n a matter that concerns them so closely.
Such a system may be wise and conducive to the highest aims, but it can
hardly be termed democratic. The military Powers who command twelve
million soldiers will possess a majority in the Council.[352] The
Secretariat alone will be permanent, and will naturally be appointed by
the Great Powers.

Instead of abolishing war, the Conference described its abolition as
beyond the power of man to compass. Disarmament, which was to have been
one of its main achievements, is eliminated from the Covenant. As the
war that was to have been the last will admittedly be followed by
others, the delegates of the Great Powers worked conscientiously, as
behooved patriotic statesmen, to obtain in advance all possible
advantages for their respective countries by way of preparing for it.
The new order, which in theory reposes upon right, justice, and moral
fellowship, in reality depends upon powerful armies and navies. France
must remain under arms, seeing that she has to keep watch on the Rhine.
Britain and the United States are to go on building warships and
aircraft, besides training their youth for the coming Armageddon. The
article of the Covenant which lays it down that "the members of the
League recognize that the maintenance of peace requires the reduction
of national armaments to the lowest point consistent with national
safety,"[353] is, to use a Russian simile, written on water with a fork.
Britain, France, and the United States are already agreed that they will
combine to repel unprovoked aggression on the part of Germany. That
evidently signifies that they will hold themselves in readiness to
fight, and will therefore make due preparation. This arrangement is a
substitute for a supernational army, as though prevention were not
better than cure; that it will prove efficacious in the long run very
few believe. One clear-visioned Frenchman writes: "The inefficacy of the
organization aimed at by the Conference constrains France to live in
continual and increasing insecurity, owing to the falling off of her
population."[354] He adds: "It follows from this abortive expedient--if
it is to remain definitive--that each member-state must protect itself,
or come to terms with the more powerful ones, as in the past.
Consequently we are in presence of the maintenance of militarism and the
regime of armaments."[355] This writer goes farther and accuses Mr.
Wilson of having played into the hands of Bri