WASHINGTON AND THE HOPE OF PEACE. H. G. Wells

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       H. G. Wells

      WASHINGTON AND THE HOPE OF PEACE

      Also Known as "Washington and the Riddle of Peace"

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      2017 OK Publishing

      ISBN 978-80-272-3611-4

      Table of Contents

       INTRODUCTION

       I. — THE IMMENSITY OF THE ISSUE AND THE TRIVIALITY OF MEN

       II. — ARMAMENTS: THE FUTILITY OF MERE LIMITATION

       III. — THE TRAIL OF VERSAILLES: TWO GBEAT POWERS ARE SILENT AND ABSENT

       IV. — THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER OF THE GREAT WAR

       V. — THE PRESIDENT AT ARLINGTON

       VI. — THE FIRST MEETING

       VII. — WHAT IS JAPAN?

       VIII. — CHINA IN THE BACKGROUND

       IX. — THE FUTURE OF JAPAN

       X. — “SECURITY”— THE NEW AND BEAUTIFUL CATCHWORD

       XI. — FRANCE IN THE LIMELIGHT

       XII. — THUS FAR

       XIII. — THE LARGER QUESTION BEHIND THE CONFERENCE

       XIV. — THE REAL THREAT TO CIVILIZATION

       XV. — THE POSSIBLE BREAKDOWN OF CIVILIZATION

       XVI. — WHAT OF AMERICA?

       XVII. — EBB TIDE AT WASHINGTON

       XVIII. — AMERICA AND ENTANGLING ALLIANCES

       XIX. — AN ASSOCIATION OF NATIONS

       XX. — FRANCE AND ENGLAND— THE PLAIN FACTS OF THE CASE

       XXI. — A BEMINDER ABOUT WAR

       XXII. — SOME STIFLED VOICES

       XXIII. — INDIA, THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND THE ASSOCIATION OF NATIONS

       XXIV. — THE OTHER END OF PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE—THE SIEVE FOR GOOD INTENTIONS

       XXV.— AFRICA AND THE ASSOCIATION OF NATIONS

       XXVI. — THE FOURTH PLENARY SESSION

       XXVII. — ABOUT THE WAR DEBTS

       XVIII. — THE FOUNDATION STONE AND THE BUILDING

       XXIX. — WHAT A STABLY ORGANIZED WORLD PEACE MEANS FOR MANKIND

      INTRODUCTION

       Table of Contents

      THESE twenty-nine papers do not profess to be a record or description of the Washington Conference. They give merely the impressions and fluctuating ideas of one visitor to that conference. They show the reaction of that gathering upon a mind keenly set upon the idea of an organized world peace; they record phases of enthusiasm, hope, doubt, depression and irritation. They have scarcely been touched, except to correct a word or a phrase here or there; they are dated; in all essentials they are the articles just as they appeared in the New York World, the Chicago Tribune, and the other American and European papers which first gave them publicity. It is due to the enterprise and driving energy of the New York World, be it noted, that they were ever written at all. But in spite of the daily change and renewal of mood and attitude, inevitable under the circumstances, they do tell a consecutive story; they tell of the growth and elaboration of a conviction of how things can be done, and of how they need to be done, if our civilization is indeed to be rescued from the dangers that encompass it and set again upon the path of progress. They record—and in a very friendly and appreciative spirit—the birth and unfolding of the “Association of Nations” idea, the Harding idea, of world pacification, they note some of the peculiar circumstances of that birth, and they study the chief difficulties on its way to realization. It is, the writer believes, the most practical and hopeful method of attacking this riddle of the Sphinx that has hitherto been proposed.

      H.G. Wells.

      I. — THE IMMENSITY OF THE ISSUE

       AND THE TRIVIALITY OF MEN

       Washington, Nov 7

      

       Table of Contents

      THE conference nominally for the limitation of armaments that now gathers at Washington may become a cardinal event in the history of mankind. It may mark a turning point in human affairs or it may go on record as one of the last failures to stave off the disasters and destruction that gather about our race.

      In August, 1914, an age of insecure progress and accumulation came to an end. When at last, on the most momentous summer night in history, the long preparations of militarism burst their bounds and the little Belgian village Visé went