the
enemy's armaments, to make the German people feel the disadvantages and
loss caused by their action, and the desirability of joining with
others in repudiating war as a means of settling disputes or asserting
national claims. (_c_) It may mean a sanction for breach of the
stipulations contained in the agreement on which the League of Nations
is founded, i.e., a punishment to be inflicted on anyone who infringes
the agreement he has made--a means of insuring performance of its terms.
It is in this last sense that it is used in the present discussion.

(2) The second sanction proposed in the scheme is of a still more
serious character. The clause to embody it runs as follows:

"Certain members of the League specified in a schedule and to consist of
the chief military and naval powers, should agree, if required to do so
by a resolution of the League, to commence war against the guilty
nation, and to prosecute such war by land and sea until the guilty
nation shall have accepted terms which shall be approved by the League."

This proposal might more effectually prevent wrong-doing, but, even if
carefully guarded as Lord Parker proposes, appears open to serious
objections. There seems grave reason to fear that while intended to
prevent war, it might really be the cause of disputes, and possibly of
war of the most deadly kind. Such a stipulation might cast a terrible
burden on a strong naval power like Great Britain, and have most
disastrous consequences. We are bound to maintain a strong navy to keep
open communication between the different parts of the Empire and also to
protect our food supplies. Without sea power Britain could in a few
months be starved into submission to any terms in case of war, but to
maintain a large navy to be at the beck and call of a Council
representing all the nations who cared to join the proposed League would
be intolerable. Suppose, for example, the United States demanded
satisfaction for some outrage on American subjects, or suppose American
subjects were threatened with massacre in some unsettled country such as
Mexico, and in order to obtain satisfaction or to protect its subjects
sent some warships to a Mexican port and landed an armed force, not with
any object of aggression, but to prevent irreparable injuries. Suppose
Great Britain was of opinion that the American demand was amply
justified, but that a majority of representatives of the League, or
even, as Lord Parker's scheme sugg