment of any debts due to the citizens, companies or subordinate administrations of the recalcitrant State, or to its national Government; and, if thought fit, to direct that payment of such debts shall be made only to one or other of the Constituent Governments, which shall give a good and legally valid discharge for the same, and shall account for the net proceeds thereof to the International High Court;

(f) To prohibit all imports, or certain specified imports, coming from the recalcitrant State, or originating within it;

(g) To prohibit all exports, or certain specified exports consigned directly to the recalcitrant State, or destined for it;

(h) To prohibit all passenger traffic (other than the exit of foreigners), whether by ship, railway, canal or road, to or from the recalcitrant State;

(i) To prohibit the entrance into any port of the Constituent States of any of the ships registered as belonging to the recalcitrant State, except so far as may be necessary for any of them to seek safety, in which case such ship or ships shall be interned;

(j) To declare and enforce a decree of complete non-intercourse with the recalcitrant State, including all the above-mentioned measures of partial non-intercourse;

(k) To levy a special export duty on all goods destined for the recalcitrant State, accounting for the net proceeds to the International High Court;

(l) To furnish a contingent of war-ships to maintain a combined blockade of one or more of the ports, or of the whole coastline of the recalcitrant State.

The International High Court shall arrange for all the expenses incurred in putting in force the above sanctions, including any compensation for loss thereby incurred by any citizens, companies, subordinate administrations or national Governments of any of the Constituent States other than the recalcitrant State, to be raised by a levy on all the Constituent States in such proportions as may be decided by the International Council; and for the eventual recovery of the total sum by way of additional penalty from the recalcitrant State.

When on any decree or decision or injunction of the International High Court execution is ordered, or when any sanction or other measure ordered by the Court is directed to be put in operation against any Constituent State, it shall be an offense against the comity of nations for the State against which such decree, decision, injunction or execution has been pronounced or ordered, or against which any sanction or other measure is directed to be enforced, to declare war, or to take any naval or military action, or to violate the territory or attack the ships of any other State or to commit any other act of aggression against any or all of the States so acting under the order of the Court; and all the other Constituent States shall be bound, and do hereby pledge themselves, to make common cause with the State or States so attacked, and to use naval and military force to protect such State or States, and to enforce the orders of the International High Court, by any warlike operations that may for the purpose be deemed necessary.

[See New Statesman, special supplement, July 17, 1915, for program, with notes and queries, here omitted.]

Independent Labor Party

Annual Conference, Norwich, April 5 and 6, 1915.

Independent Labor Party.

Drafted Resolutions:

This Conference calls upon the workers to guard against allowing elements to enter the peace settlement which would be a pretext and excuse for future devastating wars; in order that the peace may be just and lasting, the Conference demands:

1. That the people concerned shall give consent before there is transfer of territory:

2. No future treaty, agreement or understanding be entered into without the knowledge of the people and the consent of Parliament, and machinery to be created for the democratic control of foreign policy:

3. Drastic all-round reduction of armaments, by international agreement, together with the nationalization of the manufacture of armaments, and the national control of the export of armaments, by one country to another:

4. British foreign policy to be directed in future toward establishing a federation of the nations, and the setting up of an International Council, whose decisions shall be public, together with the establishment of courts for the interpretation and enforcement of treaties and International Law.

5. This Conference is of opinion that an International Arbitration Court should be established, with power, as an alternative to war, to enforce its decisions by declaring a postal, commercial, transport and financial boycott against any dissenting nation.

6. This Conference is of opinion that no war should be declared without the consent of Parliament.

7. Recognizing that a permanent peace must be based upon mutual confidence and goodwill between the nations, which can only be shown effectively by the abandonment of all material preparations for war, this Conference urges the abolition of armaments, the disbanding of military and naval forces, and the prohibition of the manufacture and import or export of munitions of war.

National Peace Council: Federation of British Peace Societies

National Peace Council.

1. Establishment of an international peace commission such as those already established between the United States and certain other Powers.

2. Peace commission to extend its functions to include both those of a commission of inquiry and of a permanent Hague court of arbitration.

3. Formation of a permanent Congress of Nations composed of delegates appointed by the Parliaments, to settle important international affairs which might give rise to war; further elaboration by the Congress of the Hague Conventions regulating the conduct and methods of warfare.

