THE war that started on August 1,1914, has gradually involved nations,large and small, not originallyparticipants. Other nations, large andsmall, while still managing to maintainan official neutrality, have found themselvesdrawn into diplomatic controversieswith both groups of belligerents. With theexception of South America, the continentsof the world have sent contingents to fightin Europe. The destinies of Africa, Asia,and Australia are at stake, and the destinies[6]of the western hemisphere will, long beforethe end is reached, be influenced vitally bythe tremendous events that are taking placein Europe. We can, then, without exaggeration,call the war that was provoked bythe Austro-Hungarian ultimatum to Servia,a world war.

Still in the midst of war, still prejudicedby our sympathies and our interests, neitherparticipants nor spectators are in a positionto form a definitive judgment upon themany problems of the origin of the war, andupon controversial points that have arisenbetween the belligerents and between belligerentsand neutrals, because of acts of war.

But can we assume the attitude of suspendingjudgment in regard to all that has happenedsince August, 1914, and all that ishappening to-day? The world at heart isnot cold-blooded. The world at heart is not[7]hopelessly selfish. The world at heart isnot deaf to the appeal of the innocent andhelpless. Else we should have reasonindeed to believe in the complete disappearanceof our twentieth-century Christiancivilization. If some issues are debatable,if some events are obscure, if somecharges and counter-charges cannot bedetermined, there are others that can bedetermined.

It is because the Armenian massacresin Turkey are clearly established, becauseresponsibilities can be definitely fixed, andbecause an appeal to humanity can be madeon behalf of the remnant of the Armenianrace in the Ottoman Empire without theslightest suspicion of political interest, thatI feel it advisable and ...