The Struggle For Peace

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effectiveness. At the present time its effectiveness is seriously
impaired because some of the most powerful nations in the
world are not members or are not in full sympathy with it,
but our aim must be to strengthen its authority and thus
so to increase its moral and material force as to enable it to
carry out fearlessly and successfully the purposes for which
it was originally founded.
" And that leads me to make one further observation before
I leave this subject. It appears to be the fashion in some
quarters to decry any allusion to material interests, as if they
were sordid considerations unworthy of a really high-minded
people. I should be the last to suggest that we should exclude
from our minds all thoughts of moral and spiritual aims,,or
that we should occupy ourselves solely with selfish endeavours
to improve our material prosperity at the expense of other
people's. But is there not a danger of running to the opposite
extreme ? After all, the political, financial, and economic
stability of this country and of the associated peoples of the
British Commonwealth is one of the most important factors
in the general well-being of the world. And in endeavouring
to preserve that stability we are doing no injury to others,
but on the contrary we are making a contribution, the value
of which can hardly be over-estimated, to the preservation of
the confidence and security of all.
" And now, having concluded my survey, in which I have
found many grounds for a cheerful outlook interspersed with
some sources of perturbation too real to be ignored, I want
to direct your minds for a few minutes more to the considera-
tion of a subject of serious import to us all—and not us only
in this hall, but in the country and, indeed, throughout the
world.
" Perhaps I may put my subject in the form of a question.
What sort of future are we trying to create for ourselves and
for our children ? Is it to be better or worse than that which
we have inherited ? Are we trying to make a world in which
the peoples that inhabit it shall be able to live out their lives
in peace of mind and in the enjoyment of a constantly rising
standard of all that makes life worth living, of health and
^comfort, of recreation, and of culture ? Or are we preparing
for ourselves a future which is to be one perpetual nightmare,