WAR
negotiations would have resulted in no serious diminution
of the British and American navies. At the general Dis-
armament Conference the determination not to use the
machine was manifested even more clearly than in 1927.
No government was willing so much as to consider
unilateral disarmament, and even the Soviet suggestion of
complete disarmament all round was ruled out of order
before the Conference had begun. The discussions dragged
on for two years—discussions concerned not with dis-
armament, but with the kind of weapons to be used in the
next war. Finally the Conference was adjourned sine die
and the various powers set to work to re-arm on a scale
unprecedented in human history.
The same obstinate refusal to make use of intrinsically
excellent machinery has been displayed at the various
conferences on economic and monetary problems. All the
economists are agreed that international trade cannot
become normal unless tariff barriers are lowered, the quota
system abolished, and some satisfactory medium of inter-
national exchange established. Nor is this all. Everyone
knows that economic warfare, carried on by competitive
currency devaluations, by tariffs, quotas and export bounties,
is bound to lead sooner or later to military warfare. Never-
theless, no government has shown itself ready to make use
of any of the excellent machinery specially designed for
the purpose of solving the world's economic problemsl
It is the same with the Mandate System. The Mandate
System is a machine which makes it possible for backward
peoples to be placed under the control of "an international
authority, not under the exclusive rule of a single nation.
In regard to colonies, the world is at present divided into
two camps of Haves and Have-nots. The Haves adopt
the motto of the British Navy League: What I have I hold.
The Have-nots demand a place in the sun, or in more vulgar
language, a share in the loot. In recent years these demands
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