Already the war has greatly added to the value of one of the factors upon which the League of Peace will depend.  The smaller States:  Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, and the Scandinavian Powers, would have joined it any time these 40 years, had it existed, for the sake of its protection, and thereby made the Protestant north of Mr. Houston Chamberlain’s dream as much a reality as any such dream is ever likely to be.  But after the fight put up by Belgium the other day, the small States will be able to come in with the certainty of being treated with considerable respect as military factors; for Belgium can now claim to have saved Europe single-handed.  Germany has been very unpleasantly reminded of the fact that though a big man may be able to beat a little one, yet if the little one fights for all he is worth he may leave the victor very sorry he broke the peace.  Even as between the big Powers, victory has not, as far as the fighting has yet gone, been always with the biggest battalions.  With a couple of millions less men, the Kaiser might have taken more care of them and made a better job of it.

At the same time I hold no brief for small States as such, and most vehemently deny that we are in any way bound to knight errantry on their behalf as against big ones.  They are mostly either incorrigibly bellicose themselves, like Montenegro, or standing temptations to the big Powers, like Bosnia and Herzegovina.  They multiply frontiers, which are nuisances, and languages, which have made confusion since the building of Babel.  The striking contrast between the United States of North America and the disunited States of South America in this respect is, from the Pacifist point of view, very much in favor of the northern unity.  The only objection to large political units is that they make extremely dangerous autocracies.  But as groups of federated democracies they are the best neighbours in the world.  A federal democratic Russia would be as safe a colleague as America:  a federal democratic Germany would be as pleasant company as Switzerland.  Let us, I beg, hear no more of little States as British Dulcineas.

The Claims of Belgium.

As to the special case of Belgium, its claims in the settlement are simple and indeed single.  If we conclude a peace without clearing the Germans completely out of Belgium, we shall be either beaten or dishonoured.  And such indemnity as a money payment can effect for Belgium is due not only by Germany, but by Britain, France, and Russia as well.  Belgium has been crushed between the Alliance and the Entente:  it was these two menaces to the peace of Europe that produced Armageddon; and as Belgium’s heroic resistance served the Entente against the Alliance, the obligation to make good the remediable damage is even more binding on the Entente.

But there is another and more pressing matter arising out of the conquest of Belgium.

The Belgian Refugees and the Problem of Unemployment.