4. No territorial change without consent of the population involved.

5. Foreign policies and treaties subject to parliamentary control.

6. Armament question to be put before Congress of Nations.

7. Congress to seek to remove obstacles to freedom of trade.

Women’s Movement for Constructive Peace

London

Object: to organize public union and to bring its pressure to bear upon the Governments of the world to the furtherance of the following ends:

PROPOSITIONS

1. The reinforcement of the Democracies of the world by the inclusion of the mother-half of the human race into the ranks of articulate citizenship.

2. The creation of some constitutional machinery, where none at present exists, by which the Democracies may exercise some control over foreign policy.

3. That all treaties and alliances on the part of any Democratic nation shall be ratified by the representatives of the people.

4. That the manufacture of armaments shall be nationalized and that the export of ammunition from one country to another shall be vetoed.

5. That the allies shall be held to their slogan that this is a war to end war.

6. That at the conclusion of peace no province shall be transferred from one Government to another without the consent of the population concerned; that this consent shall be obtained by plebiscite and that women, who have suffered equally with men, shall be included in the plebiscite.

7. That women as well as men should be sent as representatives of their nation to the Hague Conference.

8. That the Democracies shall press for some kind of international agreement by which all the nations shall put themselves at the back of any one lawabiding nation that is aggressively attacked, or of any small country that is menaced by a stronger Power.

9. That the idea be brought to the front and the possibility discussed of the formation of an European Senate composed of representatives of every European nation. That this Senate exist for the discussion of international concerns and in this way a means may be constructed whereby nations can seek to obtain what is necessary to the development of their national life by bargain and by exchange, instead of by secret treachery or open slaughter and loot.

SUGGESTED ADDENDA

That the Hague Conference which regulates the rules of war is based upon a pernicious principle in that it treats as natural the existence of war, and only aims to prune off some features regarded as objectionable, instead of trying to render war impossible.

Australian Peace Alliance

Australian Peace Alliance.

1. The establishment of an effective and permanent international arbitration court elected on a democratic basis, including women delegates.

2. The setting up of adequate machinery for ensuring democratic control of foreign policy.

3. The general reduction of armaments and the nationalization of their manufacture.

4. The organization of the trades unions and workers’ associations, with a definite view of ending war.

5. The termination of the present war at the earliest possible moment, and the following principles to govern the terms of peace:

(I.) No Province or Territory in any part of the world shall be transferred from one Government to another without the consent by plebiscite of the population of such Province.

(II.) No treaty, arrangement or undertaking shall be entered upon in the name of Great Britain without the sanction of Parliament. Adequate machinery for ensuring democratic control of foreign policy shall be created.

(III.) The foreign policy of Great Britain shall not be aimed at creating Alliances for the purpose of maintaining the “Balance of Power,” but shall be directed to the establishment of a concert of Europe and the setting up of an international council, whose deliberations and decisions shall be public.

(IV.) Great Britain shall propose as part of the peace settlement a plan for the drastic reduction of armaments by the consent of all the belligerent Powers, and to facilitate that policy shall attempt to secure the general nationalization of the manufacture of armaments and the prohibition of the export of armaments by one country to another.

(V.) The universal abolition of conscription or compulsory military training.

MR. CHARLES RODEN BUXTON ON PEACE TERMS

Charles Roden Buxton.

1. Total evacuation by Germany of Belgium, France, Poland and Baltic provinces, and by Germany and Austria of Serbia.

2. No indemnity, of course, from Great Britain, but compensation to Belgium by Germany for damage done.

3. The special demands of France against Germany, of Italy and Serbia against Austria, and of Russia against Turkey to be agreed upon with Great Britain by the States concerned. This country to use its influence to secure that such demands are in harmony with the principle of nationality.

4. Germany’s right to a colonial empire to be recognized, though not necessarily to exactly the same territories as those previously possessed.

POINTS FOR A CONFERENCE

The following points might be referred to a conference representing neutral and belligerent States:

a. The repartition of Africa, with a view to more convenient frontiers and to the interests of the native population.

b. The question of equal economic opportunities, including the open door, in all colonial possessions.

c. The discussion and definition of immunity from capture of goods other than contraband and the modification of commercial blockade, whether by submarine warfare or otherwise.

d. As a condition of the preceding point the question of equal, comprehensive, and effective guarantees against future war on land as well as on sea; binding Germany as well as other nations, including ourselves.

