An Island Story by H. E. Marshall (lightweight ebook reader TXT) 📕

So one day an Englishman asked one of the German princes why they were building such a lot of war ships. It was an awkward question, and he could not give any satisfactory answer. “At any rate,” he said, “we are not going to use them against Uncle Edward.”

King Edward was not alone in his love of, and desire for, peace. The Czar of Russia, Nicholas II., also desired it. Even before King Edward had come to the throne he had tried to turn the thoughts of Europe towards the idea of peace, and he had persuaded all the chief nations of Europe to come to a Peace Conference at the Hague in Holland.

This conference was called together to try to find out if there was any means of persuading the peoples of Europe to reduce their armies and navies. To keep up a large army or large navy costs a great deal of money. To pay for them the people must be taxed, sometimes heavily taxed. Even if the people could easily afford to pay the taxes many people felt that the money spent on armaments, as such things are called, might be put to much better uses; that it might be spent in making life happier, better and safer. But of course it is impossible for one country to disarm if other countries will not agree to do the same. So this conference was called to see if all countries could be brought to consent, not to disarm altogether, but to reduce their armaments. It was also called to discuss the possibility of settling disputes between quarreling nations by arbitration instead of by war. Which means that if two nations quarreled, instead of fighting they should lay their quarrel before some other nation or group of nations, and let them decide who was right and who wrong.

The conference failed utterly to reduce armies and navies, because Germany would not agree to it. Germany, said her spokesman, was very well content with things as they were. The German people were not crushed under a load of taxes, they were not nearing ruin. On the contrary, life was every year becoming easier. They did not think that forced military service was a heavy burden, but looked upon it as a sacred and patriotic duty.

For years Germany had taken the lead in Europe in increasing both army and navy. To such an extent, indeed, had she done this that other nations had begun to fear her. Now as she refused to decrease either the one or the other, no nation dared do so. Therefore on that point the conference was a failure. But in the matter of arbitration it succeeded very well, and since then many disputes, such as those over boundaries between countries, have been peacefully settled by the Hague Court of Arbitration.

A second Peace Conference was called at the Hague in 1907. At this there were delegates from nearly every country in the world. But again the attitude of Germany prevented success, for her representative refused altogether to discuss the question of armaments, and even stood out against arbitration. “Arbitration,” said he, “must be hurtful to Germany, as Germany is ready for war as no other country can be.” It was only after great arguments, and when it seemed certain that further resistance would greatly harm Germany in the eyes of all the world, that the Emperor gave way, and his delegate agreed to the founding of the Hague Court of Arbitration.

Even in spite of Germany with her despotic ideas, which seemed to come straight out of the Middle Ages, the Hague conferences proved that the world had advanced, and that the cause of peace had made great strides against the cause of war. Yet we must rather sadly note, that in the very year in which the first conference took place war broke out between Great Britain and the Boer States of South Africa, and that a few years later, in 1904, the Czar, who had invited the conference to meet, was at war with Japan. But we must also note, that had it not been for the calmer temper of nations, of which the conference was a sign, the war between Japan and Russia might have spread, and many other nations might have been involved.

To the astonishment of almost every one, in 1902 Britain had made an alliance with Japan, and when the war broke out Russia accused Britain of helping to bring the war about by signing that treaty. Feeling ran so high that certainly fifty or a hundred years earlier Britain would have been dragged into war.

Then to make matters worse, one dark October night, the Russian fleet, passing through the North Sea on its way to the East, fired upon some English fishing smacks. One steam trawler was sunk, two men killed, and several wounded.

When the story was spread abroad England was shaken with wrath. This was an act of war, cried the hot-heads. If Russia wanted war, Russia should have war.

But the leaders of the country were calm. The Czar said he was sorry, the Russian admiral explained that it was a mistake, that he had mistaken the fishing smacks for Japanese torpedo boats. It sounded rather a lame explanation, but the British accepted it, and agreed that the whole matter should be settled by arbitration. So war was averted, and one more victory gained for peaceful methods.

King Edward VII. reigned for nine years, and when one day in May 1910 after a very short illness he died, the country mourned as it had never mourned, even at the death of the great Victoria. For King Edward was very human, and no king perhaps ever touched life at so many points on a level with his people. He was a good sportsman, a good farmer, a diligent man of business, and a charming man of the world. He enjoyed life. He wanted others to enjoy life too, and he was filled with deep sympathy towards those who suffered. When he died his people felt that they had lost a friend as well as a king.