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XXXI

MEANS OF PREVENTING WAR

For many years men have been striving to think out some effective and satisfactory means of replacing war by law and justice.

INTERNATIONAL LAW

International law is one of the instruments for peace which has been gradually built up. It is still in its initial stages, for it takes for granted the necessary continuation of war. Many of its provisions deal directly with the conduct of nations in war time. International law can be called the common law of nations. The usages and customs of nations have called it into being. Like the law regulating the contact of individuals within a nation, international law has developed with the growth of civilization to meet the complicated needs of modern international intercourse. But there is an important difference between the law within a nation and the law between nations. The one is backed by force and punishment; the other by public opinion only. Disobedience of law in the one case brings court action, imprisonment, or fine; in the other it may result in public condemnation and subsequent common action, but it is more likely to be overlooked or condoned. International law to be of real value must be supported by a court of international justice which is empowered to punish disobedience to law.

ARBITRATION

Like international law, international arbitration is one means of substituting peace for war. International arbitration is the agreement of two nations to submit their disagreements to a neutral person or persons acceptable to both. The nations may or may not agree to abide by the decision. Arbitration gives time for anger to pass away. The facts of the dispute are investigated, and this investigation gives both parties a better knowledge of the situation. Arbitration is infinitely less expensive than war.

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Its decisions are more just. War accentuates ill feeling and leads to new wars. Arbitration is more likely to promote friendship and trust.

Arbitration has been in existence since before the middle ages. In ancient Greece it was well known. About seventy-five cases settled in this way are recorded. Arbitration was also known in Rome but the desire of the Romans to extend their empire tended to bring it into disuse.1 During the middle ages arbitration was confined mainly to ecclesiastical disputes. In the seventeenth century arbitration agreements were made between England, France, Holland and other powers. The eighteenth century, an era of aggressive wars, contributed only six cases of arbitration. The nineteenth gave 471 and from 1900 to 1913, there were 150 cases.2

CONFERENCES

International conferences are the means by which nations are brought into contact for discussion of topics of mutual interest and concern. The agreements formulated help to develop international law. The conferences also contain great possibilities for future trouble. Harsh terms imposed by victor on conquered, secret understandings between nations, and the intrigues of diplomacy awake feelings of fear, revenge, and jealousy which find their expression in future wars.

Among the great treaties and conferences following war and involving the decision of many controversial matters are the Treaties of Westphalia, 1648, closing the Thirty Years' War; the Treaties of Utrecht, 1714, ending the War of the Spanish Succession; the Congresses of Vienna, 1815, closing the Napoleonic wars; the Congress of Paris, 1856, settling the Crimean War; the Congress of Berlin, 1878, following the Russo-Turkish War; the Paris Conference, and the series of treaties terminating the World War; and the Lausanne Conference, 1922 and 1923. This conference followed the war between Greece and Turkey, an outgrowth of the World War, and considered problems of international import in the Near East.

In addition to these gatherings held after a war to determine the terms of peace are conferences called in time of peace to regulate the conduct of future wars and those meeting in time of peace to consider problems likely to cause war. The first

1 The Commission on Christian Education, "Selected Quotations on Peace and War,” pp. 173-174.

2 World Peace Foundation Series, November, 1913, p. 19.

group are war conferences, for they deal with the formulation of more merciful rules for warfare. The second group are peace meetings for they indirectly tend to avert war. The first group contain such gatherings as the Geneva Conventions of 1864 and 1868, the St. Petersburg Convention of 1868, and the Brussels Conference of 1874. In the second group can be placed conferences providing for the peaceful partition of territory and the settlement of questions in regions in which the economic interests of the nations clash. The Berlin Conference of 1884 called to decide controversial matters in the Congo and defining the spheres of influence of the powers and the Algeciras Conference of 1906 dealing with disputed questions in Morocco are examples of this type of conference. Also in the second group of conferences can be placed gatherings treating primarily economic and social problems of world import, carrying the threat of war. The meetings held at Genoa and The Hague in 1922 and at London in 1924, attempting to solve Europe's serious economic problems, the aftermath of the World War, can be placed in this classification. The significance of the first two conferences lies in their purpose rather than in their accomplishments which were negligible.

In addition to the conferences which bring to a close the hostilities of nations, regulate the conduct of warfare, and reach agreements solving for the time being controversial questions are the conferences which strive directly to replace war by peaceful measures. In this category may be grouped the Pan-American conferences, the Hague conferences, the Paris Conference of 1919, and the Washington Conference of 1921.

