Report of the First Commission
THE ECONOMIC AND HISTORICAL CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF WAR
The Conference recommends the following researches:
1. Historical presentation of the causes of war in modern times, tracing especially the influence exercised by the striving for greater political power, by the growth of the national idea, by the political aspirations of races and by economic interests.
2. Conflicts of economic interests in the present age:
(a) The influence of the growth of population and of the industrial development upon the expansion of States.
(b) The protectionist policy; its origin and basis; its method of application and its influence upon the relations between countries; bounties (open and disguised, public and private); most-favoured-nation treatment; the attitude towards foreign goods and foreign capital; the boycott; discouragement of foreign immigration.
(c) International loans; the policy of guarantees; the relations of the creditor to the debtor States; the use of loans for gaining influence over other States.
(d) Rivalry among States with respect to capitalist investments in foreign countries:
1. The endeavour to obtain a privileged position in banking enterprises, in the opening and development of mines, in the letting of public contracts, in the execution of public works, in the building of railways (Siberian, Manchurian, Persian Bagdad Railway, Adriatic Railway, &c.); in short, the organization of larger capitalistic enterprises in foreign countries.
2. The hindering of foreign countries by convention from executing productive enterprises on their own soil, e.g. from building railways in their own countries.
3. The anti-militarist movement, considered in its religious and political manifestations. (Only opposition to all military organization is here to be considered.)
4. The position of organized labour and the socialists in the various States on the questions of war and armaments.
5. Is it possible to determine a special interest of individual classes making for or against war, for or against standing armies?
6. The influence of women and woman suffrage upon war and armaments.
7. The extension of obligatory military service in the different States, in times both of war and of peace.
(a) The conditions of military service; the system of enlistment and of general obligatory service, the actual position of aliens.
(b) The ratio of the persons obliged to render military service to the entire population.
(c) The influence of the present system of military obligation and the organization of armies upon warfare and upon its duration.
8. The economic effects of the right of capture and its influence upon the development of navies.
9. War loans provided by neutral countries; their extent and influence on recent warfare.
10. The effects of war:
(a) Financial cost of war. The methods of meeting it: Taxation; International Loans; External Loans.
(b) Losses and gains from the point of view of public and private economic interests; checks to production and the destruction of productive forces; reduction of opportunities for business enterprises; interruption of foreign trade and of the imports of food; the destruction of property; shrinkage of values of property, including securities; financial burden caused by new taxes, debts, and war indemnities; effects upon private credit and upon savings banks; advantages to those industries which furnish military materials; advantages and disadvantages to neutral countries.
(c) The effects of war upon the supply of the world with food and raw materials, with special reference to those States which are in large degree dependent upon other countries for such supplies, e.g. Great Britain and Germany; by diversion of capital from those countries which produce food and raw materials (especially the stoppage of railway building and of new investments in agriculture and other industries).
(d) The condition of the victorious State: manner of levy and use of contributions and war indemnities; influence upon industry and social life.
(e) The manner in which the energy of nations is stimulated or depressed by war.
11. Loss of human life in war and as a result of war: influence upon population (birth-rate, relation between the sexes, ratio of the various ages, sanitary conditions).
12. The influence of war and of the possibility of war upon the protective policy, upon banking conditions (especially upon banks of issue), and upon monetary systems.
13. The influence of annexation upon the economic life of the annexing States, and upon the State whose territory has been annexed.
14. The annexation of half-civilized or uncivilized peoples, considered especially from the point of view of the economic interests, which act as motive powers; the methods through which private enterprises take root in such regions and through which they bring influence to bear upon their own governments; the effects of such annexations upon the development of trade with the annexing State and with other countries, as well as upon the economic and social life of the natives.
15. The progressive exemption of commercial and industrial activities from losses and interferences through war.
16. Influence of the open-door policy upon war and peace.
Report of the Second Commission
ARMAMENTS IN TIME OF PEACE. MILITARY AND NAVAL ESTABLISHMENTS. THE THEORY, PRACTICE, AND HISTORY OF MODERN ARMAMENTS.
1. Definition. Armaments might be described as ‘the preparations made by a State either for defence or for attack’. These would include the provision of food, financial preparations, and also semi-military railways, canals, docks, &c.
2. Causes of armaments. Motives for increasing or commencing them, distinguishing the great from the small powers.
3. Rivalry and competition in armaments. Motives and consequences of rivalry, with the possibilities of limitation.
4. Modern history of armaments, with special fullness from 1872. To be noted as important landmarks:
(a) The introduction of conscription into Germany, France, Austria, Italy, Japan, &c.
(b) Modern inventions affecting war.
(c) The question of privateering and private property at sea.
(d) Duration of military service.
(e) The traffic in arms.
5. Military budgets from 1872 (distinguishing ordinary from extraordinary expenditures).
6. The burden of armaments in recent times.
(a) The proportion of military to civil expenditure.
(b) Military expenditure per capita.
(c) Military expenditure from loans in time of peace, i.e. a comparison of expenditure from taxes with expenditure from borrowed money.
(d) Comparative burdens of individual taxpayers in different countries and the extent to which the differences are due to armaments.
(e) Military pensions.
(f) It is desirable to ascertain where possible the ratio between the total income of each nation and the total expenditure on armament at various times.
7. The effects of war preparations upon the economic and social life of a nation:
(a) On the sustenance of the entire population of a country at war.
(b) On railway policy.
(c) On public administration and on social legislation.
8. The economic effects of withdrawing young men from industrial pursuits, into the army and navy:
(a) Compulsory.
(b) Of non-compulsory service (specially in the case of mercenary troops).
(Allowance being made for the industrial value of military education and training.)
9. The influence of changes in the occupations of a people upon the composition and efficiency of armies, and the influence of the changes in the composition of armies on the economic life.
10. Loans for armaments (participation of domestic and foreign capital).
11. The industries of war, i.e. the various manufactures and other industries which are promoted and encouraged by military and naval establishments, distinguishing between:
(a) Government undertakings (arsenals, dockyards, &c.).
(b) Private undertakings, including the history and working of the great armament firms, which sell to foreign customers as well as to their own governments.
12. War materials (munitions of war). Their recent development and their cost. This includes arms, ammunition, armour-plate, warships, guns of all kinds, military airships, &c. So far as possible the effect of recent inventions upon offensive and defensive war should be indicated.