International Morality What Is It?

Te Aroha News, Volume XIV, Issue 2096, 21 April 1898, Page 2

International Morality What Is It?

This weighty question is discussed at some length by Mr T. G. Law in a recent number of the ‘ New Review.’ International law m a more or less vague andimpractie&be form, we know does exist among the Great Powers,, bat whether international morality is an interchangeable term for international law is quite another question. Even England, who boasts that her foreign policy is based upon ebhioal Christian principles, has many times in her history acted towards other nationaaaif mere brute force were synonymous with national morality for example in the Chines* opium war, and iu some of her recent annexations in Africa. If any more striking illustration were needed we might point to the designs of France, Russia, and Germany upon the ‘ Sick Man of the Far East.’ As Mr Law shows the integrity* and perfection of a nation is to be constitutionally ‘ capable of fighting.’ It cannot hold free intercourse oa en equal footing with other nations unless it can enforce speech with blows. Great Britain makes no secret of her adherence to this doctrine when she pours out her wealth upon her fleet, which she declares shall hold the supremacy of the seas against all comers. This ia the language of force and net of international marality.

Lord Lytton in a speech delivered before the University of Glasgow in 1888 pointed out the difference between private and public morals, that is to say, nationadiffer so widely that hardly a proposition applicable to the one can be properly applied to the other. A state is raid to act justly towards its neighbours if it looks after its own interests.

Statecraft and diplomacy are regarded as based upon the political doctrines of Macchiavelli, combining duplicity with cynical indifference to the welfare of others. The international bistory of sovereign states is full of examples of selfishness, ambition and spoliation, involving a policy of treachery and injustice, which inevitably provoke violence and bloodshed. A cynical Italian statesman drew a broad line of demarcation between the morality of national canduct and the precepts of Christian law The greatest national triumphs 8 Jem to belong to the strongest and unscrupulous robber. Says Mr Law, * The cruelties of Louis XI. initiated the unity and greatness of France ; Ferdinand, a master of deceit, founded the new monarchy of Spain; and what preserved the liberty of England, created a maritime and commercial supremacy.