Modern Review January 1925

To Czar Nicholas II of Russia belongs the credit of initiating the first practical step for minimising the chances of war and the Hague Court of Arbitration started in 1899 is a noble memorial of the Czar. [...] The British Empire or the British Commonwealth of Nations as it is otherwise called is the one political agglomerate in the world which approaches nearest to the model of the World Federation of the future. [...] The fiscal indepenence of the different units of the Empire is a strung obstacle in the way of a Customs Union of the Empire being established. [...] With the least depature from existing institutions such organistion may be effected by the formation of a Foreign Relations Committee consisting of the Premier of Britain the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of Britain and the High Commissioners in London of the several Dominions—Canada AMstralia South Africa New Zealand and India. [...] I feel that your country has come out from the shock of volcanic fire from the bottom of the sea and in your character you have combined the brilliance of the fire and the fluidity of the water—the bravery the detemination and the brilliance of mind and with it the suavity and—what I felt when I was in Japan last time and I feel it now—the poetry of life.