UNION WHEN?

The world and its leaders must look beyond the present war. Blood is being spilled; and the statesman is less than human who is not trying to achieve, at this terrible cost, a world in which peace can endure. Neither is he a true statesman if he does not realize that, under the present system of the balance of power and economic nationalism, such a world is impossible. He must pin his hopes on a world federation; and though men have tried this before and failed, he must realize that to say it is impossible is to say that man as a whole has not a single common interest save war, that he is nothing more than an animal, and a vicious one at that.

Those who work for world union will have a fight on their hands, a fight against powerful forces. Just what these forces are has become apparent through recent developments in England. In that country, Liberals, Laborites, and left-wing Conservatives have in the past month brought a demand for world federalism into the august halls of Parliament. In pushing the government to make constructive plans for peace, they have made it clear that they feel the first step must be a renunciation of much of England's national sovereignty and empire. On December 5, last Tuesday, Lord Halifax rose in Commons to quash their proposals: "We only court disaster if we forget that no paper plan will endure that does not freely spring from the will of the peoples that alone can give it vigor and life; and international, like our own national, institutions must be very securely and deeply anchored on reality." It is startlingly evident that Lord Halifax feels he is better qualified to interpret the "will of the peoples" than those who propose world federation. As for the "reality" he prizes so highly, it is safe to assume that its cornerstone is the maintenance of "business as usual" for the British Empire.

Advocates of world union must thank Lord Halifax for clarifying an important issue. They now know what they have to fight. No one of them, surely, ever expected to draw up a simple "paper plan" and put it into practice as easily as you would change your summer oil. Fundamental social and economic changes are obviously necessary before the world's way of life can be brought to the perfection they seek. It is clear that Lord Halifax, while he may approve world union in principle, will oppose these very changes with all his power. Everything he and his party stand for--"reality," empire, and British hegemony--will have to be swept aside if world union is to come. It will be a tremendous job, but if the men who are trying it now are wiser and more far-sighted than those in the past, they will come just that much closer to it. They must certainly be wise enough to profit by what Lord Halifax's speech shows so obviously, that this is an imperialist war. If they learn their lesson well, they may be able to prevent an imperialist peace.