LAW OF NATIONS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2359, 15 January 1915, Page 6

LAW OF NATIONS

WHAT MAY RESULT FROM THE '"' WAR. . •i "A crisis has been reached in the development, of the civilisation of Europe and on' its solution - depends the advance or retrogression of all tlw ideals which free and self-governing peoples hold) mast dear, both in their own internal org inisation, and in their future • international relations M . The.words are, those' of Dr. A. Pearco Higgins,' lecturer,-on international law at the London School of Economics, and the Royal Naval War College, and the of one of the Oxford, pamphlets, .' 'The, Law of Nations and tho, War." What will -be the changes, if any, in the organisation -and rule for intercourse of the family of nations at the close of the present war," he says, "is a matter for speculation by theorists, and will be one for practical solution by statesmen and diplomatists. That , the present will be the last war'in the-his-tory of the world no one who takes a wide,'view of- history will be likely to affirm; -that -it .should-make wars increasingly difficult and rare in the future is an inspiration' with which: all will concur." . . . , ■ ' ■ . : Dr. Higgins concludes - with' these words: "We do well .'to cherish high ideals , for tlie future of international relations,- but it is necessary'-that these ideals should bo those not of one State only, but of, all the members of the international society. The/Jaw of nations can only progress and develop as the ' ethical standard of each State'is steadily elevated. The death-blow must be given everywhere to the anarchical doctrine, that-might is right, that war'is a necessity to political idealism and politics par excellence, instead of being the evidence of the failure of diplomacy and the last, resort in case of the clash of irreconcilable national ideals. If the present, war results in the firmer acceptance of the sanctity of. treaties, the complete destruction of the German doctrine of necessity justifying/any •any every breach of the laws of:war, ! guarantees thei safety of small States and provides means for a ir.ore "general acceptance in/international disputes-of the law of nations, applied by ah. inter-: national body in lieu of the arbitrament of _the 6word, it ! will not have been in vain, and it/ will form a notable, epoch in, the development of the law' of, nations and the civilisation of the . world."