A general Pact on security has been the central purpose towards which
these efforts have, ever since the League was born, tended to converge.
The Treaty of Guarantee which, in the initial stages of its development,
its members had considered and discussed; the debate on the Geneva
Protocol, the discussion of which, at a later period, aroused among the
nations, both within the League and outside it, such fierce controversy;
the subsequent proposal for a United States of Europe and for the economic
unification of that continent; and last but not least the policy of
sanctions initiated by its members, may be regarded as the most
significant landmarks in its checkered history. That no less than fifty
nations of the world, all members of the League of Nations, should have,
after mature deliberation, recognized and been led to pronounce their
verdict against an act of aggression which in their judgment has been
deliberately committed by one of their fellow-members, one of the foremost
Powers of Europe; that they should have, for the most part, agreed to
impose collectively sanctions on the condemned aggressor, and should have
succeeded in carrying out, to a very great measure, their decision, is no
doubt an event without parallel in human history. For the first time in
the history of humanity the system of collective security, foreshadowed by
Baha'u'llah and explained by 'Abdu'l-Baha, has been seriously envisaged,
discussed and tested. For the first time in history it has been officially
recognized and publicly stated that for this system of collective security
to be effectively established strength and elasticity are both
essential--strength involving the use of an adequate force to ensure the
efficacy of the proposed system, and elasticity to enable the machinery
that has been devised to meet the legitimate needs and aspirations of its
aggrieved upholders. For the first time in human history tentative efforts
have been exerted by the nations of the world to assume collective
responsibility, and to supplement their verbal pledges by actual
preparation for collective action. And again, for the first time in
history, a movement of public opinion has manifested itself in support of
the verdict which the leaders and representatives of nations have
pronounced, and for securing collective action in pursuance of such a
decision.
How clear, how prophetic, must sound the words uttered by Baha'u'llah in
the light of recent international developments:--"Be united, O concourse of
the sovereigns of the world, for thereby will the tempest of discord be
stilled amongst you, and your peoples find rest. Should any one among you
take up arms against another, rise ye all against him, for this is naught
but manifest justice." "The time must come," He, foreshadowing the
tentative efforts that are now being made, has written, "when the
imperative necessity for the holding of a vast, an all-embracing
assemblage of men will be universally realized. The rulers and kings of
the earth must needs attend it, and, participating in its deliberations,
must consider such ways and means as will lay the foundations of the
world's Great Peace among men... Should any king take up arms against
another, all should unitedly arise and prevent him."
"The sovereigns of the world," writes 'Abdu'l-Baha in elaboration of this
theme, "must conclude a binding treaty, and establish a covenant, the
provisions of which shall be sound, inviolable and definite. They must
proclaim it to all the world, and obtain for it the sanction of all the
human race... All the forces of humanity must be mobilized to insure the
stability and permanence of this Most Great Covenant... The fundamental
principle underlying this solemn Pact should be so fixed that if any
government later violate any one of its provisions, all the governments on
earth should arise to reduce it to utter submission, nay the human race as
a whole should resolve, with every power at its disposal, to destroy that
government."
There can be no doubt whatever that what has already been accomplished,
significant and unexampled though it is in the history of mankind, still
immeasurably falls short of the essential requirements of the system which
these words foreshadow. The League of Nations, its opponents will observe,
still lacks the universality which is the prerequisite of abiding success
in the efficacious settlement of international disputes. The United States
of America, its begetter, has repudiated it, and is still holding aloof,
while Germany and Japan, who ranked among its most powerful supporters,
have abandoned its cause and withdrawn from its membership. The decisions
arrived at and the action thus far taken, others will maintain, should be
regarded as no more than a magnificent gesture, rather than a conclusive
evidence of international solidarity. Still others may contend that though
such a verdict has been pronounced, and such pledges been given,
collective action must, in the end, fail in its ultimate purpose, and that
the League itself will perish and be submerged by the flood of
tribulations destined to overtake the whole race. Be that as it may, the
significance of the steps already taken cannot be ignored. Whatever the
present status of the League or the outcome of its historic verdict,
whatever the trials and reverses which, in the immediate future, it may
have to face and sustain, the fact must be recognized that so important a
decision marks one of the most distinctive milestones on the long and
arduous road that must lead it to its goal, the stage at which the oneness
of the whole body of nations will be made the ruling principle of
international life.
This historic step, however, is but a faint glimmer in the darkness that
envelops an agitated humanity. It may well prove to be no more than a mere
flash, a fugitive gleam, in the midst of an ever-deepening confusion. The
process of disintegration must inexorably continue, and its corrosive
influence must penetrate deeper and deeper into the very core of a
crumbling age. Much suffering will still be required ere the contending
nations, creeds, classes and races of mankind are fused in the crucible of
universal affliction, and are forged by the fires of a fierce ordeal into
one organic commonwealth, one vast, unified, and harmoniously functioning
system. Adversities unimaginably appalling, undreamed of crises and
upheavals, war, famine, and pestilence, might well combine to engrave in
the soul of an unheeding generation those truths and principles which it
has disdained to recognize and follow. A paralysis more painful than any
it has yet experienced must creep over and further afflict the fabric of a
broken society ere it can be rebuilt and regenerated.
"The civilization," writes Baha'u'llah, "so often vaunted by the learned
exponents of arts and sciences will, if allowed to overleap the bounds of
moderation, bring great evil upon men... If carried to excess,
civilization will prove as prolific a source of evil as it had been of
goodness when kept within the restraints of moderation... The day is
approaching when its flame will devour the cities, when the Tongue of
Grandeur will proclaim: 'The Kingdom is God's, the Almighty, the
All-Praised!'" "From the moment the Suriy-i-Ra'is (Tablet to Ra'is) was
revealed," He further explains, "until the present day, neither hath the
world been tranquillized, nor have the hearts of its peoples been at
rest... Its sickness is approaching the stage of utter hopelessness,
inasmuch as the true Physician is debarred from administering the remedy,
whilst unskilled practitioners are regarded with favor, and are accorded
full freedom to act. The dust of sedition hath clouded the hearts of men,
and blinded their eyes. Erelong they will perceive the consequences of
what their hands have wrought in the Day of God." "This is the Day," He
again has written, "whereon the earth shall tell out her tidings. The
workers of iniquity are her burdens... The Crier hath cried out, and men
have been torn away, so great hath been the fury of His wrath. The people
of the left hand sigh and bemoan. The people of the right abide in noble
habitations: they quaff the Wine that is life indeed from the hands of the
All-Merciful, and are, verily, the blissful."