Let them meet as often as possible; I mean the children from England and
the children from Serbia, the children from Russia and the children from
France. So they will know about each other that they all are human
beings, and that they all can smile in friendliness on each other. Let
them travel to each other's country; I mean the children from Germany
and the children from Italy, the children from Japan and those from
Scandinavia. Let them see how every spot on earth is wonderful in its
way, and how worthy of love, of patriotism. When will the railway
companies and ship companies say: Let the children come to us? When
will they arrange the best trains, better than the royal trains, the
most commodious and decorated with flowers and flags of different
nations and with one special flag of the Children World Union? When the
moment comes that the wonderful modern communication begins to help the
children to meet each other and to pay visits to each other, at that
moment the invention of steam and electricity will justify itself. In
transferring the troops and facilitating crime it does net justify
itself. Let the word communication be not only for the sake of crime and
for the sake of bread; let it be for the sake of peace and of souls.
Let them sing together, everyone in his own tongue; I mean the children
from the East and West and North and South. You should have been the
other day in the Mansion House when the English and Serbian boys met
together, and have listened to the English singing the Serbian and the
Serbian singing the English National Anthems, and you would have been
fascinated by the sweet revelation of the future world.
Let the children from the East and West and South and North, pray
together. Why not? Bring them, thousands of them, to a mountain, upon
which our ancestors prayed, and let them at sunset kneel down and sing
some common prayer that they all know, or, if they have no such common
prayer in their creeds, let them just kneel and silently pray! Such a
silent prayer will do more good than any thousand years' old discussion
about religion. It is very easy to convince all the children of the
world, just because they are children, that they have one Father in
Heaven, and that they shall send their prayers to Him. But even if they
send their prayers in different directions, they will arrive at the same
place. All prayers, whenever and wherever sent, go always the same way.
Let the children from the northern ice and from the tropical heat carry
on a correspondence. Millions of letters are written and sent every day,
which mean nonsense and evil. The post communication will justify itself
much more by bearing the children's mail, with truth and love, than by
bearing perfidious diplomatic notes or letters which mean nonsense and
evil. One of the unforgettable events in Serbia during this war happened
in 1914 on Christmas Day, when an American ship arrived and brought
gifts and letters from the children of America to the children of
Serbia. This wonderful mail produced the greatest imaginable excitement
among the Serbian children. They were busy, very busy for some weeks,
reading the friendly letters from so far, and answering them. I am sure
they will forget many sad events of the war, but they never can forget
this wonderful and surprising mail, which made for peace more than any
of the costly commissions for the investigation of war cruelties, or any
of Carnegie's empty, although wonderful, luxurious halls of peace.
Let the children, the representatives of all the countries in the world,
come to The Hague to hold the International Peace Congress. The
programme of this Congress should be: Singing, playing, dancing, smiling
and praying. They will meet as friends and speak every one in his native
language, and they will understand each other very well as friends
always understand each other. This Children's Hague Conference will
promote the world peace more than The Hague Conference composed of
enemies, mutually annoying themselves by obligatory politeness and bad
French.
But, you will ask, who is going to arrange and execute all this? The
International Board of Education.
But, you will say, it will be very expensive? Yes, but, supposing it
will be as expensive as the war, for which of the two do you prefer to
give money--for such a salvatory experiment or for the war? Yet, I am
sure of one thing, it will cost less than a war.