14.
CHARTER FOR WORLD PEACE
BY ALICE SIMMONS COX
THE gravest and most challenging issue which faces the moral leaders of the world today is that of organizing the nations for peace. At a time when the initial attempts of the League of Nations to establish the benefits of international collective security lie obscured and the League itself is discredited in the eyes of the masses of mankind, statesmen, experts and students in world affairs have before them the double and arduous task of laying the plans for peaceful and enduring world order, and at the same time of convincing their peoples of the necessity and the wisdom of such a course.
It is not within the scope of this article to trace in even the briefest manner the evolution of man’s progress toward the present momentous era, when for the first time in recorded history the continuance of war threatens the civilization of all nations and makes peace an essential factor in the life of the world. But it is necessary to our theme that we refer to the fact that when modern peace movements began in the nineteenth century their purpose was not the laying of plans for an order of peace,—but the educating of citizens in the spiritual ideals of peace and brotherhood. In the first years of the present century, when arbitral courts and the Hague Tribunal met with notable successes, many of these organized movements claimed a share in the credit. During the World War of 1914-1919 some few of them advanced to the new position of supporting President Wilson’s ideals for an association of nations to safeguard the peace of the world and promote its general welfare through international organization. From the time of America’s repudiation of these ideals until 1935 when it was evident that a deepening gloom was settling over the peace societies, leading minds in this country and in other nations exerted much energy to keep the lights of faith burning. The onslaught of a second and more devastating world war, the terrible ravages of which were long ago foretold by Bahá’u’lláh, had the paradoxical effect, not of snuffing out the small flames, but of fanning them into greater brilliance. The situation appeared to be somewhat comparable to that of a man on the edge of an abyss. He dares not lose his balance. In desperation his strength is renewed!
In the clearing sight of many thinkers
the world-wide ordeal is truly an abyss of
deepest and blackest danger. Not an abyss,
however, in which they fear the loss of
personal interests, but a deep chasm in
which the vision they have cherished for
the future of the human race would perish.
Such souls as these are veritably touched
by the unifying spirit of this age, which
moves mankind onward toward a glorious
destiny. Whether or not they have had
opportunity to gain from the Revelation of
Bahá’u’lláh conscious and full assurance of
the achievement of this destiny and clear
vision of its nature, whether they know of
the redemptive power of the Holy Spirit
flowing through His Revelation to all men,
they are becoming increasingly conscious
of the central truth which His Message
[Page 822]
reveals: that the reality of human oneness
has become a "law . . . amidst the nations”
—a law that must be obeyed. Inspired by
the same divine power as those believers
who are building the Bahá’í Administrative
Order and promulgating the divine Message
far and wide, they labor collaterally for
the inauguration of the promised Golden
Age, the Kingdom of God on earth. Without
the perfect guidance which conscious
knowledge of the Source of the new life
would give, their task is limited to the
establishment of what Bahá’u’lláh referred
to as the Lesser Peace. Their light is a
reflected light. The Lesser Peace will be an
ordained step in the gradual evolution of
collective security towards ultimate fulfillment
in a world federal community based
upon the revealed laws of Bahá’u’lláh and
manifest in His Most Great Peace and a
world-wide civilization that bears His name.
THE DIVINE EDUCATIVE PROCESS
Since the time when Baha’u’llah first announced His Message of spiritual rebirth and human unity to the world almost a century ago and a short while later when He called the great monarchs of the earth from tyranny to a union of justice and peace, the peoples of the world have been in large part ignorant of that Message and together with the rulers have consistently, whether consciously or unconsciously, turned away from Its light and institutions. Without the support of rulers who, by acceptance of God’s Messenger and adoption of His Order of peace, could have illumined and protected their peoples, the Cause of God suffered unprecedented persecution and has been compelled to move slowly until, through the channels of teaching by sacrificing believers, it shall reach the farthermost points of the globe. "We verily,” Bahá’u’lláh wrote of His mission, "have not fallen short of Our duty to exhort men, and to deliver that whereunto I was bidden by God, the Almighty, the All-praised. Had they hearkened unto Me, they would have beheld the earth another earth.” “My signs have encompassed the earth, and My power enveloped all mankind, and yet the people are wrapped in a strange sleep.”
