When the war is over! The evil is done now, the torrent let loose and we cannot force it back into its channel unaided. Moreover crimes have been committed against right, attacks on the liberties of peoples and on the sacred treasuries of thought which must and will be expiated. Europe cannot pass over unheeded the violence done to the noble Belgian people the devastation of Malines and Louvain, sacked by modern Tillys. But in the name of heaven let not these crimes be expiated by similar crimes. Let not the hideous words “vengeance” and “retaliation” be heard; for a great nation does not revenge itself, it re-establishes justice. But let those in whose hands lies the execution of justice show themselves worthy of her to the end.
It is our duty to keep this before them; nor will we be passive and wait for the fury of this conflict to spend itself. Such conduct would be unworthy of us who have such a task before us. Our first duty then, all over the world, is to insist on the formation of a moral High Court, a tribunal of consciences, to watch and pass impartial judgment on any violations of the laws of nations. And since committees of enquiry formed by belligerents themselves would be always suspect, the neutral countries of the old and new world must take the initiative and form a tribunal such as was suggested by Mr. Prenant, professor of medicine at Paris, and taken up enthusiastically by M. Paul Seippel in the Journal de Genève.
“They should produce men of some worldly authority, and of proved civic morality to act as a commission of enquiry, and to follow the armies at a little distance. Such an organisation would complete and solidify the Hague Court, and prepare indisputable documents for the necessary work of justice.”
The neutral countries play too modest a role. In the face of unbridled force they are inclined to believe that opinion is defeated in advance, and the majority of thinkers in all countries share their pessimism. There is a lack of courage here as well as of clear thinking. For just at this time the power of opinion is immense. The most despotic of governments, even though
