344 Morality and Self-interest 



the British people were in conflict with the moral 

 law and in this conflict the moral law had to give 

 way. 



Was this conflict real? If we follow the inevit- 

 able chain of consequences, we can again find the 

 answer. We can see how the Treaty of Beriin, 

 by thrusting the Balkan peoples back under Turk- 

 ish rule, led to all the years of massacres and 

 atrocities in the Balkans, how it led to the First 

 Balkan War, to the Second Balkan War, and to 

 the world war which began in August, 19 14, and 

 which has aptly been called the Third Balkan War. 

 And we find hundreds of thousands of the flower 

 of the British Empire laying down their lives in 

 the Balkans and the Gallipoli peninsula, and bil- 

 lions of treasure poured out in the attempt to 

 open the Dardanelles for Russia, after Great 

 Britain had fought the Crimean War with Russia 

 to keep this passage closed. Was there any 

 conflict between the moral law and self-interest, 

 and would not Lord Beaconsfield have been serv- 

 ing the highest interests of his people if he had 

 followed the Golden Rule and allowed the Treaty 

 of San Stefano to stand, based as it was on the 

 principle of nationality, to which sooner or later 

 the European nations will have to come as the 

 ultimate settlement of the Balkan problem. 



Or let us consider an example from the western 

 hemisphere. In 1883, after the war in which Chile 

 was victorious over Peru, a treaty was signed ac- 

 cording to which Chile should retain possession of 



