Moreover, and above all, let us remember that words count only when
they give expression to deeds or are to be translated into them. The
leaders of the Red Terror prattled of peace while they steeped their
hands in the blood of the innocent; and many a tyrant has called it
peace when he has scourged honest protest into silence. Our words must
be judged by our deeds; and in striving for a lofty ideal we must use
practical methods; and if we cannot attain all at one leap, we must
advance towards it step by step, reasonably content so long as we do
actually make some progress in the right direction.
Now, having freely admitted the limitations to our work, and the
qualifications to be borne in mind, I feel that I have the right to
have my words taken seriously when I point out where, in my judgment,
great advance can be made in the cause of international peace. I speak
as a practical man, and whatever I now advocate I actually tried to do
when I was for the time being the head of a great nation, and keenly
jealous of its honor and interest. I ask other nations to do only what
I should be glad to see my own nation do.
The advance can be made along several lines. First of all, there can
be treaties of arbitration. There are, of course, states so backward
that a civilized community ought not to enter into an arbitration
treaty with them, at least until we have gone much further than at
present in securing some kind of international police action. But all
really civilized communities should have effective arbitration
treaties among themselves. I believe that these treaties can cover
almost all questions liable to arise between such nations, if they are
drawn with the explicit agreement that each contracting party will
respect the other's territory and its absolute sovereignty within
that territory, and the equally explicit agreement that (aside from
the very rare cases where the nation's honor is vitally concerned) all
other possible subjects of controversy will be submitted to
arbitration. Such a treaty would insure peace unless one party
deliberately violated it. Of course, as yet there is no adequate
safeguard against such deliberate violation, but the establishment of
a sufficient number of these treaties would go a long way towards
creating a world opinion which would finally find expression in the
provision of methods to forbid or punish any such violation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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