Page:Paul Samuel Reinsch - Secret Diplomacy, How Far Can It Be Eliminated? - 1922.djvu/129



VIII. THE SECRET TREATIES OF THE WAR
WHILE the war lasted, the demands of self -pro- tection required the careful concealment of nego- tiations and policies from enemy knowledge. But though it is easy to understand the need of se- crecy at such a time, yet the spirit displayed in these negotiations had but little in common with the ideals professed in the same breath. More- over, there was a lack of complete sincerity among the Allies themselves, and particularly was there a concealment from some of them of important facts and agreements affecting their interests. How- ever, the most baneful effect of secret diplomacy during the war is found in the undermining of pub- lic confidence in a moral foundation of public ac- tion. As Lord Loreburn says: "It was not wholesome that while our people were stimulated to unparalleled exertions by a parade of lofty mo- tives there should be at the same time in existence agreements of this kind, of which no public men- tion could be made, and from which little has re- sulted except the right of foreign Powers to de-