Secret Diplomacy/Chapter 13
XIII. A SURVIVAL OF ABSOLUTISM[edit]
THOSE who view the modern state as a purely predatory organization, for exploitation within and without, point to the methods, practices and results of diplomacy as one of the plainest indi- cations of the sinister nature of the political state. Such criticism cannot be safely brushed aside as utterly unreasonable; it should rather call forth a searching inquiry as to whether, as a matter of fact, the conduct of foreign affairs could not and should not be brought into greater consonance with genuinely democratic principles, and be placed on the sound basis of well-informed pub- lic support.
No matter what opinion one may hold with re- spect to the necessity of secret diplomacy, it must be recognized that this practice involves a very narrow conception of the active scope of democ- racy. It is in fact a historical survival from the period of the absolutist state; or in other words, that aspect of the modern state which deals with
foreign affairs has retained the character of abso- lutism. It is a superstition, in the picturesque sense of that word used by Lowell, when he de- fines it as "something left standing over from one of the world's witenagemotes to the other." In this case, indeed the most recent witenagemote approached the question and proposed a step in advance towards its solution. But the difficulty still persists.
In its relations with other states, the state is considered to be absolute, not bound by any laws, responsible only for its own security, welfare and progressing influence. The struggle for political power still exists among states, in essentially the same keenness and rigidity with which it appeared to the eyes of Machiavelli. The importance of world-wide human relationships, and of interna- tional cooperation in scientific and economic life, has indeed been brought forth and given its place in the public mind; but because of the manner in which the conduct of international affairs is actually handled, the feeling thus generated does not have much chance to influence action at crit- ical times, when the people are startled and ex- cited by the sudden revelation of dangers, which awaken in them all the bitter feelings engendered by the past struggles of mankind.
This survival is given strength by class inter-
ests, pride of race, and by the manipulations of
plutocratic control. Where affairs are handled
by a narrow circle of men, no matter how high-
minded and how thoroughly conscious of their
public responsibility, yet with the necessary limi-
tations of the human mind, they cannot but be
influenced at every turn by the opinions of others
with whom they are actually in contact; so that
in decisions on these momentous matters, the
thing which is concretely present is very often
an interest comparatively narrow in itself, and
related to the public welfare only by a series of
remote inferences which are accepted at their face
value. The most successful statesman of the
nineteenth century said that the whole Balkan
question was not worth the bones of one Pom-
eranian grenadier; yet his successors in power
risked the very existence of the nations of Europe
for one phase of that question.
Powerful interests will always have means, for- mal or informal, to lay their needs and desires before the men in power. They may indeed be very important and may deserve special atten- tion, but unfortunately, many cases have hap- pened in which their point of view has been adopted without making sure that there existed a
general public interest sufficiently important to warrant taking the risks involved.
A diplomatic caste recruited from a certain class of society, trained in the traditions of au- thority, in contact all the time with men of simi- lar views and principles, cannot in the nature of things free itself from the limitations of such environment and such training.
From the personal point of view diplomacy has adhered to the belief in the superior intelligence, ability and foresight in the handling of foreign affairs, on the part of those who by inherited tra- ditions and special experience may be said to be- long to a caste distinguished from the mass of humanity. Some one has said, there is a great danger in that there exists a caste of people who have taken the making of history as their profes- sion; who still cling to the erroneous idea that the manipulation of large masses of people, the redistribution of territories, and the modification of the natural processes of grouping and settle- ment, is history. But such people who believe they are making history are really obstructing it. Even so unusual a man as Bismarck, working as he did on a great national problem, did not gain lasting success in action whereby he endeav- ored to anticipate the developments of history.