BRAILSFORD ON A PEACE BY SATISFACTION

H. N. Brailsford.

A peace in which neither side could dictate the settlement might aim either at general frustration or general satisfaction. A sullen peace, in which each side used up the remnants of its military strength to veto the claims of the adversary, would be of all peaces the worst, for it would leave standing all the old causes of unrest. This war came about because Europe had evolved in peace no machinery by which demands for large and necessary changes could be met without war. Each people postponed its larger ambitions until war should come, and the knowledge of each that only war offered a chance of satisfaction made our universal strife. The claims of the Entente Powers for certain satisfactions for the principle of nationality, are to us familiar and sympathetic. It must be realized that the German demand for economic expansion is deeply rooted, and in the modern world inevitable. For Manchuria, Morocco, Egypt and Tripoli, the Entente Powers made, or were ready to make war. The German craving for “a place in the sun” may be condemned by those of us who have opposed Imperialism at home, but the ruling classes cannot consistently censure it. For twenty years past, the unsolved problem for European statecraft was to find an outlet for these tremendous German energies, to cut a canal in which the broad river could flow without floods. The peace of Europe will never be secure until this passion for Imperial work overseas, which is to-day the strongest ambition in Germany, finds its useful satisfaction. The forges are there. If they cannot make rails, they will make cannon.

The formula of an enduring peace must be to remove all the causes of strife in Europe, and we shall succeed only if we can satisfy the enemy’s legitimate claims while we secure justice for our friends. The general idea must be, win from him the largest recognition of the idea of nationality, while conceding to him the economic opportunities which he requires. The more, by the ordinary working of barter that we concede, the more shall we obtain. Let us attempt to sketch what the main lines of such an exchange might be.

(A)—ACTS OF RESTORATION

1.—Belgium must be restored, Serbia re-instated, and French territory evacuated.

2.—The German colonies must either be restored, or equivalent territories provided.

(B)—CLAIMS OF NATIONALITY

3.—The ideal solution for Poland, in a political sense, would be independence. But could a land-locked State, between three great military empires, ever be secure? The Poles, themselves, are not averse to the idea of their re-union as a State within the Austrian Empire. If they had the same status as Hungary, they would be internally independent. But if Europe consented to allow this accession of territory to Austria, conditions might be laid down. It might be stipulated that a like status should be given to Bohemia, and to the Serbo-Croats of Croatia, Bosnia and Dalmatia. Thus Austria would become a quintuple Federal Empire (Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, Poland, Jugoslavia), and one of the main problems of the war, the liberation of the Western Slavs, would be satisfactorily solved.

In return for this extension of territory Austria might be required to cede the Eastern (Ruthenian) part of Galicia to Russia, and the Trentino to Italy.

4.—The chief difficulty lies in Alsace-Lorraine. Let us make the bold claim that it must be restored to France (or such parts of it as desire this change). What can we offer as a quid pro quo? The following economic concessions suggest themselves (5, 6, and 7).

(C)—ECONOMIC CLAIMS

5.—That Germany be allowed to complete that closer economic union with her Allies, and especially Austria, which seems to be her chief objective. We cannot prevent the creation of “Mid-Europe” as an economic unity, but we might reply to it by a boycott. An amiable regulation of tariff questions is a necessity for peace.

6.—We might further agree not to oppose such economic expansion (railway and irrigation schemes) in Turkey as Germany can arrange. Turkey would become a German economic sphere, but there must be guarantees for the fair treatment of the trade in goods of other Powers.

7.—A general measure by which all Powers renounced differential tariffs in their tropical colonies would ease the struggle for territory. France would be reluctant to agree to this, but the condition is that she secures Alsace.

(D)—OTHER ISSUES

8.—The greater part of Macedonia, in accordance with the principle of nationality, must go to Bulgaria.

9.—Russia might acquire the Armenian provinces of Turkey. It lies with us to accord her an ice-free port on the Persian Gulf. A Russian protectorate over Persia might in the end be less fatal to Persian nationalism than the present partition and condominium.

