398 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

locating and mAintaimng an international army or navy are
considerable, there are two weapons which could more easily be
internationalised. The first is milkary aircraft which could police
wide areas from a few centres, and the second finance. It would
be possible for League Powers, at a moderate expense to each,
to set aside a considerable total sum which would be made
immediately available to the victim of aggression. More than one
project for applying these methods has been discussed; they
have been set aside, not primarily because of technical difficulties,
but because Sovereign States were not prepared to relinquish
the final power to enforce their own will. For as long as there had
been nations, their prestige had been associated in men's minds-
with their power to strike; and old ideas are not quickly changed,
however pressing the world's need for order. The same cause
explains another weakness—the need for a unanimous Council
vote before action could be taken. Men had learnt to accept
majority decisions, if the majority consisted of fellow-country-
men; they would not yet extend the idea to the community of
mankind.

Experience showed, however, that the mechanism' could
work; the Council could consider cases on their merits and
reach a unanimous decision; it could even, in some instances,
rely on the States to impose sanctions on the aggressor. More
than thirty disputes have been settled without war under one
or other of the forms of procedure suggested by the Covenant.
On some occasions, as that of the assassination of the King of
Yugo-Slavia in 1934, "the unrest was so serious that in the absence
of League procedure, war might well have broken out. The most
striking success was in 1925, when Greek troops invaded Bulgaria.
The Bulgarian Government ordered its forces not to resist and
appealed to the League. The Council was immediately summoned
and in a very short time the withdrawal of the troops was ordered.
The Greek Government's representative, looking at the Press
reporters waiting to spread his answer over the world, and at
the box on the table, containing the plans for wrecking his