102 • Mr. H. Wickham Steed [May 4, 



its affairs with the belief that the thing chieflj needful is to know 

 what is just and right, and to be ready and able to do it because "it 

 is just and right." President AVilson has recently packed the whole 

 of my contention into five pregnant words : " Right is better than 

 peace." 



Neither I, nor any man, save possibly a small group of German 

 soldiers, statesmen and bankers, could know in January, 1914, that in 

 six months' time the Great AVar would be upon us. But those who,, 

 like me, had lived for more than twenty-one years the political life 

 of great continental States, felt that matters were slowly coming to 

 a head, and that, in view of the deliberate purpose of Germany to 

 secure the mastery of Europe and of the world, the date of the 

 inevitable conflict would depend upon the readiness of liberty-loving 

 States to defend their freedom against pretentions that she was 

 certain to put forward at what might seem to her the most pro- 

 pitious moment. My desire was to insist upon the need for public 

 knowledge of the danger to which our liberties were exposed, and 

 to make it clear that it is as " worth while " to fight in defence of 

 our ideals as it is to concentrate diplomatic or national endeavour 

 upon the " practical " objects of securing wealth and promoting 

 trade. I added that " the doctrines known as ' pacifism,' and all 

 cognate apologies for national unreadiness based upon faith in the 

 pure intentions of others, are, I believe, the surest pledge of disaster." 

 and that " the problem we have to consider is what constitutes in 

 the modern world, effective force — to Avhat extent physical power is 

 valueless without the co-efficient of moral strength used in the light 

 of knowledge." 



The lessons of the war have to some extent given us the answer 

 to that problem. The war has shown that, given equality of arma- 

 ment, it is still moral strength that prevails — nay, that on occasion 

 moral strength may more than counterbalance superiority of hostile 

 armament. We have seen that if the Allied Powers can now hope 

 to prevail against the iniquitous force of the enemy, it is because the 

 moral quality of their cause will have enabled them to bring to bear 

 still greater force in the service of right and in the defence of human 

 freedom. 



What, however, do we mean by " freedom " ? Before we can 

 hope to safeguard it we must know what it is we wish to safeguard. 

 For our present purpose the idea of freedom falls practically into 

 two categories — the freedom of the individual in the community and 

 the freedom of the community itself. These are inter-related and 

 inter-dependent. With the kind of freedom which an isolated 

 individual might possess in an otherwise uninhabited island we have 

 no concern. To him, his every whim Avould be law, his only care 

 the thought of his own preservation. He would l)e non-political 

 and non-moral because divorced from and outside any community. 

 The freedom we have to consider is therefore the freedom of the 



