The Problem of Foreign Policy

by Gilbert Murray. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. 1921. 12mo, xxviii+126 pp. $1.50.

BOTH the war and its halting settlements represent departures from the traditions of British Liberalism. In part, these have been necessary or forced departures, to which Liberals have consented; but they do not conform with the creed and policies of that historic party. How reluctantly the Liberal Cabinet of 1914 entered the war. we know if further evidence were needed — from the recent testimony of Paul Cambon, at that time French Ambassador at London. After the nation emerged from the life-and-death struggle, during which faiths and convictions were wholly subordinated to action, these temporarily inhibited beliefs and attitudes reasserted themselves as strongly as ever, at least among leading individuals. The future of the British people, and the coming constitution of their empire, will be profoundly affected by the extent to which the same beliefs and attitudes revive among the masses.

Therefore, all light upon the renascence of liberal thought in England is important. This book is a formulation of that thought. It rises above the level of a party tract, but it is distinctly the product of a political school. In it the voice of a scholar and historian, with a trace of the party veteran’s timbre, joins those of such younger champions as Keynes, Sir Philip Gibbs, and Sisley Huddleston. For Gilbert Murray ranks with Lord Bryce and Lord Grey, among the elder exponents of Liberal doctrine.

In a long preface and five short chapters, altogether occupying not more than the compass of a couple of lectures. Professor Murray condenses a deal of mature thinking and keen analysis upon the present state of Europe. He belives that, when the League of Nations includes Germany, it will eventually remove the most dangerous misunderstandings between that country and France. He urges that the Allies should keep faithfully the promises they made at the time of the war to the people of Egypt, Arabia, and India, and that the white powers should strengthen native governments, not supersede them. He argues — some readers may think gratuitously—against the theses as well as the practices of the Bolsheviki. without recommending any policy toward Russia except non-interference and friendly aid when invited. He then analyzes the causes of war which existed before 1914, and which to-day cloud the future of civilization, and concludes, in eleven short pages, with an argument to show how far and in what way the league of Nations

promises to prevent future armed Conflicts. The book deals exclusively with the Old World and its dependencies. Without making Ireland a special topic. Professor Murray uses the failure of British policy there to point a moral.

The book closes with a note of optimism. ‘After all, the war has brought its inspirations as well as its corruptions. The craving for this Peace which has not come is, I believe, still the unspoken and often unconscious motive of millions who seem, at first glance, to be only brawling for revenges and revolutions; it lies, like a mysterious torment, at the heart of this stormtossed and embittered world, crying for it knows not what.'

There is no direct allusion to the United States. The author’s opinions are more or less familiar, but he is up to date in his restatement of them. More than that, his book may be a prophecy of what will soon be official British policy. Certainly it points to the path in which Americans are most likely to find their trans-Atlantic cousins pleasant company. VICTOR S. CLARK.