But although Lenin’s anti-nationalism is to be avoided like the plague, the militarist internationalism of a capitalist order of society should be shunned like the pestilence. The new “Balance of Power” would then be the balance of classes, the possessors in every country leagued against the possessed in every land. Victory would go to that side which controlled the fighting material. All the disorders of the old system would afflict the new, with the added terror which increased efficiency would produce.
To save the new international organization, the League of Nations, from such an evolution, is enlightened Labour’s best reason for giving its support to the League. It is Labour’s business to see that the organization of the League is on thoroughly democratic lines; that it admits at no distant date every country within its fold, and that the broad matters of its discussions be not conducted in secrecy nor its broad lines of policy be adopted without the knowledge and consent of the peoples of the world themselves.
And for the Workers’ International, I know of no line of policy which they could adopt more advantageous to themselves than that of educating the public opinions of the various countries included therein to compel their respective Governments to disarm. The rationality of total disarmament has always been seriously questioned by those who have passed for wise. But total disarmament by all the nations is the only rational solution of the problems of peace and war. Such action may have to be gradual; it must certainly be taken in concert. But if the responsible statesmen of all lands would together lead the van and, scorning vested and professional interests, would declare for the ploughshare and the pruning-hook instead of the sword and the spear, the hosts of mankind would joyfully follow them in such a holy crusade.
It may be that men and women will have to wade through oceans of suffering before they recognize modern warfare for the organized filthiness it is. There was a certain personal dignity in physical strife when men met with bare hands, or with a stick or even a single sword, the human foe equally equipped. But the modern machine-gun, the tank, the poison gas, the fighting aeroplane—all the resources of science used against the innocent and guilty alike—women, old folks and babes—what single element of dignity or decency in such a conflict; honour, democracy, freedom, the pledged word setting the monstrous machine in motion, since men are too good in the mass to fight for anything less than these; and lurking in the shadow, anxious but safe, that insatiable dragon of greed, which for oil-wells and mining interests and timber concessions and goldfields will see millions of men welter in blood and millions of children and their mothers succumb to famine and disease.
Which brings me to my final word. That for the evils which afflict mankind there is no remedy save the elimination of selfishness, which is “the whole of the law and the prophets.” Selfishness in the individual, selfishness in the State. When it is universally recognized that every child born is entitled to the “development of all the perfection of which it is capable”; when the equal rights of nations, great and small, are admitted by all the States in Council; when the power of law and not the rule of force is the governing factor in the relations of men and nations, then begins the new era.
On such a foundation only can the true International Order be securely built.
INDEX
- Addams, Miss Jane, at International Conference of Women at the Hague, [13], [76]
- at Kingsway Hall, [78]
- author and, [77]
- peace mission of, [78], [79]
- personality of, [77]
- Adler, Friedrich, and Bolshevism, [33], [35], [182]
- at Berne Conference, [31]
- fidelity to principles of, [32]
- murderer of Count Sturgh, [31], [32]
- pardoned by Emperor Charles, [31]
- sent to quell riot, [33]
- trial of, [32], [33]
- Adlon, Hôtel, Berlin, [169]
- Ador, President, and Second International Conference, [4]
- Agoston, Professor, imprisonment of, [117]
- “Alfred and Omega” (Lord Northcliffe), [172]
- American Peace Delegation, at Hôtel Crillon, [7], [8], [38]
- American Relief Commission, work of, in Vienna, [114]
- Andrassy, Count Geza, [72]
- author and, [73]
- Angell, Norman, at Berne, [36], [52]
- Anti-Semitism, fallacies of, [182]-[4]
- Antwerp, author at, [173]
- Arco, Count, [85]
- Armenia, [149]
- Bolsheviks and, [225], [231]
- cruelties in, [150]
- Armistice, hard conditions of, [27]
- Ashton, Councillor Margaret, [75]
- Asquith, Mr., Germans and speeches of, [168]
- Astor, Lady, [167]
- Augspurg, Dr. Anita, at Zurich, [83]
- Austerlitz, Dr., [119]
- Austria, author’s tour through, [103] et seq.
- Christian Socialism in, [122]
- currency depreciation in, [111]
- “dying,” [103] et seq.
- evil of embargoes on, [25]
- fear of France in, [117]
- menace of union with Germany, [117]
- pro-German feeling in, [120]
- proposed union with Bavaria and, [120]
- Social Democratic Party of, and union with Germany, [118]
- Socialist Government of, [28]
- Union with Germany movement in, [119], [120]
- Austrian Government and Socialists, [32]
- Austrian Socialists, and union with Germany, [118]
- at Berne, [22]
- denounce the war, [32]
- Azerbaijan, Bolsheviks and, [149], [213], [225]
- Baku, Bolsheviks and, [149]
- Balabanova, Angelica, [3], [140], [181]
- “Balance of Power,” the new, [273]
- Baltic, minefields in, [155]
- Barbusse, M., and Clarté group, [129]
- Barnes, Mr., and Berne Conference, [4]
- Batoum, author at, [203], [228]
- capture of, by Bolsheviks, [226]
- Greek refugees at, [229]
- Bauer, Dr., and Austro-German union, [118]
- and Peace Treaty, [119]
- author and, [118], [119]
- on problems of Town v. Country, [121]
- personality of, [118], [119]
- the “Kreuzlbauer,” [133]
- writes in National Zeitung, [133]
- Bavaria, under Communism, [63], [83], [84]
- Beek en Donk, Dr. de Jong van, [54], [132]
- Beesly, Professor, founder of First International, [130]
- Belgarde, Passport and Customs examination at, [13]
- Belgian Socialists and Berne Conference, [11]
- and the war, [193]
- at Geneva, [12]
- Belgrade, author in, [234]
- Belle Vue Hotel, Berne, author at, [57], [58], [79], [132]
- secretariat of Second International at, [17]
- Berlin, author’s visit to, [159], [161]-[172]
- Communists of, [162]
- Hôtel Adlon at, [169]
- post-war condition of, [168]
- Berne, author on, [51], [132]
- League of Nations Conference at, [54] et seq.
