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The Stockholm Peace Congress and the Progress of the Peace MovementSource: The Advocate of Peace (1894-1920), Vol. 71, No. 8 (AUGUST and SEPTEMBER, 1909), pp.176-177Published by: World Affairs InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20665774 .

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176 THE ADVOCATE OF PEACE. August and September,

its disapproval. The capital, La Paz, at once passed under the control of a mob. The Argentine legation was

furiously attacked and the government found it necessary to order out the troops to protect the legations of both

Argentina and Peru. The Bolivian Minister at Buenos

Ayres refused to appear when he and the Peruvian Min

ister were invited by the Argentine Minister of Foreign Affairs to come to the Foreign Office to receive official

notice of the arbitral award. The decision of President

Alcorta has been so abusively criticised and the demon

strations against Argentine officials in Bolivia have been so violent that the Argentine government has dismissed

the Bolivian Minister, called home its representative at

La Paz, and all diplomatic relations between the two

countries have been severed. It looked for some days as if hostilities could not be avoided and that in case of war Brazil might be drawn into the conflict.

President Mendes of Bolivia has asserted that his reason for refusing to accept the arbitral award is that

part of the territory which Peru never occupied is recog nized by the decision as belonging to that country, and

that the award cedes to Peru territory that is outside of

the limits of arbitration. Even if this be a correct view, it does not in any way justify the shameful conduct of

the Bolivians toward the Peruvians and Argentines resi

dent in the country, many of whom promptly left the

country in order to escape violence. If such an injustice had been committed by the arbitrator, time and patient

diplomacy might have found a remedy. The President

of Bolivia, forgetting the solemn pledge given in advance to abide by the result of the arbitration, has certainly not

felt a very keen sense of honor before the public opinion of the world. His view of national honor is a very an

tique one.

It is scarely conceivable that war will actually result from the situation. Argentina is too great and advanced and sensible a nation to allowed herself rashly to plunge into hostilities with her weak neighbor to the north in

order to vindicate her honor against the supposed injury inflicted by the Bolivian government and people. It is Bolivia whose honor has suffered, rather than Argentina.

Then, too, there are many other considerations that

make for the preservation of peace. These countries are

now both parties to the Hague Conventions. They have

also another arbitration agreement between themselves.

The other governments, including especially our own, are exerting themselves in every proper way to avert

hostilities. The American Ministers at Buenos Ayres and La Paz have been placed in charge of the affairs of Bolivia and Argentina respectively during the rupture of

diplomatic relations. Under the pressure which is being brought to bear from outside in favor of a pacific adjust ment, some amicable way out is sure to be found. The

latest information received at the State Department at

Washington makes this certain. The governments of Bolivia and Peru are reported to have mutually agreed to open negotiations directly with each other without the intervention of any other power, in the hope of

arranging a modification of the Argentine award which will be satisfactory to all concerned.

There is one very important lesson taught by this un

fortunate affair. This lesson is that such controversies as this should no longer be referred to any single govern ment or temporary board of arbitration. The nations of the world now have a general Arbitration Court at The

Hague of such a character as to receive and deserve the confidence of all the powers which are parties to it. All

important disputes between nations should now, as a

matter of course, be referred to this Court. If this course had been followed by Bolivia and Peru, it is almost certain that no such squabble as that which has arisen would have occurred. The difficulty would have been much more thoroughly and impartially investigated than was actually the case. One of the charges brought by the Bolivian government is that the President of the

Argentine Republic did not send a commission to make an investigation on the spot. An award given by the

Hague Court would thus have been of a character to command the immediate acceptance of both governments. Temporary arbitration courts and individual arbitrators have served their day and served it well, but their time has passed. The International Arbitration Court at The

Hague is now the body to which all important inter national controversies ought as a matter of course to be referred.

The Stockholm Peace Congress and the Progress of the Peace Movement.

The approaching eighteenth International Peace Con gress, which meets at Stockholm August 29 to September 5, calls to mind the enormous progress which the move ment for world peace has made in twenty years. In 1889, at the time of the first Paris Exposition, a few friends of peace from the United States, Great Britain, France and two or three other European countries, met at the French capital and held the first of the modern series of International Peace Congresses. Their meet

ings passed quite unnoticed by the press and the public, or were ridiculed as the sentimental performances of visionaries. Last year in London, after nineteen years of congresses held in the great capitals and chief cities of the world, and growing in numbers and power from

year to year, the pacifists met for their seventeenth inter national gathering. They were welcomed by the King and Queen of England and by the British Cabinet with a cordiality and generosity of hospitality rarely extended in these days to any body of philanthropic workers.

