Our Turbulent World by C. M.’s.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 19, 1909

Our Turbulent World

By C. M.’s.

Is it not an anomaly that at a time when the most influential pulpits in the land are echoing the cry of peace, and the walls of the Peace Palace at The Hague are rising skyward, all the great nations of the earth should be rising to their feet and unsheathing their swords?

Is it not an anomaly also that in a generation when the name Christian is more prevalent throughout the world than at any time in the previous history of the race, the peace of the world should be more universally threatened than at any time in the past?

The Scientific American of May 29 last, in an editorial discussion of Mr. A. H. Dutton’s proposal for an international police force to take the place of all the standing armies, and an international navy to take the place of all the great individual navies, says:—

Among the civilized nations to-day there are taken from industrial pursuits, during peace times, no less than four million two hundred fifty thousand able-bodied men, whose maintenance costs nearly two billion dollars annually. These many millions would be returned to peaceful occupations [if Mr. Dutton’s program were carried out], and their place would be taken by an international army of arbitration of five hundred thousand men, costing annually about one hundred fifty million dollars. To co-operate with this army there would be an international navy, in which there would be no battle-ships, consisting only of cruisers, gunboats, and transports for the moving of troops. . . . All the permanent fortifications would be abandoned, and the nations having disbanded their national armies, would depend upon their civil police for the execution of their own local laws. Each nation would agree to maintain no individual military force whatever. . . . Military training would be restricted to international schools, the manufacture of arms and munitions of war to international factories.

Although the time may not be fully ripe for the sweeping change advocated by Lieutenant Dutton, it can not be denied that the alarming growth of the cost of our present methods of maintaining the world’s peace is driving the nations into an impasse [a place with no exit], the readiest escape from which would seem to be the broad and honorable road of disarmament and armed arbitration.

The journal quoted recognizes the alarming nature of the increase in war and expenditures while still there is no war, and half commends the work of those who are definitely committed to the work of attempting to establish universal peace through a Supreme Court of the nations. Yet the same journal, in the same issue, takes the position that the only protection of one nation against another lies in the possession of superior weapons of war. Upon the question of defense against dirigible balloons, the Scientific American says:—

The Revue Militaire Suisse and other periodicals present some pertinent criticisms, coinciding with the view uniformly held by the Scientific American, that the only adequate means of defense against dirigibles lies in other dirigibles. . . . The only formidable foe of a dirigible, then, is a better dirigible.

This position is in perfect harmony with the theory upon which the nations are working. Each is seeking to get a better army, or a better navy, or a stronger explosive, or a more deadly weapon, or a tougher armor, or a quicker range-finder, or better tactics, than its neighbor possesses. As soon as one nation learns, through its secret agents, that another possesses some military contrivance superior to its own, there is anxious, feverish haste to invent or purchase a better.

Every move of the other power is studied to see whether it may not be the beginning of a sinister attack upon its interests. Suspicion among the powers has come to be well-nigh universal. Russia and England are strengthening their interests in Persia, and Germany looks upon their movements there with jealous eye. Russia covets India, and England watches every move of Russia in that direction. Russia would like to reach the open sea, either by way of the Dardanelles and the Mediterranean or through the Persian Gulf. England would not feel safe for a moment in the possession of India if Russia had a right of way to the Indian Ocean. England regards the possession of a navy that is stronger than that of any two European powers as an absolute necessity to her continued existence as an independent power, and the recent rapid strides of Germany in the building of a great navy has caused the greatest amount of uneasiness in England, and the government has sprung to the task of maintaining her “two-power standard” with desperate earnestness.

The increased activity of the Malay and Mongolian peoples and the aspirations of the East Indians toward independent nationality are causing much anxiety not in England alone, but in other European countries as well. The victory of the Japanese over the Russians has caused the East Indians to feel that the risk might not be so great in making an attempt for independence.

Sleeping China is awaking, and the nations are compelled to take notice. That nation is gradually adopting Western methods, and the wise men of the world can see the approach of a time when China will not permit herself to be dealt with as some of the powers have dealt with her in the past. The assurance of the approach of that time is causing wakeful moments in various quarters of the world.