During this time, which the Guardian of the Faith calls a period of divine respite granted to mankind by God in His mercy, God has, in His great wisdom, continued the education of His people that they may eventually recognize His Cause and build His Kingdom. That education has proceeded, not only through the direct teaching of Bahá’u’lláh’s Word, but as suggested above, through the subconscious channels of those minds which, because of their purity, are approaching the realm of the new spiritual consciousness of this age but have not received the Word of the new Dispensation. It has advanced also through the medium of an extreme suffering which has in this century been the fate of mankind. Through this intense experience, the Guardian explains, men will come to see the light of Divine Justice, without which Bahá’u’lláh declared the Most Great Peace would not be possible. “The flames which His Divine Justice have kindled cleanse an unregenerate humanity, and fuse its discordant, its warring elements as no other agency can cleanse and fuse them. . . . Mysteriously, slowly and resistlessly God accomplishes His design. . . .”
TIME OF THE LESSER PEACE
With their rejection of Bahá’u’lláh’s divinely-revealed World Order—God’s great bounty to mankind in the culminating cycle of its long evolution toward maturity on this planet—the kings of earth took for themselves the bowl of pottage, leaving to later peoples the resultant agonies of world affliction and to later leaders the glory of the struggle for peace. To the leaders of this hour falls the immediate and pressing need of preparing for a plan upon which the universal peace settlement can safely rest. Not only for His Most Great Peace did Bahá’u’lláh lay the plans, but also for the initial world peace charter which erelong must be evolved, He Himself drew the outlines. As we review some of the numerous suggestions now being tentatively and experimentally put forth and studied by individuals and groups, it will be helpful if we know first the few essential and minimum factors that He has indicated the coming peace framed by men should and will include:
“—may God aid them [the kings] through His strengthening grace—to establish the Lesser Peace. This indeed, is the greatest means for insuring the tranquillity of the nations. It is incumbent upon the Sovereigns of the world—may God assist them—unitedly to hold fast unto this Peace, which is the chief instrument for the protection of all mankind. It is Our hope that they will arise to achieve what will be conducive to the well-being of man. It is their duty to convene an all-inclusive assembly, which either they themselves or their ministers will attend, and to enforce whatever measures are required to establish unity and concord amongst men. They must put away the weapons of war, and turn to the instruments of universal reconstruction. Should one king rise up against another, all the other kings must arise to deter him. Arms and armaments will, then, be no more needed beyond that which is necessary to insure the internal security of their respective countries. If they attain unto this all-surpassing blessing, the people of each nation will pursue, with tranquillity and contentment, their own occupations, and the groanings and lamentations of most men would be silenced. We beseech God to aid them to do His will and pleasure. He, verily, is the Lord of the throne on high and of earth below, and the Lord of this world and of the world to come. It would be preferable and more fitting that the highly-honored kings themselves should attend such an assembly, and proclaim their edicts. Any king who will arise and carry out this task, he verily will, in the sight of God, become the cynosure of all kings. Happy is he, and great is his blessedness!”
‘Abdu’l-Bahá added further detail to this divine pattern: “They {sovereigns} must make the Cause of Peace the object of general consultation, and seek by every means in their power to establish a Union of the nations of the world. They 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. This supreme and noble undertaking—the real source of the peace and well—being of all the world—should be regarded as sacred by all that dwell on earth. All the forces of humanity must be mobilized to ensure the stability and permanence of this Most Great Covenant. In this all—embracing Pact the limits and frontiers of each and every nation should be clearly fixed, the principles underlying the relations of government towards one another definitely laid down, and all international agreements and obligations ascertained. In like manner, the size of armaments of every government should be strictly limited, for if the preparations for war and the military forces of any nation should be allowed to increase, they will arouse the suspicion of others. The fundamental principle underlying this solemn Pact should be so fixed that if any government later violate any one of its provisions, all governments on earth should arise to reduce it to utter submission, nay the whole human race as a whole should resolve, with every power at its disposal, to destroy that government. Should this greatest of all remedies be applied to the sick body of the world, it will assuredly recover from its ills and will remain eternally safe and secure.”
