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CHAPTER THE THIRD. THE ENDING OF WAR
Section 1
On the mountain−side above the town of Brissago and commanding two long stretches of Lake Maggiore, lookingeastward to Bellinzona, and southward to Luino, there is a shelf of grass meadows which is very beautiful inspringtime with a great multitude of wild flowers. More particularly is this so in early June, when the slenderasphodel Saint Bruno's lily, with its spike of white blossom, is in flower. To the westward of this delightful shelfthere is a deep and densely wooded trench, a great gulf of blue some mile or so in width out of which arise greatprecipices very high and wild. Above the asphodel fields the mountains climb in rocky slopes to solitudes of stoneand sunlight that curve round and join that wall of cliffs in one common skyline. This desolate and austerebackground contrasts very vividly with the glowing serenity of the great lake below, with the spacious view offertile hills and roads and villages and islands to south and east, and with the hotly golden rice flats of the ValMaggia to the north. And because it was a remote and insignificant place, far away out of the crowding tragediesof that year of disaster, away from burning cities and starving multitudes, bracing and tranquillising and hidden, itwas here that there gathered the conference of rulers that was to arrest, if possible, before it was too late, thedebacle of civilisation. Here, brought together by the indefatigable energy of that impassioned humanitarian,Leblanc, the French ambassador at Washington, the chief Powers of the world were to meet in a last desperateconference to 'save humanity.' Leblanc was one of those ingenuous men whose lot would have been insignificant in any period of security, butwho have been caught up to an immortal role in history by the sudden simplification of human affairs throughsome tragical crisis, to the measure of their simplicity. Such a man was Abraham Lincoln, and such wasGaribaldi. And Leblanc, with his transparent childish innocence, his entire self−forgetfulness, came into thisconfusion of distrust and intricate disaster with an invincible appeal for the manifest sanities of the situation. Hisvoice, when he spoke, was 'full of remonstrance.' He was a little bald, spectacled man, inspired by that intellectualidealism which has been one of the peculiar gifts of France to humanity. He was possessed of one clearpersuasion, that war must end, and that the only way to end war was to have but one government for mankind. Hebrushed aside all other considerations. At the very outbreak of the war, so soon as the two capitals of thebelligerents had been wrecked, he went to the president in the White House with this proposal. He made it as if itwas a matter of course. He was fortunate to be in Washington and in touch with that gigantic childishness whichwas the characteristic of the American imagination. For the Americans also were among the simple peoples bywhom the world was saved. He won over the American president and the American government to his generalideas; at any rate they supported him sufficiently to give him a standing with the more sceptical Europeangovernments, and with this backing he set to work−−it seemed the most fantastic of enterprises−−to bringtogether all the rulers of the world and unify them. He wrote innumerable letters, he sent messages, he wentdesperate journeys, he enlisted whatever support he could find; no one was too humble for an ally or too obstinatefor his advances; through the terrible autumn of the last wars this persistent little visionary in spectacles must
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have seemed rather like a hopeful canary twittering during a thunderstorm. And no accumulation of disastersdaunted his conviction that they could be ended. For the whole world was flaring then into a monstrous phase of destruction. Power after Power about the armedglobe sought to anticipate attack by aggression. They went to war in a delirium of panic, in order to use theirbombs first. China and Japan had assailed Russia and destroyed Moscow, the United States had attacked Japan,India was in anarchistic revolt with Delhi a pit of fire spouting death and flame; the redoubtable King of theBalkans was mobilising. It must have seemed plain at last to every one in those days that the world was slippingheadlong to anarchy. By the spring of 1959 from nearly two hundred centres, and every week added to theirnumber, roared the unquenchable crimson conflagrations of the atomic bombs, the flimsy fabric of the world'scredit had vanished, industry was completely disorganised and every city, every thickly populated area wasstarving or trembled on the verge of starvation. Most of the capital cities of the world were burning; millions ofpeople had already perished, and over great areas government was at an end. Humanity has been compared by onecontemporary writer to a sleeper who handles matches in his sleep and wakes to find himself in flames. For many months it was an open question whether there was to be found throughout all the race the will andintelligence to face these new conditions and make even an attempt to arrest the downfall of the social order. For atime the war spirit defeated every effort to rally the forces of preservation and construction. Leblanc seemed to beprotesting against earthquakes, and as likely to find a spirit of reason in the crater of Etna. Even though theshattered official governments now clamoured for peace, bands of irreconcilables and invincible patriots,usurpers, adventurers, and political desperadoes, were everywhere in possession of the simple apparatus for thedisengagement of atomic energy and the initiation of new centres of destruction. The stuff exercised an irresistiblefascination upon a certain type of mind. Why should any one give in while he can still destroy his enemies?Surrender? While there is still a chance of blowing them to dust? The power of destruction which had once beenthe ultimate privilege of government was now the only power left in the world−−and it was everywhere. Therewere few thoughtful men during that phase of blazing waste who did not pass through such moods of despair asBarnet describes, and declare with him: 'This is the end....' And all the while Leblanc was going to and fro with glittering glasses and an inexhaustible persuasiveness, urgingthe manifest reasonableness of his view upon ears that ceased presently to be inattentive. Never at any time did hebetray a doubt that all this chaotic conflict would end. No nurse during a nursery uproar was ever so certain of theinevitable ultimate peace. From being treated as an amiable dreamer he came by insensible degrees to be regardedas an extravagant possibility. Then he began to seem even practicable. The people who listened to him in 1958with a smiling impatience, were eager before 1959 was four months old to know just exactly what he thoughtmight be done. He answered with the patience of a philosopher and the lucidity of a Frenchman. He began toreceive responses of a more and more hopeful type. He came across the Atlantic to Italy, and there he gathered inthe promises for this congress. He chose those high meadows above Brissago for the reasons we have stated. 'Wemust get away,' he said, 'from old associations.' He set to work requisitioning material for his conference with anassurance that was justified by the replies. With a slight incredulity the conference which was to begin a neworder in the world, gathered itself together. Leblanc summoned it without arrogance, he controlled it by virtue ofan infinite humility. Men appeared upon those upland slopes with the apparatus for wireless telegraphy; othersfollowed with tents and provisions; a little cable was flung down to a convenient point upon the Locarno roadbelow. Leblanc arrived, sedulously directing every detail that would affect the tone of the assembly. He mighthave been a courier in advance rather than the originator of the gathering. And then there arrived, some by thecable, most by aeroplane, a few in other fashions, the men who had been called together to confer upon the stateof the world. It was to be a conference without a name. Nine monarchs, the presidents of four republics, a numberof ministers and ambassadors, powerful journalists, and such−like prominent and influential men, took part in it.There were even scientific men; and that world−famous old man, Holsten, came with the others to contribute hisamateur statecraft to the desperate problem of the age. Only Leblanc would have dared so to summon figure headsand powers and intelligence, or have had the courage to hope for their agreement....
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