The Struggle For Peace

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have reason to be grateful to the head of the Italian Govern-
ment for his work in contributing to a peaceful solution.
" M. Daladier had in some respects the most difficult task
of all four of us," because of the special relations uniting
his country and Czechoslovakia, and I should like to say that
his courage, his readiness to take responsibility, his perti-
nacity and his unfailing good humour were invaluable through-
out the whole of our discussions. There is one other Power
which was not represented at the Conference and which
nevertheless we felt to be exercising a constantly increasing
influence. I refer, of course, to the United States of America.
Those messages of President Roosevelt, so firmly and yet so
persuasively framed, showed how the voice of the. most
powerful nation -in the world could make itself heard across
3000 miles of ocean and sway the minds of men in Europe.
" In my view the strongest force of all, one which grew and
took fresh shapes and forms every day was the force not of
any one individual, but was that unmistakable sense of
unanimity among the peoples of the world that war somehow
must be averted. The peoples of the British Empire were at
one with those of Germany, of France and of Italy, and
their anxiety, their intense desire for peace, pervaded the
whole atmosphere of the conference, and I believe that that,
and not threats, made possible the concessions that were
made. I know the House will want to hear what I am sure
it does not doubt, that throughout these discussions the
Dominions, the Governments of the Dominions, have been
kept in the closest touch with the march of events by telegraph
and by personal contact, and I would like to say how greatly
I was encouraged on each of the journeys I made to Germany
by the knowledge that I went with the good wishes of the
Governments of the Dominions. They shared all our
anxieties and all our hopes. They rejoiced with us that peace
was preserved, and with us they look forward to further
efforts to consolidate what has been done.
" Ever since I assumed my present office my main purpose
has been to work for the pacification of Europe, for the
removal of those suspicions and those animosities which
have so long poisoned the air. The path which leads to
appeasement is long and bristles with obstacles. The question