or other litigant States is in default, and leave such State voluntarily to make reparation; or the Court may, in the alternative, itself direct reparation to be made or compensation to be paid for such wrong, and may assess damages or compensation, and may, either by way of addition to damages or compensation, or as an alternative, impose a pecuniary fine upon the State declared in default, hereinafter called the recalcitrant State; and may require compliance with its decree within a specified time under penalty of a pecuniary fine, and may prescribe the application of any such damages, compensation, or fine.

In the event of non-compliance with any decision or decree or injunction of the International High Court, or of nonpayment of the damages, compensation, or fine within the time specified for such payment, the Court may decree execution, and may call upon the Constituent States, or upon some or any of them, to put in operation, after duly published notice, for such period and under such conditions as may be arranged, any or all of the following sanctions

viz.:

(a) To lay an embargo on any or all ships within the jurisdiction of such Constituent State or States registered as belonging to the recalcitrant State;

(b) To prohibit any lending of capital or other moneys to the citizens, companies, or subordinate administrations of the recalcitrant State, or to its national Government;

(c) To prohibit the issue or dealing in or quotation on the Stock Exchange or in the press of any new loans, debentures, shares, notes or securities of any kind by any of the citizens, companies or subordinate administrations of the recalcitrant State, or of its national Government;

(d) To prohibit all postal, telegraphic, telephonic and wireless communication with the recalcitrant State;

(e) To prohibit the payment of any debts due to the citizens, companies or subordinate administrations of the recalcitrant State, or to its national Government; and, if thought fit, to direct that payment of such debts shall be made only to one or other of the Constituent Governments,

which shall give a good and legally valid discharge for the same, and shall account for the net proceeds thereof to the International High Court;

(f) To prohibit all imports, or certain specified imports. coming from the recalcitrant State, or originating within it;

(g) To prohibit all exports, or certain specified exports consigned directly to the recalcitrant State, or destined for it; (h) To prohibit all passenger traffic (other than the exit of foreigners), whether by ship, railway, canal or road, to or from the recalcitrant State;

(i) To prohibit the entrance into any port of the Constituent States of any of the ships registered as belonging to the recalcitrant State, except so far as may be necessary for any of them to seek safety, in which case such ship or ships shall be interned;

(j) To declare and enforce a decree of complete nonintercourse with the recalcitrant State, including all the above-mentioned measures of partial non-intercourse;

(k) To levy a special export duty on all goods destined for the recalcitrant State, accounting for the net proceeds to the International High Court;

(1) To furnish a contingent of war-ships to maintain a combined blockade of one or more of the ports, or of the whole coastline of the recalcitrant State.

The International High Court shall arrange for all the expenses incurred in putting in force the above sanctions, including any compensation for loss thereby incurred by any citizens, companies, subordinate administrations or national Governments of any of the Constituent States other than the recalcitrant State, to be raised by a levy on all the Constituent States in such proportions as may be decided by the International Council; and for the eventual recovery of the total sum by way of additional penalty from the recalcitrant State.

When on any decree or decision or injunction of the International High Court execution is ordered, or when any sanction or other measure ordered by the Court is directed to be put in operation against any Constituent State, it shall

be an offense against the comity of nations for the State against which such decree, decision, injunction or execution has been pronounced or ordered, or against which any sanction or other measure is directed to be enforced, to declare war, or to take any naval or military action, or to violate the territory or attack the ships of any other State or to commit any other act of aggression against any or all of the States so acting under the order of the Court; and all the other Constituent States shall be bound, and do hereby pledge themselves, to make common cause with the State or States so attacked, and to use naval and military force to protect such State or States, and to enforce the orders of the International High Court, by any warlike operations that may for the purpose be deemed necessary.

[For further discussion of this, the most completely elaborated of the various programs for international organization, see "International Government: Two Reports by L. S. Woolf, prepared for the Fabian Research Department, with an Introduc tion by Bernard Shaw: Together with a Project by a Fabian Committee for a Supernational Authority that will Prevent War." Brentano's, 1916.]

PRESIDENT ELIOT'S PROPOSAL FOR A PEACE CONFERENCE

To the Editor of The New York Times:

The urgent international problem to-day is how to bring about a frank and sincere conference of the belligerent nations without an armistice since neither group would now take the obvious risks of an armistice a conference consultative and not arbitral, and only preliminary to the official conference of Governments which must devise and propose a real settlement. This problem is difficult, but not insoluble.

After three years of warfare, strenuous and continuous beyond all precedent, the military situation to-day is described fairly well by the word stalemate. For each party it is inconclusive; and there is no umpire. Either party can hold the other in trench warfare. The Entente Allies can drive the Germans back for short distances, but neither side has as yet won a decisive victory in trench warfare, or captured an army in open country. Because of the superiority of the Entente Allies and the United States in number of men, industrial productiveness, and financial strength, Germany in all probability can be brought to a condition of exhaustion before the Allies will be; but this result can be brought about only by prolonged and desperate sacrifices of human life and of the savings of the nations, and at the cost of infinite human woe.

Although all the nations involved are longing for peace, their Governments are in no condition to discuss terms of peace. The political and industrial change brought about by the war are tremendous; but they are manifestly incomplete. Democracies have been obliged to change many

of their habitual modes of action; autocracies are facing internal agitations; one autocracy has just disappeared, but no stable government has as yet taken its place; many industries have to be carried on under new conditions as regards both labor and capital; and war itself is conducted in new ways which disregard the ethics heretofore thought to be universally accepted. There is a general wondering as to what is going to happen next, which indisposes responsible persons to large committals, or decisions which cannot be recalled. The Entente Allies do not state clearly their minimum demands or lowest terms for peace, and the Central Monarchies state no terms at all.

Under such circumstances it is wholly natural for combative and indignant men and women to say, "What is the use of talking with the German rulers about terms of peace; they will not keep their word if they can obtain any military advantage by breaking it?" "We must fight till we are plainly victorious." On the other hand, the various official and unofficial statements of the terms on which the Allies would be willing to make peace produce on the German mind, so far as their opponents can discover, only this effect: "We are fighting a war of defense against dismemberment or imprisonment; we must fight to the last gasp in the hope that some favoring chance or discord among our enemies may save us from the threatened destruction." This is, indeed, a horrible dilemma, and many righteous men say that there is no way of escape from it, except by the overpowering of one or other of the combatants. Before settling down, however, to this long struggle is it not worth while to try a limited preliminary experiment on human capacity for good feeling and sound reasoning even under the most adverse circumstances?

Even under the actual very discouraging circumstances, he would be a bold man who should affirm that it is impossible to bring appointed conferees from all the belligerent nations into one room for the oral discussion of subjects previously agreed upon, the conferees being selected by the several Governments, but receiving no instructions either