The Struggle For Peace

can only deal to-night with the first two, but I may say in
passing that they are essential to the others. We shall secure
neither prosperity nor welfare unless we have peace and the
strength to maintain it.
" I want to emphasize this point. To lay down an aim is
one thing; to achieve it is something quite different. If
you want peace you have got to do something more than sit .
down and hope for it. The Americans have an expression
—doubtless you are familiar with it—which, as American
terms so often do, conveys its meaning without explanation.
They talk of a c go-getter.3 Well, I want this Government to
be a go-getter for peace. That does not mean that we want
to go and interfere with other people's business or to under-
take the role of policemen-in-ordinary to the world. But
if we see peace threatened we shall use any influence that we
may possess to save it, and if war breaks out we shall take
any opportunity that we can to stop it. For in these days it
is difficult to confine war to the source of its origin, and once
it begins to spread it is harder still to control its boundaries.
" I feel all the more convinced of the soundness of this
policy because I believe that the influence which this country
can exert for peace is more powerful than that of any other
that I can think of. It arises partly from our geographical
position, lying a little apart from Europe; partly from our
widespread connexions through the Empire with the whole
world; partly, no doubt, from the vastness of the resources
at our disposal; but, above all, because there is a general
recognition that, fundamentally, what we are seeking is peace,
security, and justice for all under the rule of law and order,
reason and good faith. It is with these considerations in
mind that I have sought to make this country an active agent
for peace, and I would like now to turn to the example of
that policy in practice which has lately been engaging our
attention.
" This is not the place, and I have not the time, to recite
the whole history of the Czechoslovak question. But in order
that I may illustrate to you the method by which our foreign
policy has been carried on, I must first of all go back to the
time when, realizing the grave results that might follow upon
£ continuance of friction and discord, we used our persuasive