10.—Finally, the whole bargain must rest upon Germany’s assent to some scheme of permanent conciliation and the reduction of armaments, and upon our consent to consider a revision of certain usages of sea-warfare.

H. N. Brailsford.

PEACE PROPOSALS AND PROGRAMS
4. GERMANY

German and Austro-Hungarian Socialists

Vienna, April 12-13, 1915.

Socialists of Central Powers.

1. Development of the international arbitration courts.

2. Recognition of the right of every people to determine its own destiny.

3. All treaties to be under democratic parliamentary control.

4. International agreement to limit armament with general disarmament as the ultimate goal.

Bund Neues Vaterland

Bund Neues Vaterland.

1. Development of international organization.

2. Further development of international law by future Hague conferences.

3. No annexation.

4. No secret treaties.

5. Open door. Freedom of the seas.

MANIFESTO OF THE “DEUTSCHE FRIEDENSGESELLSCHAFT”

German Peace Society.

Notwithstanding the prohibition of the Government, demands for annexation are being more or less publicly advocated. Six large agricultural associations go especially far in these ideas; indeed for one petition signatures are collected among those who because of “their rank and education consider themselves the spiritual leaders of public opinion.” This movement has evidently the support of important circles. The worst of this is that those demands are known to the neutrals and to hostile countries, who make them the foundation of their accusations of German desires of conquest. Besides they kindle ill-feeling against Germany, as the Government and the whole German nation are held responsible for all this.

There is no doubt that the Imperial Government is unjustly accused in this respect, whatever may be her attitude towards other questions. Should such tendencies be publicly criticized, then the world would soon see that the greater part of the German nation is strongly opposed to them.

The prohibition to discuss the aims of the war, which is strictly maintained with respect to ourselves, prevents us from criticizing this question thoroughly; and from organizing our opposition to such tendencies.

So far we have gladly obeyed the order not to discuss these questions. After our experience, however, of the way in which this prohibition and the above-mentioned agitation are exploited abroad to the detriment of German interests, we think it our duty to appeal to the Government to grant “free speech to a free nation.”

Until this has been granted, the German Peace Association can do no more than utter a general protest against the danger of such annexation ideas. When such ideas are considered the aim of war, the war will be prolonged indefinitely, for months, perhaps for years. Their realization would not strengthen, but weaken Germany, abroad as well as at home, in peace and in future wars. A new war would be inevitable shortly after such a peace.

The German Peace Association and all friends of the people desire that the military supremacy of the Central Powers, which we hope will decide the peace, shall be turned towards the consolidation of Germany’s position in the world, towards the development of the economical and national forces of the German nation. But they hope also, that the coming peace may contain the elements of a durable peace and lay the foundation for a lasting community of justice and culture between the nations, which must be restored after the peace, howsoever bitter their hostility may be at present. The association is convinced that a sensible consideration of the vital interests of the German nation will prevail over empty phrases and private interests, when the conditions of peace shall be drawn up.

L. Quidde, O. Umfrid, Stuttgart.

MANIFESTO BY 88 GERMAN PROFESSORS AND STATESMEN

Manifesto of Professors and Statesmen.

Germany has not entered upon this war with the idea of conquering foreign territory, but in order to defend her existence, her internal unity, and her culture, which were threatened by a hostile coalition.

When peace shall be discussed, those objects alone should be Germany’s care. Some petitions laid before Your Excellency go against them: so we consider it our duty energetically to resist such endeavors and to declare publicly that we think their realization a political error, which may produce dangerous consequences, and not a strengthening but an ominous weakening of the German Empire.

Practically we lay down the principle that annexation or conquest of nations, which so far have been politically independent, is not advisable. The German Empire is the result of the idea of national unity, of national kinship. Foreign elements have been amalgamated only slowly and incompletely; so we object to events, persons or tendencies which may be easily influenced one way or another, disturbing the leading principles of the creation of our Empire, and destroying the character of our national State.

Of course we cannot allow a territory which we should evacuate according to our conditions of the peace to become a stronghold for our enemies, we cannot allow the adversaries of Germany to settle there. There should not be any possibility of the hostile feelings of the inhabitants revealing themselves in hostile actions, which might threaten the peace and security of our border-provinces. Such dangers can be averted and we trust that suitable and effective measures will be chosen and applied to accomplish this. But those measures should not after all lead to annexation in any form.