AN EMERGING PATTERN
In the complexity of emerging ideas and
programs, through variation and divergence,
we may discern certain fundamental trends
of agreement concerning the answers to
pressing problems. Experience with the
League of Nations has contributed invaluably
to an understanding of what these
problems actually are. Recognition of the
need for international collective security
backed by authority and of international
planning for the equitable distribution of
material resources is the point toward which
all thought begins to converge. Other great
questions call for solution: Shall the peace
settlement establish a new world authority,
or strengthen the League of Nations? Shall
the authority be a loose association or at
once be framed as a world federation? What
must be the minimum powers of a world
organization? How far can national sovereignty
at first be limited? Shall there be
legislative powers vested in a branch of the
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world government? Shall there be a separate
executive? Can the judicial settlement of
disputes be made compulsory? Shall the
international authority be supported by
sanctions only, or shall there be a police
force? If a police force, shall it be of
international character, or shall it consist of
armies to be called from the nations? Is
there any possibility for disarmament without
collective security? What provisions
must be made for peaceful changes of
boundaries, or size of armies, of economic
regulations, of treaties, and so forth? Must
there be a so-called Bill of Rights which
will determine in some measure the internal
policies of the nations? Are regional organizations
essential? Would they lend security
and efficiency to the plan? Shall the world
authority function over such regional organizations,
over the nations as units, or
over both? Shall the federal authority touch
the citizens within the nations directly?
What of the question of secession? Must
the union be universal from the beginning?
How shall representation be determined?
The simplest way to deal with the proposed peace plans which consider some of these questions is to outline a number of the important ones. Any attempt to analyze them according to merit and in comparison with the pattern of Bahá’u’lláh must be left to the reader. Let us begin with the League itself.
Advocates of the League system, including the large company of experts who were for two decades connected with the functioning of this institution and are still endeavoring to educate people in the fundamentals of international constitutional order, recognize that the Covenant might well be revised to strengthen the central authority and give to it the powers that it was originally intended to possess. At the present time, when the League machinery for conference, consultation and settlement is now completely paralyzed, machinery in the functional non-political fields still operates, although in the United States, not from Geneva; and the International Labor Organization, itself a successful parliament for its realm of problems, functions from Montreal. Just last fall the ILO met in lively world conference in New York to consider the ways and means of greater activity in the post-war world. The Educational Committee of the League of Nations Association in America has come to the conclusion expressed as follows: “It seems very probable that the non—political work of the League will be continued in whatever system of international organization the future may produce. On the other hand, it is probably true that any framework for political activity will be somewhat different from that provided by the present Covenant.”1 Writing for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, one analyst remarks: “As a method of co-operation to prevent war, the League failed, largely because of the general reluctance of national states to abridge their sovereignty. This was and continues to be the principal obstacle to effective world organization.”2 Even as originally intended the League Council possessed only rudimentary legislative powers and these in but three situations. The United States refused to join in fear of the particular abridgments of its national sovereignty.
NATION-WIDE STUDY CAMPAIGNS
The Commission to Study the Organization of Peace, which consists of leading workers for the League of Nations in the past two decades, in its preliminary report suggests the following general program of federation: Nations must renounce the claim to be final judge in their controversies with other nations and must submit to the jurisdiction of international tribunals; they must renounce the use of force for their own purposes in relations with other nations; they must sacrifice the right to maintain aggressive armaments; they must agree to regional and world-wide forces subject to international law to prevent international violence; they must accept human and cultural rights in their constitutions; they must cede certain economic privileges for the welfare of humanity. To secure and regulate the agreements between nations an
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1“Essential Facts Underlying World Organization,” Educational Committee, The League of Nations Association, Inc.
2Pennington Haile, ”After the War: Plans and Problems," Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, May, 1941.
international organization must be set up to include the following essentials of government: an international court with adequate jurisdiction; international legislative bodies to make international law flexible; adequate police forces; world-wide and regional economic sanctions to support all international agreements; machinery with authority to regulate international communication and transportation and deal with problems of labor standards, finance, etc.; appropriate authority to administer backward areas ceded to the world federation.3
The best-known plan for federation, which means that the nations would cede certain powers to the central government, is that urged by Clarence Streit in his book, Union Now. It would give to a world legislature certain powers over the member states, and would base representation upon election by the people rather than by the governments of the nations. It would raise its own troops directly for law enforcement and would tax citizens directly. It would make use of what is called the “political system,” that is only democracies would initiate the union and be permitted to join it. The governmental framework would include a bicameral legislature, an executive board, premier and cabinet, and a supreme court from which no interstate question could be excluded.
