Page:Jay William Hudson - A Practical International Program.pdf/7

 assume the responsibility of calling such a conference. People scarcely realize yet what such a conference would mean and what far-reaching things it could accomplish. First of all, it could act as a unit in insuring the rights of the neutral peoples as long as the European war shall last. For this purpose and for other purposes to be named this conference might well continue in session or within call until the close of the war; for crises of a serious nature are likely to occur at any time, requiring immediate and concerted action. But this is not all. Such a conference of neutral nations would be the best agency for mediation whenever a time for the offer of mediatory services seems favorable. The offer of mediation by any one power might be resented, and in any event, might be ineffective: whereas the offer of mediation by all the neutral nations of the earth would appear as a disinterested appeal for world order and would be much more likely to be accepted. Above all, such a conference of neutral nations would in itself be a splendid example of international co-operation of the very sort for which the new internationalism is working. Furthermore, when the terms of peace shall be negotiated at the close of the war, the neutral nations acting together can have much more influence in seeing to it that the terms of peace shall not be such as to create a situation which might lead to future war or prejudice the interests of the neutral nations themselves.

Let us look at this last matter a little more closely. The deliberations of the warring nations at the close of the war, when they conclude their negotiations for the peace of Europe, will be one of the most important and far-reaching events of all history. It will be an