"They resort to that nation which has won enviable distinction being regarded as the friend of mankind.

"Before this war Europe did not believe in us as she does now she seems to have believed that we were holding off because we thought we could make more by staying out than by going in. * * * When they saw that America went in to support the great cause which they held in common, that America not only held the ideals but acted the ideals, they were converted to America and became firm partisans of these ideals.

"Speaking * * in the name of the people of the United States I have uttered as the objects of this great war ideals, and nothing but ideals, and the war has been won by that inspiration. * If America were at this juncture to fail the world, what would come of it?

*

*

"I do not mean any disrespect to any other great nation when I say that America is the hope of the world. And if she does not justify that hope results are unthinkable."

"We set this Nation up to make men free and we did not confine our conception and purpose to America, and now we will make men free."

"Think of the picture: America said, 'We are your friends,' but it was only for today, not for tomorrow. America said, 'We set up light to lead men along the paths of liberty, but we have lowered itit is intended only to light our own path.'

"When I think of the homes upon which dull despair would settle if this great hope is disappointed, I should wish for my part never to have had America play any part whatever in this attempt to emancipate the world."

March 4, 1919. (Address at New York).

"Europe is a bit sick at heart at this moment because it sees that the statesmen have had no vision and that the only vision has been the vision of the people.

*

* *

"Those who suffer see. Those against whom wrong is wrought know how desirable is the right of the righteous. Nations that have long been under the reel have called out to the world, generation after generation, for justice, liberation, and succor, and no cabinet in the world has heard them. * No nation has said to the nations responsible 'You must stop; this thing is intolerable and we will not permit it.'

*

"It was set up for the benefit of mankind; it was set up to illustrate the highest ideals and to achieve the highest aspirations of men who wanted to be free, and the world of today believes that and counts on us, and would be thrown back into the blackness of despair if we deserted it."

66* * * If men cannot now, after this long agony of bloody sweat, come to their self-possession and see how to regulate the affairs of the world we will sink back into a period of struggle in which there will be no hope, and therefore no mercy."

*

"And those boys went over there with the feeling that they were sacredly bound to the realization of those ideals that they were crossing those 3,000 miles of sea in order to show to Europe that

the United States when it became necessary, would go anywhere where the rights of mankind were threatened."

66* * * it must not be over until the nations of the world are assured of the permanency of peace.

* when they (the peoples of Europe) saw the multitudes hastening across the sea * they stood at amaze and said: "The thing is real; this nation is the friend of mankind as it said it was.'

"Nothing entangles a nation, hampers it, binds it, except to enter into a combination with some other nation against the other nations of the world."

[I] (b)

WAR AIMS

Professions of British Statesmen

PREMIER ASQUITH
August 6, 1919:

*** We are fighting to vindicate the principle that small nationalities are not to be crushed, in defiance of international good faith, by the arbitrary will of a strong and overmastering power. September 25, 1914:

“*** It means that room must be found and kept for the independent existence and free development of the smaller nationalities, each with a corporate consciousness of its own."

November 10, 1914. (Guildhall Banquet):

"Perhaps I might say primarily a war for the emancipation of the smaller states ***

The peace must be such as will build upon a sure and stable foundation the security of the weak, the liberties of Europe and the free future of the world."

November 9, 1915:

*** But, be the journey long or short, we shall not pause or falter until we have secured for the smaller States of Europe their charter of independence, and for the world at large its final emancipation from the reign of force."

January 7, 1917:

"We have believed, and we have maintained from the first day of the war, that we are fighting for no selfish purposes, but in the general service of civilization and humanity."

September 26, 1917:

*** This war ***"is the creation of a world-wide policy uniting the peoples in a confederation of which Justice will be the base and Liberty the cornerstone.'

September 29, 1917:

"An international system in which there will be a place for great and for small states, and under which both alike can be assured a stable foundation and an independent development."

MR. ARTHUR BALFOUR

November 9, 1914:

"*** We are five nations; but we fight, not for ourselves alone. but for civilization, drawn to the cause of small States, the cause of all those countries which desire to develop their own civilization in their own way, following their own ideals without interference from any insolent and unauthorized aggressor. That is the cause for which we fight."

SIR EDWARD GREY

March 22, 1915:

"*** We wish the nations of Europe to be free to live their independent lives, working out their own forms of government for themselves and their own national developments, whether they be great States or small States, in full liberty. That is our ideal." February 23, 1917:

"This war *** will secure to Europe * * each nation will be able to live its own life."

MR. WINSTON CHURCHILL

September 24, 1915:

a peace in which

"We want a natural and harmonious settlement which liberates races, restores the integrity of nations and subjugates no one.

