From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The
International Arbitration League
was a society of pacifists run by working-class men.
It was initially founded out of the British Workmen's Peace Committee, by the
Nobel Peace Prize
winner Sir
William Randal Cremer
and fellows from the recently dissolved
Reform League
. In 1870 it became known as the
Workmen's Peace Association
, only later becoming the International Arbitration League.
The organisation was run by men from working-class labouring backgrounds who were against increases in military spending or intervention in continental wars. It promoted a "high court of nations" and the development of international law.
It was funded by the
Peace Society
for its first years, which was a primarily Christian organisation that sought absolute pacifism. Instead the League sought out arbitration, which was familiar with its membership, as the approach was known to work in labour disputes. From 1889 it promoted
disarmament
, rather than absolute pacifism.
The radical reformer
Howard Evans
was at various times its chairman, vice-chairman, secretary and treasurer. He wrote its manifesto, and its first article was the establishment of “High Court of Nations”. He was also the editor of its journal,
The Arbitrator
from 1872.
It expanded out to Paris and soon had agents covering large parts of Europe.
During
World War I
it supported the use of armies by the Allies as a defensive measure. It was a promoter of the
League of Nations
after the war's end.
The organization was later incorporated into the Mondcivitan Republic(
Commonwealth of World Citizens
) in 1958.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- Howard Evans,
Radical Fights of Forty Years
, Daily News & Leader, 1913
- Martin Ceadel,
Semi-Detached Idealists, The British Peace Movement and International Relations, 1854-1945
Oxford University Press, 2000