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and on which we ought to get our ideas clear, and that is the relation of the Empire to the world at large, which now seems to be suffering from an epidemic of acute nationalism. We have to consider our own security in this distressed world, and we have to consider what contribution we can make to that international peace on which depends the security of civilisation. It is not for me to attempt to dogmatise. I am only going to put the question before you for your consideration.

First let me say that I see no hope in the ideal which attracts some people - that of a compact and self-contained Empire, with a common defensive system under which the whole would guarantee the security of every part. There would be enormous difficulties in the way of framing such a system, and even if it were achieved it would not meet the difficulty. For the British Empire, potent as it is, is not potent enough to stand alone in the world. I think this is generally realised, and that is why Britain and the Dominions have from the start laboured to secure, through the League of Nations, a system of world-wide collective security, under which force would be on the side of the law and not of the litigant.

That is a great ideal which we must never relinquish; but it is clear, I think, that the original League of Nations was devised on too ambitious lines. We tried to create something full-born and complete, instead of something which could slowly develop. It was meant to be a world system and a coercive system; but the absence of the United States from it made it from the start an imperfect structure with a far too cumbrous procedure. I think it is generally agreed that some revision is necessary, and that for the present the League will have to be organised more modestly; less on the lines of a world state than of a clearing-house for consultation and discussion. That

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is not what we once hoped for, but nevertheless such an organisation would be of the highest value in clarifying men's minds, for it is mental confusion far oftener than maleficent intention which leads to war.

It would not be proper for me to enlarge on this matter, or on what regional agreements for security may be necessary as intermediate machinery before we can attain a true internationalism. I merely suggest to you these points as subjects to which it is most desirable that public-spirited men should give their best thought. For no country today can afford to be without a foreign policy. We in Canada are far enough from the old world, with its troubles; but we have the Pacific at our door, and beyond the Pacific there are many difficult problems awaiting settlement. The world has shrunk today and there is no part of the globe which can say that its geographical position renders it immune from danger.

I suggest to you these questions for consideration at leisure. And I would offer you one final reflection. The League of Nations has not succeeded as we hoped, because it had not an adequate spiritual force behind it. The revulsion from the brutalities of war in 1918 was not strong enough to lead to that clear-eyed and singlehearted effort which alone could insure the peace of the world. There were still too many fevers in the nations, and these fevers have remained as acute irritants, filming the eyes and distorting the mind. Nationalism is a right and proper thing within bounds, for you cannot have a League of Nations without the nations. Yes, but no more can you have a League without the league spirit, a spirit of tolerance and charity and understanding. It is the duty of all honest and public-

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spirited men patiently and resolutely to foster this spirit, and to bring the world back to a saner mood and a wiser temper. It is a task in which we can all help. It is a task in which our British Commonwealth especially can help, with its sober realism, its steadfast good sense, and its long tradition of internal peace. There was a famous Church Father in the Middle Ages who wrote a Latin hymn, some lines of which never cease to haunt my mind:- "Who will achieve universal peace?" he asks, and his answer is: "The disciplined, the dedicated, the pure in heart and the gentle in spirit." Every lawyer knows that the wisest law will not succeed unless it is in tune with the spirit of the people. If it is far ahead of that spirit it will be a dead letter. No League which the wit of man can frame will succeed unless there is behind it, in the world at large, the proper temper of mind. To create and maintain this temper is the first duty of civilised men and women.