ate-like organisation and are therefore not acceptable
to those who share my opinion that any state-like organisation of the
League is practically impossible. But though some of the schemes, as for
instance that of Lord Bryce and that of Sir Willoughby Dickinson, avoid
this mistake, none of them take as their starting point that which I
consider to be the right one, namely the beginning made at the two Hague
Peace Conferences. _In my opinion the organisation of a new League of
Nations should start from the beginning made by the two Hague Peace
Conferences._

VII. However, there is much objection to this, because it would
necessitate the admission into the new League of all those States which
took part in the Second Hague Peace Conference, including, of course,
the Central Powers. The objections to such a wide range of the League
are two-fold.

In the first instance, the admission of the Central Powers, and
especially of Germany, into the League is deprecated. By her attack on
Belgium at the outbreak of the war, and by her general conduct of the
war, Germany has deliberately taken up an attitude which proves that,
when her military interests are concerned, she does not consider herself
bound by any treaty, by any rule of law, or by any principle of
humanity. How can we expect that she will carry out the engagements into
which she might enter by becoming a member of the League of Nations?

My answer is that, provided she be utterly defeated and no peace of
compromise be made with her, militarism in Germany will be doomed, the
reparation to be exacted from her for the many cruel wrongs must lead to
a change of Constitution and Government, and this change of Constitution
and Government will make Germany a more acceptable member of a new
League of Nations. The utter defeat of Germany is a necessary
preliminary condition to the possibility of her entrance into a League
of Nations. Those who speak of the foundation of a League of Nations as
a means of ending the World War by a peace of compromise with Germany
are mistaken. The necessary presuppositions of such a League are
entirely incompatible with an unbroken Prussian militarism.

But while her utter defeat is the necessary preliminary condition to her
entrance into a League of Nations, the inclusion of Germany in the
League, after her utter defeat, is likewise a necessity. The reason is
that, as I pointed out in my first lecture (p. 17), in case the Central
Powers were