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