The free and full self-development which to these small States, to
ourselves, to our great and growing dominions over the seas, to our
kinsmen across the Atlantic, is the well-spring and life-breath of
national existence--that free self-development is the one capital
offense in the code of those who have made force their supreme divinity,
and who upon its altars are prepared to sacrifice both the gathered
fruits and the potential germs of the unfettered human spirit. [Cheers.]
I use this language advisedly. This is not merely a material; it is also
a spiritual conflict. [Cheers.] Upon its issues everything that contains
promise and hope, that leads to emancipation and a fuller liberty for
the millions who make up the mass of mankind will be found sooner or
later to depend.
Our Efforts for Peace.
Let me now just for a moment turn to the actual situation in Europe. How
do we stand? For the last ten years, by what I believe to be happy and
well-considered diplomatic arrangements, we have established friendly
and increasingly intimate relations with the two powers, France and
Russia, with whom, in days gone by, we have had in various parts of the
world occasions for constant friction, and now and again for possible
conflict.
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