With our whole nation we share the conviction that this war will end in a complete victory of Germany. All those heroic deeds, those endless sacrifices and labors, all this military glory and all the sorrow borne in mute heroism, entitle Germany to a price of victory corresponding—as far as that is possible—to what she has sacrificed.

The highest price will be the proudly acquired knowledge that Germany need not fear a world full of enemies, and the unprecedented display of strength she has shown before all the nations of the earth and the generations yet to come.

The German nation can only conclude a peace which assures the foundations of the strategical wants, of the political and economic interests of the country and the unimpeded development of its strength and its energy at home and on the free seas. We trust that with the help of the bodies indicated by the Constitution Your Excellency may succeed in obtaining such a peace resolutely, while we are in the zenith of our military successes.

Proposals of South German Social Democrats

South German Social Democrats.

1 a. Restitution of status quo ante, or

1 b. Plebiscite in disputed territories (Alsace-Lorraine, Schleswig, Poland, Baltic Provinces, Finland, Trentino). International possession of Bosphorus, Dardanelles, Suez Canal, Gibraltar, and Kiel Canal.

2. No indemnifications.

3. Confederacy of all European States.

4. Limitations of armies and navies. People’s army for defense only.

5. Alliance of all against aggression.

6. International Parliaments and permanent international committees in place of diplomacy.

7. International police. International law-courts for minor international offenses.

8. Guarantees of democratic government: equality of electoral district, ten-year redistribution, proportional representation, payment of members.

Peace Aims of German Socialists: Conference of Party’s Members in Reichstag with Members of Party Committee.

(Reported in New York Times, August 26, 1915.)

Socialist Joint Committee.

1. Peace must be a permanent one, leading the nations to closer relations.

2. Germany’s opponents must not be permitted to acquire any German territory.

3. “Most favored nation” clauses should be introduced into peace terms with all belligerents.

4. Tariff walls should be removed.

5. So far as possible, freedom of the seas should be established, the right of capture abolished, and the straits, important for the world’s commerce, should be internationalized.

6. Austria and Turkey should not be weakened.

7. Annexations of foreign territories violate the rights of peoples to self-rule, and weaken internal strength and harmony in the German nation. Therefore, all plans of short-sighted politicians favoring conquest are opposed.

8. Finally, the party demands the establishment of an international court to which all future conflicts of nations shall be submitted.

The German Socialists’ Peace Manifesto

German Socialists.

The manifesto was published June 26, 1915, in the form of a full page advertisement in the Berlin Vorwaerts. The paper was promptly suspended but not until its message had crossed the German frontier. The New York Times publishes a translation in full as follows:

“For nearly a year the world has been devastated by the fury of war. Hundreds of thousands of human lives have been cut off in their prime, works of incalculable value to civilization have been destroyed, and there has been an appalling weakening of human forces. Millions of mothers, wives, and children are weeping for their lost sons, husbands and fathers. Want and hardship heighten the misery now oppressing the nations. Must this terrible drama, which has no precedent in the history of the world, go on indefinitely?

“The Socialist Party foresaw this world catastrophe and predicted it. It has consistently fought, therefore, against the policies of imperial expansion and against the fatal competition in armaments, which in the last instance is the cause of this war. It has worked unceasingly for a good understanding among the nations, for the cause of our common civilization, and for the welfare of mankind. When last year threatening war clouds were gathering on the horizon the German Socialists up to the very last moment bent all their energies to preserving peace. But, to the misfortune of mankind, they were unable to avert the catastrophe.

“Then when the Czar’s Cossacks came across the border, pillaging and burning, the Socialists made good the promise that had been given by their leaders—they put themselves at the service of the Fatherland and voted the means for its defense. They not only did their duty in defending Germany’s national independence, but they worked with all their might to safeguard its internal interests in the matter of food supplies, in relieving the needy, and in protecting the working classes against avaricious tradesmen and narrow-minded bureaucrats.

“Faithfully observing the obligations which all Socialist parties are bound to respect, the German Socialist Party, from the very first days of this awful tragedy, has striven to further the cause of a speedy peace. When the first war loan was voted, in August, 1914, the Socialist group in the Reichstag, through its spokesman, Herr Haase, said: ‘We demand that as soon as guarantees of national safety are secured and the enemy shows an inclination to make peace, the war be brought to an end on conditions admitting of friendly relations with neighboring nations.’

