Under the old dispensation a defensive alliance became
offensive as soon as it felt strong enough to assume the offensive. It
is the system of alliances which led to armaments, and not the
armaments which were responsible for the alliances. It is therefore
futile to speak of disarmament as long as we do not repudiate the
traditional European principle of the "balance of power."

11. It also follows as a corollary that no peace is possible merely
through a readjustment of boundaries, through compensations and
annexations of territories. We might recast the whole map of Europe,
we might dismember the German Empire, we might dismember the Austrian
Empire, we might dismember the Turkish Empire, and yet entirely fail
to achieve the objects for which we entered the war. On the other
hand, we might achieve those objects without shifting one single
milestone of the political boundaries of Europe.

12. We must clearly realize that the issue of peace and war is not a
military issue, but a political issue, and that the political issue
itself is a moral issue. It is not a _Machtfrage_, but a _Rechtfrage_.
It is not a question to be settled by diplomats of the old school; it
can only be solved by constructive and democratic statesmanship.

13. To say that "we must crush Prussian militarism" is only a vague
and unsatisfactory way of stating that we must establish democratic
government. Militarism is not a matter of foreign policy, but of
domestic policy. Militarism is but the _ultima ratio_ of reaction, and
all nations are allies against the one common enemy, reactionary
government.

14. It is therefore futile to say that the future congress must not
interfere in the internal government of any belligerent Power. If any
European Power after this war were still to be ruled by a reactionary
government based on brute force and oppression, that government would
still have to maintain a large army in order to keep down the
liberties of its people, and such an army would sooner or later be
used against the foreign enemy in the name of imperial national
aspirations, in the name of a higher civilizing mission.

15. Therefore, the one problem before the European Congress is to
establish government in Europe on a constitutional and democratic
basis, and to grant a _Magna Carta_ to all nations, great and small.
The establishment of such a government, and not any annexations or
compensations, would alone guarantee a permanent peace.

16.