Page:Paul Samuel Reinsch - Secret Diplomacy, How Far Can It Be Eliminated? - 1922.djvu/185



true or warped picture of the actual situation. Gilbert Murray asks what people are referred to by those who demand popular control of diplo- macy; are they the people of educational socie- ties, or of the music halls? The public is not homogeneous, or so organized as to give expres- sion to convictions on current affairs which have been maturely considered. It lacks the leisure and training for penetrating superficialities and going to the bottom of difficult questions. Lord Cromer believes in general that democracies are not peaceful, and he refers particularly to the American democracy for proof; Lord Lytton said, "Governments are generally for diplomacy, the people for war."

Men of all shades of opinion are agreed that the people are not greatly interested in foreign affairs, and the opponents of proposals of demo- cratic control argue, that it would be useless to create machinery for action where there exists no interest, nor purpose to act.

It is quite true that the public during the nine- teenth century seemed less interested in foreign affairs than during the eighteenth. At the ear- lier time, diplomacy was a fascinating, personal game, about which the wiseacres in the coffee houses were eager to make their criticisms and