always recognized that the undeviating and precise imple-
mentation of this decision should be regarded not merely as
a formal duty of the governments concerned, but as an
essential prerequisite of the success of the work of this
Council.
It is rightly said that big states should not impose their
will on small countries, but this equally applies when pow-
erful states attempt to impose their will on some other
big state. Germany's example shows what menace is con-
tained in the unrestrained imperialist striving to commit acts
of violence against other nations, and to establish world
supremacy. On the other hand, the democratic countries
know of methods of cooperation which yielded positive
results during the war, as well as after the war. The Council
of Foreign Ministers was created for the very purpo'se of
solving problems not by way of some states imposing Iheir
will upon other states, but by working out joint decisions a-nd
measures.
The drafting of the peace treaties is an illustration of the
fact that the Council of Foreign Ministers has achieved defi-
nite positive results. We can state this, although we are
not at all inclined to think that these drafts reflect fully
enough the just aspirations of the Allied peoples. At the
same time, however, one cannot ignore the fact that nowa-
days the decisions of the Council of Foreign Ministers are
not infrequently assailed by all kinds of reactionary elements,
who are stuffed with absurd anti-Soviet prejudices and who
build their calculations on the disruption of great-Power
cooperation. The drafts of the peace treaties submitted to the
Conference deal a fresh blow to the exertions of these
gentlemen. It is enough to read the proposals contained in the
drafts to realize that the democratic countries which pre-
pared them have performed a work which in the main meets •
the interests of the big and small countries that are anxious
77