[Footnote 2: A passage in Mr. Brailsford's book on a "League of
Nations," published some months before the debate took place, but which
I had not seen when the above lines were written, puts the point most
forcibly:

"We set out to destroy Prussian militarism. It will be destroyed at the
moment when a German Government pledges itself to enter a league based
on arbitration and conciliation."]




CHAPTER IV

LEAGUE OF NATIONS--THE CONDITIONS


After an adjourned debate on June 27th, 1918, in which Lord Curzon
pointed out several practical difficulties that would have to be faced,
the House of Lords, surely not a body to be carried away by any
ephemeral current of popular feeling[3] or captivated by a vague phrase,
passed with practical unanimity a resolution in these terms, "That this
House approves of the principle of a League of Nations, and commends to
His Majesty's Government a study of the conditions required for its
realisation." It in effect declared the "preamble proved," and proposed
that "the clauses" should be considered. At the suggestion of Lord
Bryce--a true friend of peace, if ever there was one--certain words
contained in the original resolution proposing that there should be a
tribunal constituted "whose orders shall be enforceable by adequate
sanction" were omitted. The question of sanction is, no doubt, a crucial