PLAN FOR A PERMANENT PEACE

Mr. August Schvan, a former Swedish diplomat and noted as an authority on international peace, spoke in Phillips Brooks House last evening on "Constructive Peace as a Diplomat Sees It." Declaring that the greatest barrier to world peace was the function of the different governments in international relations, he stated his intention of striving to "organize a new peace party to eliminate government action in international affairs."

The platform of such a party would consist of six principles: nationality, universal free trade, universal citizenship, an international supreme court, an international police force, and disarmament.

Taking up the first of these principles Mr. Schvan defined nationality as internal sympathy. This, he said, should extend to all nations. Universal free trade would do away with the necessity for commercial treaties, eliminating at the same time the need for political treaties to which commerce gives rise.

The present system of national citizenship which compels a nation to avenge a wrong done to one of its citizens in a foreign country with the sacrifice of many lives and a great deal of money, is absurd. International citizenship would assure justice without warfare.

An international supreme court, composed of judges appointed for life from the different nations in proportion to their population, would be a great step towards international peace. The salaries of the judges would be paid, through the president of the court, from a pool sum collected from the nations. The court could enforce its rulings on all international disputes by boycotting a nation's commerce, regulated by the free trade principle, and through the marine police force. This force would consist of approximately one hundred light cruisers manned by countries like Denmark or Sweden which have no political or economic ambitions. This, under the condition that all nations should disarm, all armies should be disbanded, and all arsenals, except the few necessary to supply arms to the police, be destroyed, would be an adequate force to maintain discipline. As a result of the adoption of these principles "the state departments and embassies of the world would close their doors tomorrow; there would be nothing left for them to do."