All altruists agree that land mines ought not to exist. Nor should atom bombs, germ bombs, nor aircraft designed to deliver the horrors of war to civilian and military alike (the list in infinite). Nor should sanctions be necessary, punishing the poor, the weak and the innocent rather than the guilty.

Nobody should deny the necessity of measures aimed at preventing ("banning") such evils. All must admit the desirability of treaties and other instruments of diplomacy intended to ensure that war is conducted in a more "humane" manner. Neither should popular movements, petitions, war crimes tribunals and charitable trusts designed to fight the same ills be scoffed at. Unfortunately, supporters of popular movements (such as the Christian Church) often become more keen on the organization than on the idea; petitions are frequently ignored by the politicians; war crimes tribunals seldom possess the means to arrest miscreants or to enforce their decisions peacefully. Even the UN lacks power as well as respect, and the more power we give a league, the less respect it will inspire. Nevertheless, all machinations of the devil should be fought relentlessly.

But it should never be forgotten that the main enemy of mankind does not take the guise of any weapon of war, no matter how horrific. The supreme enemy is war itself. War is the disease; weapons merely symptoms. There are some believers in this truth who nevertheless imagine that war can never be abolished, and who therefore devote themselves to the vain task of trying to make war more gentlemanly. They fail to see that even if war cannot be made impossible, the provision of a better way to settle disputes (and to enforce the settlement peacefully) would make war unnecessary, and therefore unlikely.

The cure for international anarchy (as incarnated in the UN system of trying to keep the peace by warlike means) is international government. In the words of Professor Albert Einstein, in a signed statement addressed to the World Movement for World Federal Government:

"World federal government must be created. The United Nations can become a world government only if the Assembly consists no longer of representatives of governments, but of representatives directly elected by the people, because only direct representatives of the people themselves can be expected to serve, according to their own judgement, the interest of supra-national order and security." (5 December 1950).

World federal government may be a distant utopia, but we must make a start in the right direction. The democracies are the most likely recruits for an interpopular government based on the rule of law. They should lead the way by creating a federal union that is so powerful that none will dare to challenge it, so just that none will wish to oppose it so successful that all outside will clamour to join.

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