“This demand, which was accompanied by an expression disapproving any policy of conquest, was repeated when the new war loan was voted on December 2. On May 29, after Italy had intervened, the statement was made in the Reichstag in behalf of the Socialist Party that the desire for peace was increasing and that the Socialists wanted no policy of conquest. At a meeting in Vienna on April 12 and 13 representatives of the German and Austro-Hungarian Socialist Parties again adopted a resolution in favor of peace. But the German Socialists have not been content with such measures. In spite of opposition and suspicion, they have striven for a renewal of international relations with the Social-Democrats of all countries, and when the executive committee of the international Socialist organization made a proposal to hold a meeting at The Hague to discuss the possibility of peace negotiations, the German Socialist leaders agreed, under condition that the French Socialist Party participate. All efforts at an international agreement, however, were thwarted by the attitude of the French Socialists.

“We recognize with satisfaction that in England, as well as in France, there are Socialists who are working for peace. That cannot blind us to the deplorable fact that the majority of the Socialists, both in England and France, favor continuing the war until Germany is completely conquered.

“The Socialists in the Reichstag and the official leaders of the Socialist Party have constantly and unitedly fought against a policy of conquests and annexation. We protest again with all possible emphasis against all efforts looking to the annexation of foreign territory and the oppression of other peoples—measures now demanded by the great business organizations and influential political leaders. The mere fact that such efforts are being made tends to postpone the day of peace, which the whole public is now so earnestly awaiting.

“The people want no conquest of land, they want peace. If the war is not to go on indefinitely until all the nations are completely exhausted, some one of the Powers involved must stretch out the hand of peace. Upon Germany, which has successfully defended itself against superior forces, and which has frustrated the plan to bring it to starvation, rests the duty of taking the first steps toward peace. In the name of humanity and civilization, and recognizing the favorable military position which our brave troops have won, we urge the Government to try to end the struggle. We expect of our fellow Socialists in other belligerent countries that they will make the same demand upon their own governments.”

German Proposals for Peace

Letter of Dr. Bernhard Dernburg to American Newspapers, April 18, 1915.

Dr. Dernburg.

1. The peace must be of a permanent nature.

2. The world is one interlocking family of nations. World dominion is possible only with dominion on high seas. All the seas and narrows must be neutralized permanently by common and effective agreement guaranteed by all the Powers.

3. The free sea is useless without free cables. Cables must be jointly owned by the interested nations, with a world mail-system. Customs duties must be equal for all exports and imports, for whatever destination and from whatever source. Preferential tariffs with colonies are the basis of world-empire, and must not be permitted.

4. International law should be codified, with guarantees to save all neutrals from implication in wars in which they do not wish to take part.

5. A natural commercial relationship between Germany and Belgium must be established in workable form.

6. Germany should be permitted industrial expansion in such foreign parts as need or wish for development.

Dr. Dernburg’s Speech at City Club, Cleveland, May 8, 1915.

1. Asks recognition of the truth that strong nations showing great vitality and large increase are entitled to enough soil, air and water to maintain and advance their growing population. The lack of such proper adjustment of the conditions of the European Powers during the last fifty years has been one of the primary causes for unrest in Europe, and one of the principal dangers to the peace of the world.

2. Since no readjustment of the kind can take place in Europe on national lines, it is necessary to seek the solution, first, by the apportioning of all uncivilized parts of the globe, that is, by a readjustment of colonial possessions, then by the creation of spheres of influence and non-interference with nations who are willing to take and to concede such spheres; further, by an open door and equal opportunity policy all over the globe; and finally, by the neutralization of all the seas and narrows, cables and overseas mails of the world. This readjustment must be sanctioned by a simple and codified international law, safeguarded so that it cannot be broken without putting the infractor outside the pale of international relationships, not only with the party attacked, but also with all the parties remaining neutral. England must give up her rule of the seas, which must be placed definitely in the hands of all the Powers of the world. World trade must be free and all colonies neutralized. The decision whether there is to be a free and neutralized sea or a Chinese wall will also be decisive regarding the fate of Belgium. If the sea remains fortified, there can be no choice for Germany except to have her own sea fortresses as well, and since the only way of getting out into the high sea would be by way of Belgium, there would be no possibility of Germany’s considering the return of Belgium to its former status.