- political agents (spies) at, [18] et seq.
- Second International Conference at, [1] et seq.
- arrival of delegates to, [14]
- delegates journey to, [4] et seq.
- Wiener Café at, [51], [52], [133], [134]
- Bernstein, Edouard, [29], [30]
- at Lucerne, [97]
- personality and views of, [97]
- refused admission to England, [98]
- “Biology of War,” by Professor Nicolai, [68]
- “Black and Tans,” [255], [265]
- Blockade of Germany, continuance of, after Armistice, [25]
- Bolshevism, author on, [139] et seq.
- fear of, in Border Republics, [155]
- fear of, in Central Europe, [181]
- Kautsky and, [25]
- Second International and, [35], [36]
- Third International and, [130]
- Bolshevik Government, and Kemalists, [149], [201]
- Armenia and, [149], [150], [213], [231]
- Azerbaijan and, [149], [213], [225]
- Baku and, [149]
- Caucasus and, [225]
- causes of long life of, [144]
- Georgia and, [149], [150], [212], [225], [226]
- Jews and, [182]
- Poland and, [178]
- propaganda of, [149]
- Bondfield, Margaret, and Berne Conference, [3]
- in Paris, [8]
- Börjom, author at, [221]
- Bornemiza, Baron, [137]
- Boulogne, post-war scenes at, [5]
- Bourgeois, Socialist interpretation of, [59]
- Bramley, Fred, [7]
- Branting, M., at Berne, [30]
- author and, [159], [160], [161]
- pro-Ally, [32]
- Breitschied, Herr, [166]
- Brentano, Professor, author and, [63]
- Brest-Litovsk, Peace of, Trotsky and, [xi], [143]
- Allies and, [142]
- Lenin and, [142]
- “Briefe einer Deutsch-Franzosin,” by Annette Kolb, [67]
- Bristol Hotel, Vienna, author’s experiences in, [111], [112]
- British Delegation to Berne, harmony of, [23]
- meeting of, with German delegates, [24]
- British Military Mission, at Berlin, [161]
- at Constantinople, [229]
- at Vienna, [114]
- in Esthonia, [156]
- popularity of, [114]
- British Military Permit, [56]
- Buchs, author at, [105], [106]
- Budapest, Conference of National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies at, [70]
- Bullitt, William, at Berlin, [170]
- at Berne, [38]
- Bunning, Mr. Stuart, at Berne, [23]
- Burns, John, and Miss Jane Addams, [77]
- Buxton, Mrs. Chas. Roden, author and, [135]
- delegate to League of Nations Conference, [60]
- Relief efforts for Viennese children, [61]
- “Save the Children Fund,” and, [61]
- Buxton, Mr. Charles Roden, [26]
- Capitalism, failure of, [xii]
- replacement of, by Collectivist Internationalism, [143]
- Carmi, Maria, [172]
- Casement, Roger, [33], [266]
- Catt, Mrs. C. Chapman, [42]
- Caucasian Republics, Federation of, [213]
- Caucasus, Imperialist policy in, [149]
- Central Europe, post-war conditions in, [109], [110]
- Charles, ex-Emperor, Adler and, [31]
- attempts to recover throne, [33]
- Bohemian delegate and, [20]
- Count Teleki and, [69]
- Prince Windischgraetz and, [71]
- Charles, Prince of Sweden, and relief for Russia, [157], [158]
- Charlottenburg, Children’s Clinic at, [170]-[1]
- Child relief, International organization for, [60]
- Children, Austrian, sufferings of, [26], [61], [73], [74], [125]
- German, sufferings of, [25], [26], [164], [170]
- Polish, sufferings of, [180]
- Christian Socialism in Austria, [122]
- Claparéde René and Clarté group, [129]
- edits newspaper in Geneva, [139]
- Clarté Socialist group, [129]
- Clemenceau, story of, on Peace, [123]
- Cohn, Oscar, [166]
- Cologne, author at, [172]-[3]
- Communism, and spirit of hate, [xii]
- Communists and Kautsky, [25]
- German, [162], [164], [165]
- Russian programme of, [144]
- “Comrade,” author’s protest at misuse of, [15], [16]
- Connolly, execution of, [246]
- Constantinople, author at, [200], [201], [229]
- Socialist movement in, [233]
- Cork, author in, [262]-[4]
- Courtney, Lord, [46]
- Crown Princess of Sweden, death of, [158]
- Cunninghame, Lieut.-Colonel Sir Thomas, author and, [114]
- Hungarian aristocracy and, [115]
- Czapsritski, K., [175]
- Czecho-Slovak Delegates, at Lucerne, [98]
- Czecho-Slovakia, opposition to economic union with Austria in, [120]