Prevention of War

Abstract

THE last word of evolution is this: The race A is not to the swift nor to the strong but to the wise.” With these words Dr. W. Langdon Brown closed an address on biology and politics in which he indicated certain general biological principles which bear on the political difficulties arising in the present conflict between nationalism and internationalism. Among the gravest needs of to-day is that of more intelligence in our national and international affairs, and anything which directs attention to this need is welcome. Nowhere is this more essential than in international affairs, both in our attitude to, and in thinking about, problems of world peace. Despite the quickening pulse of preparations for war during recent months, all the evidence goes to show that the general will to peace is much more conscious and decided than before the War, and there is no reason to question the sincerity of that desire. The growing danger of war is due mainly to lack of intelligent thinking about the problems involved, to a mental lethargy which refuses to face the full facts and to our tendency to desire two mutually inconsistent things. The Intelligent Man's Way to Prevent War. By Sir Norman Angell Prof. Gilbert Murray C. M. Lloyd C. R. Buxton Viscount Cecil W. Arnold-Forster Prof. Harold J. Laski. Edited by Leonard Woolf. Pp. 576. (London: Victor Gollancz, Ltd., 1933.) 5s. net.