PROF. DR. L. QUIDDE ON REAL GUARANTEES FOR A DURABLE PEACE

Prof. Dr. L. Quidde.

I. The annexation of Belgium would prolong the war indefinitely.

II. The strength of the German Empire would decrease instead of increase by the annexation of Belgium, in times of peace as well as during the war.

The annexation of Belgium would destroy every outlook of a better understanding between Germany and her present enemies, after the war. It would make almost the whole rest of the world remain our enemies and would call forth a coalition of all against one. Germany need not foster illusions in this respect, if she only considers the effect of the invasion into Belgium upon public opinion throughout the world, especially in those neutral countries who were originally Germany’s friends.

He who wishes to annex Belgium must have the courage to face the fact that annexation will make the whole world our enemy for an indefinite space of time and will completely isolate Germany politically, so far as the feelings of the nations are to bring about such isolation.

III. The annexation of Belgium is bound to bring about a new war.

It is evident that neither England nor France can allow Belgium to be annexed by Germany as long as they do not wish to be annihilated themselves. Especially England would have to prepare retaliation with all the force that she can display, and it would be easy enough for her to find allies to support her. One may differ vastly on the subject of annexation, its advantages and drawbacks, but one cannot deny that durable peace and annexation of Belgium are two things absolutely incompatible.

Finally Prof. Quidde asks how it will be possible to make a durable peace which at the same time guarantees the welfare of Germany. This will be first of all a general removal of the causes that have led to the war, followed by a thorough reorganization of Europe on lines offering a better security for peace.

The first essentials for that reorganization are the “open-door” and the “free sea,” which will have to be guaranteed by international treaties.

One of the best grounded charges against International Law is, that International Law is in many cases so hopelessly rudimentary that the lack of precision forms a temptation to violate it. It is necessary that a strong agitation for the development, perfection and sanction of International Law should result from the experiences, the causes and the course of this war.

ED. BERNSTEIN ON PEACE TERMS

I

Ed. Bernstein.

It is the vital interest of the majority of the German nation, that the present war should end by a peace treaty which, as to the rights and the relations of the nations, is in conformity with the principles laid down in the program of the German Social-Democrat Party and in the resolutions adopted by their party-meetings and by the International Social-Democratic Congresses.

Only a peace based on these principles will result in renewing the friendly relations between Germany and the nations she is now at war with, as soon and as thoroughly as possible.

II

The supreme principle, insisted upon in the program and the resolutions of the Social-Democratic Party is the right of peoples to decide their own fate, within the limits of international law.

The German Socialists consider it their duty to defend this principle by all available means against any attack from any side whatsoever. No nation or part of a nation having so far enjoyed national independence, may be deprived of this right or see it impaired; no territory may be annexed, when the annexation would deprive the inhabitants of that right.

The Social-Democratic Party do not admit the right of conquest of one nation over any other.

III

In the case of countries of European civilization, which have lived under foreign rule, no territorial changes shall take place without a referendum being taken of the inhabitants. This referendum should be arranged and supervised by representatives of neutral States, so as to insure perfect freedom in voting. Any inhabitant, who is of age and has lived in the country for at least a year before the outbreak of the war, shall have the right to vote.

In the interests of peace, all peoples of European civilization living under foreign rule in sufficient numbers to form a community in the international Concert, shall obtain political independence.

When a sufficient number out of subject peoples incorporated by force in one State, desire to belong to another, they shall be given the right to decide by vote as to which State they will belong.

IV

Transfer of territory outside of Europe shall only take place under such conditions, as guarantee that the legal and material conditions of such native population shall not be injured.

V

Nations can only be safeguarded against a renewal of war or wars of retaliation by developing and strengthening international law.

