SOCIALIST TERMS OF PEACE 35 34 THE CLASS STRUGGLE the other, or of diplomatic negotiations intended to give each side a breathing spell so as to recuperate for a resumption of the struggle.
No such difficulties attend complete disarmament. The peaceful nations cannot possibly be the losers by the disarmament of the disturber of the peace, and therefore they cannot object.
And warlike Germany stands to gain everything short of world domination. It is not expected that a victorious Germany would embrace disarmament. But a defeated or baffled Germany should gladly take a chance on complete disarmament after perfect armament has proven a failure. In an unarmed world the status quo ante, so objectionable to Germany, will have disappeared of itself. There will be no pre emption of undeveloped regions against Germany, because there will be no military force to keep anything pre empted. There will be no difficulty in finding the standard of power in the future society, for that will be given by nature, if the term power can at all be applied to an unarmed society. Nor will there be any fear, real or fancied, that the scheme was being rigged against any nation, as in the event of the impossible contingency of nations desiring to go to war after disarmament should have removed all causes of war, they will all start from the level in which nature and their own energy and resourcefulness in the pursuits of peace have placed them. Should the impossible transpire and the nations desire to arm again, Germany, if she maintains her present standards of efficiency, would, of course, have an advantage over other nations.
But such advantage would simply be that of a more highly civilized nation as against those less civilized; and the fear of such an eventuality, if it should exist, would simply mulate the pursuits of the arts of civilization.
Of course, complete disarmament must be accompanied by international organization. Not by a League to Enforce Peace, which is even more impractical than the limitation of armaments, and may itself become the center of intrigues leading to war; but by an international administration of international affairs. Just how much should be turned over to such international administration will probably be the subject of heated debate, and here growth by degrees is possible. Just as the thirteen American colonies at first formed a loose Confederation, only to form soon afterwards a nation; so may the nations of the world form at first an international organization only limited in scope, designed primarily to prevent war, only to see this organization develop in the course of time, and probably by slow degrees, into a United States of the World.
But there is a certain minimum of powers which such international organization must possess, in order to answer the present emergency: The administration of all undeveloped countries, and the protectorate of all semi developed countries, must be placed in its hands; to be administered primarily in the interests of the natives, and then of the world at large without discrimination between nations, and to remain under such administration until they shall have become ripe for self government, when they shall be admitted into the community of nations. Once the fear of war, and with it all strategical reasons, are abolished, there is absolutely no reason in any enlightened self interest, even from the capitalist point of view, why the different nations interested should not turn over all of their possessions in Africa, for instance, to the International Administration, just as the American colonies gave up their claims to the Northwestern territory in favor of the Federal Government; and why the entire African continent, with the exception of the self governing communities of the South African Federation, should not, thereupon, be administered internationally, and new states carved out therefrom, from time to time, to be admitted into the World Union, or some integral part of the World Union, as its Constitution may provide.
The World Union, and its International Administration, must, of course, have an armed force, in order to be a real power.
Such a force would not have to be very large, in an unarmed world. But it should be of sufficient size to be reckoned as a force as against the police forces of the different nations, and to enforce order within its domain. It might also, perhaps, be entrusted with the function of preventing the arming of any nation beyond the necessary police force to maintain order. The International Administration ought to be the only one permitted