"In the Fourth Year: Anticipations of a World Peace" by H. G. Wells. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.
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H. G. Wells. In the Fourth Year: Anticipations of a World Peace
In the Fourth Year: Anticipations of a World Peace
Table of Contents
PREFACE
H. G. WELLS
IN THE FOURTH YEAR
THE LEAGUE OF FREE NATIONS
I. — THE WAY TO CONCRETE REALIZATION
II. — THE LEAGUE MUST BE REPRESENTATIVE
III. — THE NECESSARY POWERS OF THE LEAGUE
IV. — THE LABOUR VIEW OF MIDDLE AFRICA
V. — GETTING THE LEAGUE IDEA CLEAR IN RELATION TO IMPERIALISM
' 1
' 2
' 3
VI. — THE WAR AIMS OF THE WESTERN ALLIES
VII. — THE FUTURE OF MONARCHY
VIII. — THE PLAIN NECESSITY FOR A LEAGUE
IX. — DEMOCRACY
X. — THE RECENT STRUGGLE FOR PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION IN GREAT BRITAIN
XI. — THE STUDY AND PROPAGANDA OF DEMOCRACY
THE END
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H. G. Wells
Published by Good Press, 2019
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Let us keep our grip on that. Peace is the business of the great powers primarily. Steel output, university graduates, and so forth may be convenient secondary criteria, may be useful ways of measuring war efficiency, but the meat and substance of the Council of the League of Nations must embody the wills of those leading peoples. They can give an enduring peace to the little nations and the whole of mankind. It can arrive in no other way. So I take it that the Council of an ideal League of Nations must consist chiefly of the representatives of the great belligerent powers, and that the representatives of the minor allies and of the neutrals—essential though their presence will be—must not be allowed to swamp the voices of these larger masses of mankind.
And this state of affairs may come about more easily than logical, statistical-minded people may be disposed to think. Our first impulse, when we discuss the League of Nations idea, is to think of some very elaborate and definite scheme of members on the model of existing legislative bodies, called together one hardly knows how, and sitting in a specially built League of Nations Congress House. All schemes are more methodical than reality. We think of somebody, learned and “expert,” in spectacles, with a thin clear voice, reading over the “Projected Constitution of a League of Nations” to an attentive and respectful Peace Congress. But there is a more natural way to a league than that. Instead of being made like a machine, the League of Nations may come about like a marriage. The Peace Congress that must sooner or later meet may itself become, after a time, the Council of a League of Nations. The League of Nations may come upon us by degrees, almost imperceptibly. I am strongly obsessed by the idea that that Peace Congress will necessarily become—and that it is highly desirable that it should become—a most prolonged and persistent gathering. Why should it not become at length a permanent gathering, inviting representatives to aid its deliberations from the neutral states, and gradually adjusting itself to conditions of permanency?
