test possible number of people in the affected
countries to such way of regarding the questions
of the war and to such comprehension of the
feeling of the other side as are the necessary
conditions of a sane and sober appreciation of the
nature and the possibilities of a reasonable
peace. The present feeling in these sections of
the public which form public opinion in this
country as in England and in France, is as full of
bitterness as can be. A cure is badly wanted, but
it does not proceed automatically. Weariness of
the war is there, but it is counteracted partly by
the manifold incidents of the war itself, by the
appetites it has awakened, by the mutual distrust
it has created.

It might be objected that one can hardly expect a
number of even neutral experts to come to a
concerted opinion on these points. But it would be
of little consequence if the experts, instead of
agreeing on a common report, would publish
majority and minority reports. What matters is
that opinions of qualified experts are at all
drawn up and published, so that discussion is as
much as possible free from the effects of the
biased speeches of interested statesmen and other
politicians and their press. The report or reports
would also be of use when an armistice at least
had been agreed upon and a conference for the
conclusion of a peace is sitting. And even if the
work of the invited experts should take more time
than the conclusion of the peace itself, the
reports might still be of considerable value. For
what matters is not only that a peace is come to
but also that the nations should afterward possess
authoritative impartial opinions on the main
questions of consequence connected with the origin
and the conduct of the war. For such opinions
would educate the poisoned minds to an objective
and argumentative discussion of the means to
prevent a repetition of the present disaster.

Only those who live in the affected countries can
be aware how great the need is for providing the
general public with unbiased authoritative
expositions of these questions.

Finally the conference could and should also
discuss in a pertinent way the question of
_disarmament_. This question has to-day reached a
stage much b