s that it affords a fine exemplification of the way in which the
history and fortunes of states are--to their advantage--dependent upon
the initiative of gifted and patriotic individuals. But if we look back
over the history of recent years, we shall discover that diplomacy has not
fulfilled its especial mission. According to a well-known cynical dictum a
diplomatist is a man who is paid to lie for his country. And, indeed, it
is one of the least gracious aspects of the diplomatic career that it
seems necessarily to involve the use of a certain amount of chicanery and
falsehood, the object being to jockey opponents by means of skilful ruses
into a position in which they find themselves at a disadvantage. Clearly,
however, there are better aims than these for diplomacy--one aim in
particular, which is the preservation of peace. A diplomat is supposed to
have failed if the result of his work leads to war. It is not his business
to bring about war. Any king or prime minister or general can do that,
very often with conspicuous ease. A diplomat is a skilful statesman
versed in international politics, who makes the best provision he can for
the interests of his country, carefully steering it away from those rocks
of angry hostility on which possibly his good ship may founder.

BALANCE OF POWER

Now what has diplomacy done for us during the last few years? It has
formed certain understandings and alliances between different states; it
has tried to safeguard our position by creating sympathetic bonds with
those nations who are allied to us in policy. It has also attempted to
produce that kind of "Balance of Power" in Europe which on its own showing
makes for peace. This Balance of Power, so often and so mysteriously
alluded to by the diplomatic world, has become a veritable fetish. Perhaps
its supreme achievement was reached when two autocratic monarchs--the Tsar
of Russia and the German Emperor--solemnly propounded a statement, as we
have seen, at Port Baltic that the Balance of Power, as distributed
between the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente, had proved itself
valuable in the interests of European peace. That was only two years ago,
and the thing seems a mockery now. If we examine precisely what is meant
by a Balance of Power, we shall see that it presupposes certain conditions
of animosity and attempts to neutralise them by the exhibition of superior
or, at all events, equivalent forces. A Balance of Power in the
c