The National Peace Conference, made up of the representatives of thirty-eight national organizations, has reported proposals through a special Commission on the World Community: reduction of armaments under international supervision, with perhaps graded sanctions, diplomatic and economic; the peaceful settlement of disputes; peaceful means for change and adjustment of territorial boundaries, distribution of resources, etc. Concerning the machinery for such a world community the commission reported that most organizations are agreed on the following: "To realize peaceful settlement, peaceful change and security, machinery is required. Some kind of permanent international organization is needed to hold periodic conferences on 'the state of
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3Committee to Study the Organization for Peace, Preliminary Report, November, 1940.
society,’ to encourage the progressive development of international law, as made necessary by changing conditions; to provide an executive body capable of meeting and acting promptly and to furnish an adequate secretariat.”4
More recently the NPC started a study campaign on America’s part in a constitutional world order. Points planned for the participating groups to study were summarized as follows: “An enduring world order is not likely to be established by the usual negotiations of victors with vanquished at the end of war. Rather, a worldwide conference must undertake the task, composed of representatives of all nations which manifest a sincere desire to cooperate in setting up and in maintaining a just and lasting peace.
“No world government can be adequate and enduring unless the United States assumes a responsible share in the task of establishing and maintaining it.
“Effective world order will require an inclusive international system of government, which should possess all the essential powers of government—legislative, executive, judicial—with necessary law-enforcement agencies. This world government should have power to maintain order, and to regulate international trade, communications, and such other matters as vitally affect the safety and welfare of all peoples. A World Bill of Rights should be part of any world constitution.”5
The World Institute on Organization which met for the first time in the spring of 1941 to initiate study of world community problems throughout this land arrived at almost general agreement on certain basic ideas. It reported as follows: that the only permanent solution would be a world union in which all law-abiding states would have a fair share; this union would probably be a universal league, not at first a federation, combined with more closely-knit regional organizations, which might include a European federation or federations;
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4“A Just and Durable Peace,” The Commission to Study the Bases of a Just and Durable Peace of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, pp. 53-55.
5“Topics and Trends,” National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods, 7:5.
that it might well be a modification of the League of Nations rather than a new organization, whatever it should be called; that there should be a strengthened central authority with power of enforcing its laws; that the question of secession should be solved; that ultimate legislative power should rest in the Assembly and the Council become an executive organ; that perhaps there should be some popular representation as well as governmental as there now is in the International Labor Organization; and finally, that the present Permanent Court of International Justice and the ILO should be maintained with compulsory jurisdiction given to the court.6
FROM BEYOND THE SEAS
Two very definite proposals for federation based upon a written charter or constitution for the world have come from Great Britain.7 The Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, London, speaks through two proponents: the first, Sir John Fischer Williams, and the second, Sir William Beveridge. The Williams plan calls for a written constitution patterned after the American model. The core might be the states of Western and Central Europe and the British commonwealth, but it would be open to all nations with a community of social and political outlook. The first essential would be to guarantee security, and then to delegate as much jurisdiction over federal affairs as would be possible, the practical limit probably being in specifically foreign affairs, armed forces, and a fund for defense. The minimum institutions would be either an assembly or delegates of a council to govern the federation, in either case to represent the constituent states in proportion to population. Each state would select its representatives as it pleased. The size of the armed forces and the amount of money needed would be designated in the original charter, with provision for not too frequent revisions. “A Supreme Federal Court with final authority to settle disputes between states or a state
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6Laura Puffer Morgan and Jan Hostie, "Institute on World Organization,” World Affairs, December, 1941, pp. 213-217.
7"A Just and Durable Peace,” pp. 46-47.
and the federation completes the picture.”
The Beveridge proposal would go even farther to delegate powers from the states to include equal access to all colonies and dependencies, and the constitution would create two houses, one an assembly elected by popular vote and the other with equal representation for every state. There would be an executive, responsible to the legislature, a supreme court and a Bill of Rights in the organic law.
