Page:The League of Nations and the coming rule of law.djvu/9

 what it deems to be the law) into its own hands against any other, and to aid the others, at need, in case of attack from without. The next duty is to provide regular and equitable means of settling disputes. Surrender of the liberty to assert one's claims by force can only be in exchange for reasonable assurance of judgement and justice. Then, the law of nations itself being at many points uncertain (a defect common to all bodies of customary rules), there must follow provision for defining and amending it. To carry out these purposes the League will need some common representative body having authority to supervise the working of the special organs and to see that their decisions are respected. Whether this body should be armed with power to issue direct executive commands is a question open to discussion for the present. I think myself that such power will come later if it is not granted at first.

The latest and fullest endeavour in this country to state the lines of a working scheme was made by Lord Parker in the debate on Lord Parmoor's motion on March 19, 1918, a debate which, at the time of this writing, still stands adjourned. Lord Parker's heads for the agreement that shall constitute the League are twenty in number, and have been carefully thought out. (It is useless to consult the press reports for them; they are set out only in the official Parliamentary Debates.) Space does not admit of copying them here, or following their exact order, but I shall