The Pan-American Conferences. The first Pan-American Conference, meeting to promote peace between American nations, was held in 1889. A large number of topics was discussed, among them the compulsory arbitration of all international disputes not settled by diplomacy. A treaty was adopted which accepted "arbitration as a principle of American international law" for the decision of all controversial questions except those imperiling a nation's independence. None of the treaties drawn up at this conference was ratified by the nations. Its value rests on the evident desire of the American nations to maintain peace in this hemisphere.

The second Pan-American Conference met in 1901. Compulsory arbitration was again made part of the program. While no accord was reached on compulsory arbitration of all differences, several of the states represented signed a treaty agreeing to

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arbitrate all disputes not settled by diplomacy and not involving independence or national honor. The United States and sixteen other states agreed to the compulsory arbitration of all pecuniary claims, but this was ratified by only the United States and two others.3

The third Pan-American Conference, meeting in 1906, again brought up the question of compulsory arbitration. A recommendation was made to the nations that they instruct their delegates to the next Hague conference to forward the adoption of an arbitration convention which would be so "efficient and definite" as to merit the "support of the civilized world." The time for ratification of the treaty of compulsory arbitration of pecuniary claims was extended to 1912.

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The fourth conference, held in 1910, made little further progress on the question of arbitration. The treaty for the arbitration of pecuniary claims had been ratified by only a few states. It was readopted and the time for ratification was again prolonged.

The fifth conference was delayed by the outbreak of the World War and did not meet until March, 1923. The proposals looking toward peace were more comprehensive than had been made at any previous Pan-American conference. Compulsory arbitration, disarmament, the creation of a Pan-American court and a PanAmerican league were discussed, but no agreement could be reached on these matters. The delegates adopted the much less pretentious measure which provided for a fact-finding commission in case of international disputes. They also laid plans for the codification of American international law. It can be predicted with a reasonable degree of certainty that the more comprehensive measures for preventing war will continue to have a place in future Pan-American conferences. An American league of nations might well develop out of the Pan-American Union which was created at the conference of 1889 under a different name and which has since expanded its functions so that it has become a permanent link between the American nations for the dissemination of information and the coördination of the conferences.

In addition to the various peace proposals made at these conferences, topics of economic and social import were discussed and progress made in bringing the Americas into closer coöperation on many of the matters considered.

The Pan-American conferences have been accompanied by other

3 Thomas, D. Y., "One Hundred Years of the Monroe Doctrine," p. 411. 4 Ibid., p. 412.

American conferences and agreements between individual groups of American states looking toward peace. One of the most comprehensive of these was the conference of the Central American states held in 1922 and 1923. In the agreements reached at this conference provisions were made for a general treaty of peace and amity, for the limitation of armaments, the establishment of a permanent court of justice, and the prohibition of aid by one state in the revolution of another. If these provisions are ratified by the states concerned, they should go far toward establishing permanent peace in Central America.

The Hague Conferences. The First Hague Conference. The first Hague Conference was a conference meeting in time of peace which proposed to regulate the conduct of warfare, to suggest means of obviating war, and to codify international law.

Arbitration and disarmament were the measures suggested for securing peace. No agreement could be reached for the limitation or decrease of armaments, but the conference did resolve that the burden of military charges was very heavy and its reduction advisable. Better results were obtained for the proposition of establishing an arbitral court. A permanent panel of judges, representative of the parties to the conference, was provided and a code of arbitral procedure was drafted. When the states wished to arbitrate a question, the arbitrators were to be chosen from this panel. Provision was made for international commissions of inquiry. They were to be created whenever feasible by disputing nations who could not reconcile their differences by diplomacy. The commissions were intended to assist the disputants in ascertaining the facts of a controversy. The good will of neutral countries offering mediation before or during a war, with or with-out the request of the contestants, was recognized and defined. Provisions were made for codifying the laws and customs regarding warfare on land. These laws dealt almost wholly with the relations of belligerent countries and the relations which such belligerents bore to non-combatants and the inhabitants of occupied territories. An attempt was made to have the rights of neutrals defined, but it was declared to be outside the scope of the conference. The principles of the Geneva Convention of 1864 which had laid down certain humane rules for military warfare were extended to maritime warfare. The conference also made several important declarations prohibiting the use of certain barbarous implements of warfare.

It seemed that the conference had made several contributions 5 Ratified by Nicaragua, March 22, 1923.

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