King Edward and the Queen received in Buckingham Palace a large deputation from the Congress, and the

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1909. THE ADVOCATE OP PEACE. 177

great closing banquet in the Hotel Cecil, in which the Prime Minister was the chief speaker, was given the

delegates by the government itself out of the Hospitality Fund, then just established by the Chancellor of the

Exchequer. This memorable Congress represented more than five hundred peace organizations and a great body of peace workers throughout the world. The cause had moved fast and far since the Peace Congress of 1889

During this same period the Interparliamentary Union, founded also in 1889, grew into a powerful organization of more than twenty-five hundred statesmen, members and ex-members of parliament, banded together solely to foster international friendship and the supplanting of war

by rational pacific methods of settlement. The standing which this Union has made for itself with the governments shows perhaps more than any other one thing the enor mous progress which the cause has made within twenty years. Two important National Conferences on Arbitra tion were held at Washington in 1896 and 1904. The Lake Mohonk Arbitration Conference was instituted in 1895 by Hon. Albert K. Smiley, and has for fifteen

years exercised an immense influence in the best circl?s of American public thought. National Peace Congresses have been held for several years in France, England, Ger

many, the United States and other countries. The two National Peace Congresses held in this country, in New York and Chicago, have been a striking revelation of the

strength which the movement has attained. Within the latter half of this twenty-year period the

two Hague Conferences were held and brought all the

governments of the world into active and sympathetic cooperation for the avoidance of war and the maintenance of international justice by judicial methods. The Per manent International Court of Arbitration was instituted in 1899, put into successful operation two years later, and became after 1907 the arbitration tribunal of the world. The foundations of a permanent world congress or parliament were laid by the second Hague Conference before the twenty years expired, and the decision was reached that a Permanent International Court of Arbi tral Justice be established as soon as the governments can reach an agreement as to the method of selecting the judges. In the meantime nearly one hundred treaties of obligatory arbitration have been concluded between the governments two and two. With this extraordinary record of twenty years behind

it, the Stockholm Peace Congress will meet. It is worthy of remark that to this record the three Scandinavian countries, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, have contrib uted a noteworthy share. John Lund of Norway, long president of the Storthing, K. P. Arnoldson and Edward

Wawrinsky of the Swedish Parliament, Fredrik Bajer of Denmark, and others from each of the countries, were

among the earliest members and supporters of the Inter

parliamentary Union. Mr. Bajer, a member of the Danish

Parliament, was president of the International Peace Bureau at Berne for sixteen years after its organization in 1891. Mr. Wawrinsky has been a prominent figure in the International Peace Congresses. K. P. Arnoldson, who shared with Mr. Bajer the Nobel Prize last Decem

ber, is the author of a valuable book, " Pax Mundi,"

which went through several editions. His earnest and wise efforts contributed largely to the pacific outcome of the separation between Sweden and Norway four years

ago. The late King Oscar of Sweden had a noble record as a peacemaker. He had served as arbitrator in more than one important international controversy before the

Hague Court was set up. Asked later to act as arbitra tor, he declined to do so, declaring that all international controversies should now be carried to the Hague Court. It was his personal attitude, more than anything else, that prevented war between Sweden and Norway at the time when the Iktter declared her independence in 1905. The King expressed great grief at the separation, but

protested with all the strength of his nature that no blood should be shed between the kindred peoples.

It was in Sweden that Alfred Nobel lived and accu mulated the great fortune which he left in prize founda tions to promote the arts of peace. Christiania is the seat of the administration of the fund bequeathed by him for peace prizes, and the Nobel Institute, which has grown up in connection with the administration of this

fund, is one of the greatest centres of peace influence in the world. Stockholm has the honor to be the seat of the administration of the other four Nobel Prize Funds.

In no other countries is the cause of peace farther advanced than in the Scandinavian. Several peace con

gresses of Scandinavians have been held within a few

years. Christiania has entertained the Interparliamen tary Union at one of its conferences, and likewise the International Law Association ? in both cases most gen erously and elaborately. The Scandinavian Parliaments have more than once ? one or two of them in fact have four or five times ? voted direct contributions to the sup port of the work of the Interparliamentary Union and of the International Peace Bureau at Berne, and Denmark, through its Finance Minister, is contemplating the im mediate creation of a Hospitality Fund, like that of Great Britain.

It is evident, therefore, that the friends of peace will find themselves very much at home at Stockholm. They ought to go in large numbers from all countries. It is due to the Scandinavian workers, as well as to the cause

itself, that the eighteenth International Peace Congress be made a great and conspicuous success. The cause has grown so great and commanding that peace workers who mean to be up to the times cannot afford to stay away from a Congress like this, unless it be absolutely necessary. Elaborate preparations are being made for the Congress by the local committee on organization. It will have the direct support and patronage of the

King and Queen, as well as of the leaders of Parliament and of the municipality.

As we go to press Spain is reaping one of the bad har vests in Morocco, of which the European colonial policy has had so many. Her troops have been disastrously de feated at Melilla by tribesmen in rebellion against the

exploitations of a Spanish mining company. The govern ment has had to send many regiments of fresh troops across the channel. Against this campaign the Spanish people have been so opposed that opposition has developed in places into open revolution, and there has been much violence and bloodshed. The government will doubtless

put down the uprising both in Morocco and at home, but at what fearful cost ! The hopeful feature of the situation is the evidence that the people are tired of these colonial

policies and will not much longer tolerate them.

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