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Four years of world war, at a cost in human suffering which our minds are mercifully too limited to imagine, led to the very clear realization that international anarchy must be abandoned if civilization was to survive.
The first condition of success for the League of Nations is, therefore, a firm understanding between the British Empire and the United States of America and France and Italy that there will be no competitive building up of fleets or armies between them.
On the contrary, the characteristic element of the present situation is that economic questions have finally and irrevocably invaded the domain of public life and politics.
The Disarmament Conference has become the focal point of a great struggle between anarchy and world order… between those who think in terms of inevitable armed conflict and those who seek to build a universal and durable peace.
The question is, what are we to do in order to consolidate peace on a universal and durable foundation, and what are the essential elements of such a peace?
The years of the economic depression have been years of political reaction, and that is why the economic crisis has generated a world peace crisis.
As a first step there must be an offer to achieve equality of rights in disarmament by abolishing the weapons forbidden to the Central Powers by the Peace Treaties.
Thus, the struggle for peace includes the struggle for freedom and justice for the masses of all countries.
Those nations have a very great responsibility at this juncture of the world’s affairs, for by throwing their joint weight into the scales of history on the right side, they may tip the balance decisively in favour of peace.
Another essential to a universal and durable peace is social justice.