Notes

Abstract

ALL friends of humanity will welcome with a profound sense of relief the intimation that the representatives of Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and the United States, assembled at the Washington Conference, have agreed to the American proposal to prohibit the use of poison gas in warfare. As Mr. A. J. Balfour pointed out, in announcing the adherence of Great Britain, Mr. Root's resolution was, in effect, a re-affirmation of international law as it existed prior to 1915, when it was deliberately violated by Germany. He was conscious, as was M. Sarraut, the representative of France, that the exercise of authority in banning the use of an abhorrent method of warfare was, under present conditions, scarcely practicable, and that whilst the agreement would serve to bind the Five Powers, it would not relieve nations from the necessity of preparing themselves against the use of gas by an unscrupulous enemy. We could not afford to ignore the lesson of April, 1915. The position thus reached by the Washington Conference is as satisfactory as could be expected. It is, in fact, all that was practicable, and it will be welcomed by all the Powers comprising the League of Nations. The issue now rests with Germany. But the moral effect of the action of the Conference will not be lost upon the world.