Both of these plans would begin with the democracies only as members, there being stated some exceptions in the case of a few nations.
British Labor, expressing its desires through the Rt. Hon, C. R. Atlee, suggests an international force of great strength, and in addition the power of economic sanctions obligatory for the states. The corollary would be the reduction of national forces to an amount necessary for the preservation of internal order. The plan further includes an international authority covering as wide a membership as possible, with international institutions strong enough to deal with world economic planning.8
The plan called the Campaign for World Government sponsored by Lola Maverick and Rosika Schwimmer calls for "an all-inclusive, non-military, democratic federation of nations,” which all nations would be invited to join. It would consist of a world parliament, elected by the people, an executive board which would reside at the seat of the world government, a permanent secretary, and commissions assigned to solve international social, political, and labor problems. There is no plan for troops or military sanctions.9
A public recommendation made by the Swiss Committee of the International Peace Campaign suggests: a federation equipped with real authority, the League re-organized and strengthened; international law made and enforced by the federal world government; general disarmament and an international police force set up as an executive organ based on international law; the regrouping of powers within the federation to prevent the rise of aggressive intentions
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8Ibid., pp. 43-45.
9Ibid., pp. 56-57.
within centralized states; means of controlling the economic order.10
From China comes the word of Wou Saofang, former member of the political section of the League of Nations: " . . . the need of the hour . . . is the organization of world peace and the creation of an instrument to guarantee it. . . . China is ready to co-operate . . . to assist in organizing a new League of Nations based upon the following fundamental principles: (1) collective security, guaranteed by an international organization . . .; (2) establishment of a world authority with police powers to check aggression; (3) disarmament by international agreement; (4) an international court to settle disputes between nations; (5) recognition of the sanctity of treaties; (6) provision of means to remove the causes of international conflict; (7) international cultural and economic co-operation.”11
For Latin America Ricardo J. Alfaro says he believes that he expresses the consensus of opinion when he states that to secure universal peace and welfare the nations “must organize properly for that collective effort.” He points out that Latin American nations were loyal members of the League of Nations.12
As we turn to proposals from religious groups we find that the Central Conference of Rabbis has gone on record with this statement: “The welfare of future generations demands the creation of some parliament of nations which will adjust the differences between nations and create agencies for co-operative enterprises.”
The World Federal Council of Churches presents no exact plan of its own, but it has organized a Commission to Study the Bases of a Just and Durable Peace which has made much progress in the matter of providing study material of the various plans that have been proposed, especially in the English-speaking world. Its chairman, John Foster Dulles, summarizes the world need as he sees it, as follows: “International peace
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10Ibid., pp. 42—43.
11Wou Saofang, “Chinese View of World Order,” Free World, November, 1941, p. 302.
12Ricardo, J. Alfaro, “World Organization and the American Continent,” World Affairs, December, 1941, p. 232.
requires . . . that there should be an international organization charged with the responsibility of guiding the nations along the ways of peace. . . . As a beginning of world government, there should be organized an international federation for peace. . . . The charter of the federation would recognize and bind all members to accept the principle that national interdependence now replaces independence and that action by any nation, notably in the economic field, which materially and adversely affects other people, is not purely a matter of domestic policy but is coupled with an international responsibility. . . . The federation would function through an executive organ. . . .”13 Further details fall short of the powers of the original League of Nations, though the federation should, Mr. Dulles believes, "utilize the existing machinery of the League” as far as possible. He recognizes the omission of a legislature and of disarmament and sanctions, other than moral, as important and believes that when nations are ready to accept these provisions they should come about.
From the American Friends Service Committee we find this expression of thought: Some form of international organization is necessary, capable of providing both order and change in the relations among nations; at step in this direction should be the immediate establishment of an international emergency commission to deal with problems that will be urgent as soon as war stops. This committee looks forward to universal disarmament; advocates third party settlement of disputes; believes each nation should be free to develop its own internal government; accept the principle of international consultation under international authority for dealing with social and economic matters of world scope; advocates equitable access to all essential markets and raw materials; and believes all colonies must be administered by an international authority looking towards self-government for them.14
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13“Long Range Peace Objectives,” September, 1941, pp. 14-17.
