Review
are well enough indicated in Mr. Young’s article in the present number; and they are illustrated by the conflicting and often confused sentiments lately expressed upon the subject by leading Allied statesmen. It is well, therefore, that the public mind should be constantly exercised in this direction. In The American League to Enforce Peace (Allen & Unwin, pp. 92, 2s. 6d. net) Mr. C. R. Ashbee gives a good account of the American movement, having been present at its actual inauguration at Independence Hall on 17 June, 1915, and he contributes some sound thinking of his own to the subject. In Enforced Peace (League to Enforce Peace, 70, Fifth Avenue, New York, pp. 204), a full account is given of the League’s first annual meeting, held in Washington on 26 May, 1916, with full reports of the many speeches delivered by the delegates. We here find worked out in greater detail how it is proposed to translate the American postulate of a change of heart in international relationships into terms of practical politics. Especially interesting are the contributions of Mr. Theodore Marburg, former Minister to Belgium, and of President Wilson. In another volume, The Framework of a Lasting Peace (Allen & Unwin, pp. 154, 48. 6d. net). Mr. Leonard S. Woolf presents, in a collected form, the more important schemes for a League of Nations that have been put forward, whether in America, Britain, or on the Continent; and in an interesting introduction he indicates the main lines of agreement between them. If the reader is left with a healthy sense of the work that lies ahead, the volume will not have been in vain, for a roused public opinion is the best guarantee of success, and, as General Smuts said last May, “if one hundredth part of the consideration and the thought that has been given to this war is given to schemes of peace, then you will never see war again.”G. G.
The Internal Situation in France
The report of General Dubail has given a precise form to the charges which have been levelled for months past, alike in France and in other Allied countries, against M. Caillaux. That statesman has always had passionate opponents and keen supporters; and the discussions which centred round his name easily assumed a violent form and never led to anything for lack of proofs in one direction or the other. For the first time it will be possible to learn something at least of the truth on what has been called the Affaire Caillaux. An inquiry is about to open, and until some decision has been reached it would hardly be opportune to indulge in speculation. It may, however, be well to point out that certain newspapers which are friendly disposed towards M. Caillaux are giving out that in his forthcoming speech in the Chamber he will allege in his defence high political necessity. This style of argument irresistibly recalls memories of the early days of the Third Republic. It was in the name of political necessity that in the famous trial held at the Grand Trianon from 6 October to 10 December, 1873, Marshal Bazaine tried to justify his strategy before Metz.
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