From ‘Dreams of a Warless World’, The Spectator, 19 December 1914:
In truth, there is only one way to stop war, and that is for some one Great Power first to disarm the whole world, and then to see to it that no one shall again take up arms. Universal tyranny may create universal peace. Nothing else will. We know, of course, all that can be said about that tyrant being an International Committee, but such an International Committee must be run by somebody, and it would soon become merely a tyrant under an alias. A superimposed peace and true freedom cannot keep house together. Into the curious point raised by Wordsworth in his letter to Pasley as to whether, though we yearn for it never so strongly, it would in reality be good for us to have universal peace, we shall not enter now. We may note, however, that Wordsworth did not take the common view that we should become soft and decadent under universal peace, but maintained, on the contrary, that if there were no foreign enemy to threaten us abroad we should plunge our swords into our own bosoms. Certainly events in England during last summer seemed to lend his opinions a good deal of support. Wordsworth’s view, however, cannot be considered as very practical. It will be a very long time, we fear, before there is any danger of our suffering from the ill effects of universal peace.
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