14“Peace Study Outline, Problems of Applied Pacifism,” The Peace Commission of Friends World Committee for Consultation (American Section), pp. 69-70.
From the Catholic Association for International Peace come the following suggestions: “a world Commonwealth of Nations” of just an effective authority to prevent violence, settle disputes between nations peacefully, and legislate for advance social justice. This would require universal and immediate limitation of arms after the signing of the peace; the use of economic sanctions; an international court with obligatory jurisdiction and operating within the framework of the commonwealth; a supreme legislative body with granted constitutional powers able to direct an integrated administrative system; some type of mandate system perhaps modeled along the general lines of the League Secretariat with administration vested in the commonwealth government and perhaps in a number of regional governments operating under the world authority. This commonwealth government should be empowered to exercise authority that is limited to those functions which national and regional governments are incapable or unwilling to exercise.15
CHANGE IN AMERICA
The chief purpose of the plans that we have cited is not that any one of them may become the basis of the longed-for durable peace to follow the present conflict, but that they may be the means, as their co-framers hope, of enlightening the public mind in the fundamental needs of such a peace. It must probably be left to governments for the final steps in the construction of a peaceful order, most thinkers realize, although they hope also to have, through individual and group activity, some influence upon their governments in that final settlement, as well as upon the public approval that must ultimately be given if any peace is to be established and be effective.
It is with deep interest, therefore, that such leaders as these view the recent Atlantic Charter, the first joint official political statement to appear in regard to the peace to come. They look upon it as an initial step designed itself to lead the people onward
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15"The World Society,” a Joint Report, Pamphlet No. 29, The Catholic Association for International Peace, 1941, pp. 34-37.
toward a vision that will flower into a well-framed peace plan. We quote here the Eighth principle of this Charter as particularly relevant to our theme: “They {parties to the Charter} believe that all of the nations of the world, for realistic as well as spiritual reasons, must come to the abandonment of the use of force. Since no future peace can be maintained if land, sea or air armaments continue to be employed by nations which threaten, or may threaten, aggression outside of their frontiers, they believe, pending the establishment of a wider and permanent system of general security, that the disarmament of such nations is essential. They will likewise aid and encourage all other practical measures which will lighten for peace-loving peoples the crushing burden of armaments.” Realizing that peace can test only upon justice, the same contracting parties made known this principle of their governments: ”They will endeavor, with due respect for their existing obligations, to further the enjoyment by all States, great or small, victor or vanquished, of access, on equal terms, to the trade and to the raw materials of the world which are needed for their economic prosperity.”
In America in particular the interest with which the peace suggestions are being received indicates a most dynamic and revolutionary change of thought. Since the time when the United States repudiated the ideal of collective security in nullifying President Wilson’s “high endeavors” in 1919-1920, it has moved a long way toward understanding the need of a world community government to bring peace and justice to the nations. Thinkers are fearful that this way will not have been traveled far enough when the time to frame the peace arrives, so they are exerting every effort to insure speedy education. Numbers of them believe, as did Woodrow Wilson before them, that it is America’s mission, because of her capacities, her resources and her experience in federation and freedom, to lead the nations “out into the path of quietness and peace such as the world never dreamed of before.” Most of them, as did he, have faith now born anew with the challenge of the times.
Is it gloriously true that America is hearkening
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at last to the call of Bahá’u’lláh to the
collective security, welfare and unity of
mankind? Does this America, "the begetter”
of the League, hear the recent summons of
the Cause of God in the Guardian’s cable?
—-"Purged, tested, galvanized, coalescing
with its sorely-tried sister nations (the)
world over, (the) great Republic (of the)
New World, (the) enviable parent of system
heralding (the) World Order (of)
Bahá’u’lláh, must assume through adversity
its preponderating share (of) responsibility
(to) lay down, once for all, broad, worldwide,
unassailable foundations (of) that
discredited yet immortal System.”
Out of the world conflict America “will probably emerge, . . .” the Guardian stated as early as December, 1938, “consciously determined to seize its opportunity, to bring the full weight of its influence to bear upon the gigantic problems that such an ordeal must leave in its wake, and to exorcise forever, in conjunction with its sister nations of both the East and West, the greatest curse which, from time immemorial, has afflicted and degraded the human race.”