***

Let us war against the principle of one set of Europeans holding down, by force and conquest, against their wills, another section." LORD ROBERT CECIL

May 23, 1917:

"I laid special stress on the fact that our aims and aspirations were dictated solely by our determination to secure a peace founded on national liberty and international amity, and that all imperialistic aims based on force or conquest were completely absent from our programme."

July 24, 1917:

"We want a *** peace, resting not on conflict or domination, but on some national principle, so far as may be, which would secure that the settlement to be arrived at, so far as any settlement could be, should be secure from change or alteration in the future."

MR. BONAR LAW

September 4, 1914:

We are fighting for the moral forces of humanity. Wc are fighting for the respect of public law and the right of public justice, which are the foundations of civilization. We are fighting, as the Prime Minister said, for right against might."

January 24, 1917:

"What President Wilson is longing for we are fighting for."

April 19, 1917:

"America's aims and ideals are those of the Allies." July 26, 1917:

"We are not only fighting for the freedom of ourselves-we are fighting for the rights of other nations *** to live their own way The one thing we are fighting for is peace, and security for peace, in the time to come.

PREMIER LLOYD GEORGE
September 19, 1914:

"The heroic deeds that thrill humanity, through generations were the deeds of little nations fighting for their freedom. Yes, and the salvation of mankind came through a little nation. God has chosen little nations as the vessels by which He carries His choicest wines to the lips of humanity, to rejoice their hearts, to exalt their vision, to stimulate and strengthen their faith; and if we had stood by when two little nations were being crushed and broken by the brutal hands of barbarism, our shame would have rung down the everlasting ages." September 6, 1917:

*** But if this is the day of Great Empires, it is also preeminently the day of little nations. It is around them that the greatest struggle for liberty centers."

January 5, 1918:

*** The settlement of the new Europe must be based on such grounds of reason and justice as will give some promise of stability. Therefore it is that we feel that government with the consent of the governed must be the basis of any territorial settlement in this war.' January 1, 1917. (Times Report, Allied Reply to German Peace Note):

"Once again the Allies declare that no peace is possible as long as they have not secured reparation of the violated rights and liberties, recognition of the principle of nationalities, and of the free existence of small States."

January 12, 1917. (Times Report, Allied Reply to President Wilson's Note):

"The Allied Nations are confident that they are fighting, not for selfish interests, but above all to safeguard the independence of peoples, right and humanity * * *.

"Their war aims necessarily imply the re-organization of Europe, guaranteed by a stable regime, and based at once on respect for nationalities and liberty of economic development possessed by all peoples, small and great.

February 4, 1917:

"The Liberal Party has special interest in the causes for which we are struggling in this great war, and the principle that the rights of nations, however small, are as sacred as the rights of the biggest Empires."

January 5, 1918. (Labor Conference):

"The sanctity of treaties must be established; a territorial settlement must be secured based on the right of self-determination, or the consent of the governed."

August 3. (Message read at all places of entertainment):

We are in it to recover

"We are in this war for no selfish ends. freedom for the nations who have been brutally attacked."

/ August 9, 1918. (Report of Address at Castle Hotel):

"When he saw an organized and insolent bully trampling on the weak, he felt he was pursuing his ideals in his endeavor to combat that oppression.

"The world is a world for the weak as well as for the strong. not, why did God make little nations?"

April 16, 1919. (House of Commons):

"Supposing you

If

** re-organized Russia, what manner of gov

ernment would you set up there?

"You must set up a Government which the people want; otherwise it would be an outrage on all the principles for which we fought in the war.' ""

July 21, 1920. (House of Commons):

"Poland has chosen her own government by universal suffrage, and it is intolerable that any country from outside should come in and impose upon her a government which she does not want."

April 17, 1917. (British Cabinet Message to America):

"The glowing phrases of the President's noble deliverance illumine the horizon, and make clearer than ever the goal we are striving to reach. * * * These words represent the faith which inspires and sustains our people in the tremendous sacrifices they have made, and are still making. They also believe that the unity and peace of mankind can only rest upon democracy; upon the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government; upon the rights and liberties of nations, both great and small, and upon the universal dominion of public right."

[I] (c)

WAR DECLARATIONS OF FRENCH STATESMEN

M. CLEMENCEAU:

"*** To conquer in order to be just, has been the motto of our Governments since the beginning of the war, ***."

“*** I have been asked to explain myself in regard to war aims and to the idea of a society of nations. I have replied in my declaration 'We must conquer for the sake of Justice' * * *.”