A League of Nations

Front matter

A LEAGUE OF

NATIONS :

i.j^Nir^' ivOSL b;>;/^:...Cj'ORD

Preface

The war has called forth some g'ood books on the future international organization of the world, and others on the settlement of the war itself. To my thinking, these two questions are a single problem which must be solved as a whole. The task which for us exceeds all others in importance, and must be made to include all others, is the miaking of conditions which promise security from further wars. The settlement of the national, colonial, and economic questions involved in this war, must be a settlement which will help the creation, and ensure the harmonious working of a League of Nations founded to maintain peace. In this book I have tried to consider how far such a L^gue of Nations as President Wilson has proposed, can gtiarantee the security of Europe. Its success will depend, not merely on the wise drafting of its constitution, but upon the solution reached in the war- settlement of our problems of nationality, colonial expansion, international trade, s^-power, and alliances . I have groped in fhe following chapters for an answer to this question : Under what political and economic conditions would the creation of a Ligague of Nations be a hopeful adventure?

The book was written during the summer of 1 9 1 6 and finished in the lasf days of October. Much has happened since the manuscript was completedT=.the fall of" the Coalition Cabinet, the German o'ffer of negotiation, and the entry of America into the war. While the military posStion shows comparatively little