The artful contrivance and harsh, ruthless exe- cution of many of his plans left a heritage of evil to the world; but the greatest evil lay in the ex- ample given by so successful a man in making it seem that history could actually thus be made. The attitude which is taken in behalf of such men, in claiming for them a completely free and full discretion in controlling foreign affairs, recalls a statement made by H. G. Wells concerning a Brit- ish leader: "He believes that he belongs to a particularly gifted and privileged class of beings to whom the lives and affairs of common men are given over the raw material for brilliant careers. It seems to him an act of insolence that the com- mon man should form judgments on matters of statecraft." The diplomats of the old school in- deed do require the people, but only as material with which to work out their grandiose projects. Their view not too distantly resembles that of the German militarists to whom ordinary humanity existed only for one purpose, "to do their damn'd duty."
We should naturally expect to find the great- est secrecy and the most callous use of secretive methods, where absolutism remains most com- pletely established. In the last remaining abso- lutism, that of Japan, these expectations are ful- filled, both as regards carefully-guarded secrecy of all diplomatic action, and the habitual use of well phrased declarations of a theoretical policy, announced for public consumption, but bearing only a Platonic relation to the details of actual doings. But more liberally governed states have not by any means all freed themselves from this practice, even to the extent of faithfully keeping the representative bodies, and the public, in- formed of the true character and aims of impor- tant national policies.
During the discussions of the last few years, a great many remedies for this state of affairs have been suggested. The Constitutional practice of the United States has been taken as a model in England in the suggestion that there should be a representative committee on foreign affairs in the House of Commons, which should keep in con- stant touch with the diplomatic officials and su- pervise the conduct of foreign relations; that there should be at least two days given to the dis- cussion of the Foreign Office Vote; that there should be full reports made on the progress of all important negotiations; and that treaties and alliances should not be concluded, nor war made, without a previous authorization on the part of Parliament. The last formal proposal of this
kind was the motion made in March, 1918, in the House of Commons, the opposition to which by Mr. Balfour has already been alluded to. That he should object particularly to the prying into foreign affairs on the part of persons "not re- sponsible," and by "politicians," that the pro- posed committee of the House of Commons should be thus characterized, throws light on the preju- dices involved; but it also reveals the absurdity of the present arrangement from the point of view of free government. In France there has existed, since 1902, a standing committee on foreign and colonial affairs in the Chamber of Deputies.
When he was premier, in 1920, Signor Giolliti introduced a bill carrying the following provi- sion: "Treaties and International understand- ings, whatever be their subject and character, are valid only after they have been approved by Par- liament. The Government of the King can de- clare war only with the approval of the two Cham- bers." The ministry of Giolliti fell before this sound measure could be passed.
It may be questioned whether many of the ar- rangements suggested could be more than pallia- tives, as long as an intelligent and constant pub- lic interest in foreign affairs has not been aroused, and as long as the absolutist aspect of foreign
policy continues. The suggestion that war should not be made without a previous national referen- dum, has indeed logic on its side from the point of view of the democratic theory of state, but it has thus far not entered into the state of practical consideration.
The most important remedy as yet attempted is the provision in the Covenant of the League of Nations, that all treaties shall be made public. No greater encouragement, indeed, could be given to the growth of confidence and the destruction, of baneful suspicions and fears, throughout in- ternational life, than if it were possible to assure the nations of the world that all engagements im- posing international obligations of any kind what- soever would be made known immediately upon their conclusion. This provision of the Covenant has already gone into force, and numerous new treaties have been submitted, even by govern- ments who are not as yet members of the League. But certain governments have delayed compliance in cases where treaties are known to have been made secretly. As there is no specific sanction for this provision in the Covenant, and as actually binding agreements can be made without taking the form of a treaty or convention, this remedy is not in itself powerful enou gh to remove the evil. If two or three states are willing to keep an engagement secret at the risk of later incur- ring a certain amount of opprobrium when the fact is discovered, there is no means as yet avail- able for obliging them to abandon such course. Nevertheless, this provision of the Covenant con- stitutes a great advance in the work of placing the public business of the world on the only sound basis, and cultivating that confidence upon which depends the future immunity of mankind from constant danger of suffering and destruction. It will, however, not be a real remedy until the na- tions agree actually to outlaw all secret agree- ments as a conspiracy against the general wel- fare and safety.
