 But to cut off relations with an aggressor may often invite retaliation by armed action, and this would, in its turn, make necessary some form of collective self-defence by the loyal members of the League. |
| On the contrary, the characteristic element of the present situation is that economic questions have finally and irrevocably invaded the domain of public life and politics. |
| Whatever we do or fail to do will influence the course of history. |
| It has become impossible to give up the enterprise of disarmament without abandoning the whole great adventure of building up a collective peace system. |
| Moreover, war has become a thing potentially so terrible and destructive that it should have been the common aim of statesmen to put an end to it forever. |
| The drive toward economic nationalism is only part of the general revival of nationalism. |
| Another essential to a universal and durable peace is social justice. |
| This is our world, and we must make the best of it. |
| The more the history of the World War and what led up to it is studied, the more clearly those tragic years become revealed as a vast collapse of civilization. |
| The forces that are driving mankind toward unity and peace are deep-seated and powerful. They are material and natural, as well as moral and intellectual. |
| Those nations have a very great responsibility at this juncture of the world's affairs, for by throwing their joint weight into the scales of history on the right side, they may tip the balance decisively in favour of peace. |
| In almost every country there are elements of opinion which would welcome such a conclusion because they wish to return to the politics of the balance of power, unrestricted and unregulated armaments, international anarchy, and preparation for war. |
| The vast upheaval of the World War set in motion forces that will either destroy civilization or raise mankind to undreamed of heights of human welfare and prosperity. |
| The Disarmament Conference has become the focal point of a great struggle between anarchy and world order... between those who think in terms of inevitable armed conflict and those who seek to build a universal and durable peace. |
| Four years of world war, at a cost in human suffering which our minds are mercifully too limited to imagine, led to the very clear realization that international anarchy must be abandoned if civilization was to survive. |
| We had four years of world war which the peoples endured only because they were told that their sufferings would free humanity forever from the scourge of war. |
| The nations must be organized internationally and induced to enter into partnership, subordinating in some measure national sovereignty to worldwide institutions and obligations. |
| In short, it may be said that on paper the obligations to settle international disputes peacefully are now so comprehensive and far-reaching that it is almost impossible for a state to resort to war without violating one or more solemn treaty obligations. |
| As a first step there must be an offer to achieve equality of rights in disarmament by abolishing the weapons forbidden to the Central Powers by the Peace Treaties. |
| The world before 1914 was already a world in which the welfare of each individual nation was inextricably bound up with the prosperity of the whole community of nations. |
