172 A BRIEF SURVEY OF HUMAN HISTORY

(6) undertake to secure just treatment of the native
inhabitants of territories under their control;

(c) will entrust the League with the general super-

vision over the execution of agreements with re-
gard to the traffic in women and children, and the
traffilc in opium and other dangerous drugs;

(d) will entrust the League with the general super-

vision of the trade in arms and ammunition with
countries in which the control of this traffic is
necessary in the common interest;

(0) will make provision to secure and maintain free-
dom of communications and of transit and equi-
table treatment for the commerce of all Members
of the League. In this connexion, the special ne-
cessities of the regions devastated during the war
of 1914—18 shall be borne in mind ;

(/) will endeavour to take steps in matters of inter-
national concern for the prevention and control
of disease.

N. B.—The first great European to forestall this idea of a
Committee of Nations for securing the Peace of the World .was the
Dutchman Hugo Grotius (1583—1645) whose motto in life was:
' I shall never cease to use my utmost endeavours for establishing
peace among Christians; and if I should not succeed it will be
•honourable to die in such an endeavour,1 The great book he wrote
was called De Jure Betti ac Pads or Concerning the Law of War
and Peace. In it he examined various methods by which interna-
tional questions might be settled without war, and proposed the
idea of conferences and international arbitration. ' But especially
are Christian Kings and States', he wrote, ' bound to try this way
of avoiding war.' An equally earnest Christian missionary more
recently declared:

The League of Nations is the one great hope of the world
The Peace we must have can come no other way. The present
opportunity is without a parallel in human history. The hour