war inevitable, and which will inevitably lead to war in the future
unless they are abandoned. Any nation which assents to the clause tells
the world that it expressly rejects those ideas and agrees that its
action shall be guided by principles diametrically opposed to them.
Assent to a declaration of the kind suggested would certainly affect the
spirit in which international questions are approached in future, and
probably the resulting action also. It runs:

"The League to recognise that war from whatever cause is a danger to our
common civilisation, and that international disputes ought to be settled
on principles of right and justice and not by force of arms." The last
clause dealing with the admission of new members of the League is the
complement of this. There is to be power "to admit a nation as a member
of the League, if satisfied in each case that the nation bona fide
accepts the principle on which the League is founded, and bona fide
intends that international disputes shall thereafter be settled by
peaceful means." It is contemplated, and rightly contemplated, that
there should be a possibility for the Central Empires to join the League
sooner or later, but it can only be on terms of their rulers at the time
saying expressly, "We abjure in the sight of the world and of our own
people those principles of action which German rulers and leaders of
thought have been inculcating for two generations." The choice for
Germany would be either to stand excommunicated from the brotherhood of
nations for ever, or to say plainly, "I declare what my professors and
schoolmasters have for half a century had to teach to be false; the
doctrines of Treitschke and of his disciple von Bernhardi are anathema;
it is infamous to adopt the statement of the German writer that 'It is
of no importance to me whether an action is just or unjust,' or that 'If
I am powerful enough to perform any deed, then I am justified in doing
it.' I renounce such leaders and teachers and all their words and works,