The other important advance made in the Cove- nant is found in the provisions for the investi- gation of any cause of conflict before hostilities shall be resorted to. If after the first shock of excitement, which accompanies the revelation of a serious international crisis, public opinion can be given a certain space of time to inform itself, then it may indeed be hoped that a different tem- per will control the giving of the fateful doom of war. As Count Czernin has stated, on the night of August 4, 1914, between the hours of nine and midnight the decision as to whether England
would come into the war, lay with the German Government. A system under which such tremen- dous issues have to be decided in such a manner, is absurd to the verge of insanity.*
* A German writer puts the blame for the outbreak of the war on the telegraph. He says that if there had been no tele- graphic communication between the capitals, the fatal crisis would not have arisen; there would have been time for reflection and a decision to make war would never have been taken in blood.
While the above arrangements, if they could be effectively carried out, would undoubtedly serve to moderate the evils which now result from the con- duct of international affairs on so narrow a basis, yet it is difficult to expect from them more than relatively superficial results. It is only if a new spirit can be developed among the nations, and if the absolutist conception of the state as far as it still remains, can be transformed into some- thing more consonant with the complexity and delicacy of human relationships, that we may hope to hail the dawn of a new era. It would be as great a transformation as that which separates the Pagan from the Christian ideal. Mankind is still somewhat blinded by the glitter and pa- geantry of the absolutist state; the pride of power manifests itself now particularly in foreign in- tercourse. When Portugal became a repu blic, it desired at first to abolish the entire diplomatic establishment, and to allow all international busi- ness to be done by the consuls. That proposal may have resulted from an instinctive feeling that there was something incompatible between a really free community, and the sense of absolute power embodied in diplomacy.
A change can be brought about only when the underlying unity of mankind is more intensely felt and when the common interests in science, commerce, industry and the universal language of art are valued at their true importance to the welfare of the people of all nations. Joint effort in the constructive work of developing resources, particularly in the tropics, will make it possible for vastly increased populations to live in com- fort on their present sites, without the need of crowding each other. A higher valuation of hu- manity, a more just proportion in the influence permitted different interests, a keener scrutiny of traditions and watch-words all this is neces- sary. Men and women to-day feel an intense ap- prehension, when they think of the fate of their children in a world in which the unreasoning prejudices and unenlightened practices that have recently again come to the fore in international life should prevail, leaving mankind in a dazed
confusion, and pushing the people from time to time into wholesale slaughter with ever more hor- rible instruments of destruction. They feel also that if secret policies, engendering fears and sus- picion, are to continue to be the dominant factor, then all improvement in human welfare, education and science, will have to be in a large measure postponed to the preparation of constantly more formidable engines of death. One cannot but re- member the worst imprecations of the Greek tragic poets and philosophers, on the miserable destiny of man. In fact, if we should have to be- lieve that no better way could be found to man- age the vital interests of mankind, a great nat- ural catastrophe, which would extinguish once and for all the miserable breed on this planet, would almost appear in the light of a redemption.
But we cannot believe that the peoples of the world will be so foolish as to allow themselves to remain in this condition and not to find their way to a reorganization of public affairs which will make such a haphazard and perilous situation impossible. It seems plain that the idea of the state and of state action will have to be trans- formed in accordance with the greater self-con- sciousness of humanity which has developed in the last century, or the desire to scrap the po
litical state and to find some more adequate and natural form of organization will rapidly gain in strength. Meanwhile, there is a need of the formation of a great freemasonry of all publi- cists, political men and teachers of the people, united in the resolve to know and make known the essential elements in current international af- fairs, to arouse the public to a sense of the im- portance of these matters to their every-day life, and to support the men more directly responsible for the conduct of foreign policy, with an intelli- gent, searching, reasonable and broad public opinion.