North Africa is adding her fuel to the fire of unrest, and is helping what she can to keep the nerves of the world tense and tingling.

The new government on the Bosporus is trying to settle into place, but finds it difficult to do so without jostling its neighbors and “rocking the boat.” Turkey considers the island of Crete her territory; but the majority of the Cretans prefer to be under the sovereignty of Greece. Greece would like to annex the island. Turkey demands that Greece withdraw certain Greek officials from Crete and disavow all intention of annexation. Greece replies that the matter is in the hands of the four protecting powers, and Turkey must deal with them. The representatives of those powers are now in conference over the matter, and both powers are “advised” to keep the peace. It is an extremely delicate situation; for if Turkey should take the field while a sort of “holy war” is going on in North Africa, there is no one wise enough to foresee the results. All the “powers” have their eyes upon the Bosporus and Constantinople. Both Russia and Austria would like to control that gateway to the Mediterranean—and they are not friends. Russia, Bulgaria, and Servia will never forgive Austria for assuming sovereignty over Bosnia and Herzegovina, nor will Russia soon forget Germany’s threat of invasion made when the last-mentioned undertaking was about to be consummated.

The balance of power is so delicately adjusted, and all the powers are so well prepared for war, that they mutually fear any move by any of them. For none can tell in what move may lie the beginning of that war which they all feel must one day come. They all see the trend of events, and talk among themselves of a waiting Armageddon.

Concerning these conditions which are commanding the attention of the world, but especially the Westernizing of China, the Washington Post of July 24 says:—

We are playing with fire, for a civilized China, as we see it in Birmingham and Manchester in Europe, and Pittsburg and Chicago in America, will make strides like a giant to first place among the nations. India will fall, a ripe pear, in her lap. She will engulf Japan, and banish Russia from Siberia.

whenever her people become Westernized.

Westernize China and it will develop a warlike spirit equal to any, with the elan of France or Japan, the pluck of England or America, and the skill of Germany. Then suppose the Moslem peoples become her allies. They are Asiatic and fanatic in their hatred of Christendom. With an awakened and civilized China, who can be assured that the Moor will not again plant himself in Spain? Will a Charles Martel rise, at the stamp of a foot, to turn the crescent back from Tours?

Before we civilize China, would it not be better to wait the fulfilment of the prophecy: “And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

That will be time enough to Westernize China.

But China will not wait for the fulfilment of those words—which are not in any sense a prophecy of what will be, but only of what men will say. The contract just let by the capital city of China to an American firm to place two thousand five hundred telephones in that city marks an epoch in the history of that sleeping giant. China is waking, and the Moorish Islamites have already begun to declare that the Moors must retake the Alhambra and re-establish in Spain the kingdom of Abu-Abdallah. These two hereditary foes have met in northern Morocco within the past few days, and some thousands have already fallen. The strike and the revolution in Spain are making it impossible for that country to use her entire force against the Moroccan tribesmen, and this is encouraging them, and bringing thousands to their standards.

This gives but a hasty resumé of the delicate and dangerous situation which confronts the statesmen of the world at the present time. This world is like a vast dynamite magazine; and no man can tell just when the blow will be struck that will detonate the powerful explosive. That it will not be struck until the work of God is ready for it, is certain; but that it will not be long delayed, is beyond question. This is the prophecy that is now in process of fulfilment:—

“Proclaim ye this among the nations; prepare war; stir up the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near; let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Haste ye, and come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves together thither: cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Jehovah. Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about. Put ye in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe: come, tread ye; for the wine-press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great. ‘Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! for the day of Jehovah is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. And Jehovah will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but Jehovah will be a refuge unto his people, and a stronghold unto the children of Israel.’ Joel 3:9-16.

What a blessed assurance is this that in such a time God will be a refuge for his people! It is the time of Jacob’s trouble, out of which God declares he will save his people. It is drawing nigh, and they are wise who make that shelter theirs while still there is opportunity. C. M.’s.