Full text of "The Struggle For Peace"
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that, on the contrary, when your voice is raised for peace, it will be listened to with respect. These, then, are the two pillars of our foreign policy—to seek peace by friendly discussion and negotiation, and to build up our armed forces to a level which is proportionate to our responsibilities and to the part we desire to play in preserving peace. " I may be asked: * Where in all this does the League of Nations come in ? * * Why don't you call in collective security to your aid ?' e Must we take it that those splendid ideals which animated us when the League was started have got to be abandoned ? * We have never mocked at the League. We do not yield to anyone in our devotion to those great and splendid ideals. We still intend to seize every opportunity that we can find to build up and strengthen the League and to restore it to a condition in which it may once again become an effective instrument for the preservation of peace. " But to-day we have got to face the facts as they are. To-day we must, before we attempt to impose upon the League from which some of the most powerful countries in the world have become alienated, the formidable task of preserving peace, we must do a little clear thinking. Collective security can only be attained by the willingness and the capacity of the members of the League to take collective action of a kind which is effective enough to stop aggression. Is the League in such a state as to be able to do that to-day ? " A little while ago I asked the Opposition in the House a question—and mind you this was before the recent events in Austria. I asked them whether they could name one single small State in Europe to-day, which, if it were menaced by a powerful neighbour, could rely upon the League alone to give it collective security. They .did not—they could not—answer that question, because they knew the only honest answer would be that there was no such State, because there was no such collective security available. That is not to be disloyal. The true disloyalty to the League lies in pretend- ing that the League to-day is capable of functions which are clearly beyond its power. Do not let us be guilty of that kind of disloyalty. " Do not let us either abandon the idea of a bigger and Better League in the future. Let us rather seek to create a new