would be easily obtained if it were generally agreed that war is the worst thing that can befall a people.  But this is not generally agreed; and, further, it is not true.  While men are men they cannot be sure that they will never be challenged on a point of deep and intimate concern, where they would rather die than yield.  But something can perhaps be done to discourage gamblers’ wars, though even here any stockbroker will tell you how difficult it is to suppress gambling without injuring the spirit of enterprise.  The only real check on war is an understanding between nations.  For the strengthening of such an understanding the Allies have a great opportunity, and admirable instruments.  I do not think that we shall call on Germany to preside at our conferences.  But we shall have the help of all those qualities of heart and mind which are possessed by France, by Russia, by Italy, and by America, who, for all her caution, hates cruelty even more than she loves peace.  There has never been an alliance of greater promise for the government and peace of the world.

What is the contribution of the British Empire, and of England, towards this settlement?  Many of our domestic problems, as I have said, bear a curious resemblance to international problems.  We have not solved them all.  We have had many stumblings and many backslidings.  But we have shown again and again that we believe in toleration on the widest possible basis, and that we are capable of generosity, which is a virtue much more commonly shown by private persons than by communities.  We abolished the slave trade.  We granted self-government to South Africa just after our war with her.  Only a few days ago we gave India her will, and allowed her to impose a duty on our manufactures.  Ireland could have self-government to-morrow if she did not value her feuds more than anything else in the world.  All these are peoples to whom we have been bound by ties of kinship or trusteeship.  A wider and greater opportunity is on its way to us.  We are to see whether we are capable of generosity and trust towards peoples who are neither our kin nor our wards.  Our understanding with France and Russia will call for great goodwill on both sides, not so much in the drafting of formal treaties as in indulging one another in our national habits.  Families who fail to live together in unity commonly fail not because they quarrel about large interests, but because they do not like each other’s little ways.  The French are not a dull people; and the Russians are not a tedious people (what they do they do suddenly, without explanation); so that if we fail to take pleasure in them we have ourselves to blame.  If we are not equal to our opportunities, if we do not learn to feel any affection for them, then not all the pacts and congresses in the world can make peace secure.