Page:The League of Nations and the coming rule of law.djvu/14

 employed to tempt members of the League into combinations inconsistent with its objects (but Lord Parker has not forgotten to provide against secret agreements) or otherwise to undermine their mutual confidence. As to this it is only to be observed that the same arts would no less surely be employed against an unorganized alliance, and with a better prospect of success. Even if reduced to a secondary degree of military power, Germany under continuing militarist rule would remain capable of giving trouble in this way. No better counter-check, indeed no other, than a well-knit league of the law-abiding nations has been suggested.

Lord Parker will have nothing to do with the most unwise proposal of the English League of Nations Society, 'that any civilized State desiring to join the League shall be admitted to membership'. (The objectionable clause is modified in that society's own comment by a half-hearted intimation that the League would have to judge in every case whether the candidate was civilized; but that is not the right word. Modern Germany is civilized and in some respects over-civilized; our case is that the Prussian type of civilization is a thoroughly bad type and not fit for decent company.) According to Lord Parker, on the contrary, a new member will be admitted only by special resolution of the Council, who must be satisfied that the candidate accepts the fundamental principles, and intends to act on them, in good faith. That is a frank declaration of