In this respect the following means should be emphasized:

a. Development of the Hague Conference into a Permanent International Conference for the Codification of International Law and for International Arbitration. Concentration of the various Hague institutions into a permanent international court, suitably divided into branch courts.

b. All States to bring those differences they cannot themselves peaceably solve, before the Court of Justice to be instituted by the Hague Conference, where they will be settled either by mutual agreement, conciliation or arbitration.

c. All signatory States to refrain from war or warlike measures till the Court of Justice has examined the cause of war and till all attempts to settle the difference in a peaceful manner, have proved useless. Any State or Union resorting to hostilities contrary to these rules to be treated as an enemy by all the others.

d. The Parliaments to decide about war and peace. Secret treaties to be abolished.

e. Development of International Law relating to the conduct of war and the protection of the civil population. Abolition of the right of capture at sea and of the right to levy war-contributions. No hostages to be taken. Abolition of the system of reprisals against inhabitants of an invaded country for acts of self-defense or defense of other non-combatants. Permanent committees to watch the actions of belligerents in occupied territories and the treatment of prisoners of war and of civil prisoners interned in the enemy’s country.

f. Internationalization of transcontinental railways and of all waterways connecting seas or lakes surrounded by different countries, with the ocean.

g. Adoption of the principle of the Open Door for all Colonies, Protectorates and for every territory which lies in the sphere of influence of an European State.

h. These principles to be inserted into the constitutions of the Powers.

BELGIUM

Whereas, Art. 2 already excludes any forcible annexation of Belgian territory or any attack on the independence of Belgium by another State, Germany has moreover invaded Belgium, overpowered its army and occupied its territory without any provocation from the side of Belgium and as the Chancellor has himself admitted violating the neutrality of Belgium in defiance of the law of nations. Germany having thus made her way into Belgium to satisfy her own designs, beat down the resistance of the army and occupied the country by force, Germany is therefore bound in honor to evacuate Belgium immediately on the conclusion of peace, in accordance with the solemn declaration, made on August 4, 1914, by the German Ambassador, Prince Lichnowsky, to the English Secretary of State, Sir Edward Grey, and to pay a full and ample indemnity to the people of Belgium for the material and moral injury which they have suffered.

PEACE PROPOSALS AND PROGRAMS
5. FRANCE

French General Confederation of Labor

C. G. T.

1. Federation of nations.

2. Compulsory arbitration of international disputes.

3. Independence of nationalities. Right of all peoples to dispose of themselves to be safeguarded.

4. Suppression of secret diplomacy.

5. End of competitive armament.

6. Conference of organized labor forces of the world at same time as conference of diplomats.

PEACE PROPOSALS AND PROGRAMS
6. SWITZERLAND

Resolutions of Swiss Peace Society

At Annual Meeting, May 17, 1915.

Swiss Peace Society.

1. The avoidance of any annexation or territorial changes which are in opposition to the interests and wishes of a population; a guarantee of religious liberty, free speech and equality before the law, for the minority.

2. The creation of a permanent organization in which all European States shall be equally represented, for the purpose of safeguarding the order, peace and safety of our portion of the earth.

3. The development of an international law organization by continual Hague Conferences.

Swiss Committee for the Study of the Principles of a Durable Treaty of Peace

President: Prof. Otto Nippold, Bern.

Swiss Committee for Study of Peace.

1. Participation of neutral nations in the settlement.

2. Prohibition of secret treaties and agreements between nations.

3. Participation of popular representative bodies in control of foreign policy.

4. No annexation except after plebiscite of populations concerned.

5. Limitation of armaments to point of mere protection.

6. Manufacture of armaments to become State monopoly.

7. The States which participate in the settlement are to mutually guarantee each other’s territories.

8. Since the best guarantee for the preservation of world peace lies in the creation of international law and custom, arbitration must be substituted for war.

9. Disputed regions of the earth should be neutralized.

10. Free trade in all colonies.

PEACE PROPOSALS AND PROGRAMS
7. HOLLAND

Nederlandsche Anti-Oorlog Raad

The Hague

Founded on the 8th of October, 1914

Dutch Anti-War Council.

The Council is of opinion that the following principles are indispensable to attain a lasting peace:

1. Concert of the Powers instead of mutually opposed Alliances;

2. Limitation of armaments by international regulations;

3. Influence of the different Parliaments on the peace-treaty;

4. Avoidance of the dangers engendered by annexation or by transfer of territory against the will of the population;

5. Removal of the obstructions to commerce or at least of difference in treatment of the various nations in colonies and settlements, according to international regulations.

6. New endeavors to promote compulsory arbitration and compulsory inquiry of international differences.