PARTNERSHIP OF FREE NATIONS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 113, 5 February 1918, Page 7

PARTNERSHIP OF FREE NATIONS

« $11. ASQUITH ON ALLIES' ULTIMATE AIM . NO MORE TOTTERING EQUILIBRIUM "Wo should he stultifying all our professions and throwing away the incalculable sacrifices wo havo made if wo wore to submit to a so-called peace ■which' left France still despoiled and ■ Italy as a nation still truncated and incomplete; which did not curtail the i'Turk's powers and opportunities of mia|.governmcnt; which did not provide for ,an emancipated and restored Boligium; for an enlarged and autonomous 'Serbia; for the creation in Poland, the 'prey in the past of dynastic and mili- ' tary ambitions, of a united and selfgoverning State; and for the free and : Secure development of, Rumania and '•of the Soutli-Eastern Slays.". In these words Mr., Asquith, in an jjntorview with Mr. Edward Marshall J in. the "Observer," sets forth the war i of the Allies. "They are none of selfish objeots," he added. ' "There is not the slightest- taint of an I ;®ggressivo or oven a vindictive purpose in any one of them. Their cornwon aim is enfranchisement, security, j compensation for. past, and prevention «f future international crimes." To Vindicate tho Law of Europe. ! The war, said tho ex-Premier, was i hot of the Allies', seeking. They were driven into it to vindicate the public . law of Europe. As the contest developed other issues -we-seen to'bo in[Volved. The German methods of warj'fnre, both on land and sea, set back the ['clock to where it stood in the darkest' Centuries and became a. daily affront [to the common conscience of mankind. |Any lurking doubts as to whether the Uecrilar autocracy of Russia might not l ™ BCC °rd with tho spirit of the yireat Wostern democracies had been [dissolved by the disappearance of the , ;Tsardom almost in.the twinkling: of an [eve. It was indeed from Russia that | the formula of "no annexations and no ' had of late been . most 'loudly proclaimed. • The geographical and ethnological ref distributions implied in the . Allies' tiims, be continued, but clear the road .to the attainment of an end which was of snpreme imnortance not only'to the Nationalities of Europe, but to all civilised It was a cause which 'summoned to its banner with an; imperious call the freo. .democracies of Wh-hemispheres, and, if it triumphed, would bring abniit .the reconstruction on a stable and enduring .basis of >'tne whole system, of the relationship "of States. ; • Europe's Festering Sores... . "The recent grouping of'the EuroStates was Hot only inore or less ■accidental; it was, as the course of events proved, in the highest degree prec&rious. For the best-part of ten years it was-the ceaseless and successful preoccupation of Sir Edward Grey, as shock followed. shock, to maintain the tottering equilibrium. Such ft state of international relations without any solid foundation, -etHnioal political, Was bound by its.very- instability to stimulate naval and military activity. "The first thing needed is, without ooubt, not a re-establishment, of 1 tho balance of power, but the removal of dne of the chief of the chronic causcs of unsettlement by the emancipation and regrouping of subject peoples in accordance with their aspirations and in- • terests. This would go a long way to heal the festering sores which Europe has inherited from dyEastio ambitions, from diplomatic chicane, from military rapacity... ; .- 'But it is clear that if the peace ■which lias become the first interest of a bleeding and devastated world is' to oe something more than a breathing spaco or a passing interlude, we cannot be content with a mere repainting of the Inap. Nor must our reconstruction concern Europe alone. We must aim at Setting up a world-wide peace partnership, of which all tho civilised communities will be members on a level footing, with equal rights, and reciprocal duties. . The Common Will of All. J 'The wanton recourse to the use of force by one nation against another must be guarded against, and in time superseded by a common agreement to submit disputes' to tho common judgment, and, in case of need, to unito .the strength of all by appropriate means in order to give effect to. the common will. ' Subject to these conditions each 'country must possess absolute freedom to pursue at home, in accordance with the wishes of its own people, its own ideals of self-edvelop-ment." The preliminary step to such a(recon-

struction was the progressive limitation of armaments, and tlieso changcs, he concluded,-quoting his speech in the Queen's Hall on August 4, 1916, "must aim from the beginning at something more than tho negative functions ol policing tho world and > preventing breaches of tho peace; at nothing loss than a partnership of the nations in the joint pursuit of a freer and fuller life for the countless millions who, by their efforts and thoir sacrifices, gonoration after generation, maintain the progress and enrich the inheritance of humttuity." ________ '