The Prime Minister went on to say that the country,
faced with a trade depression and much unemployment, needed the restoration of international confidence, which could only come through the establishment of a real peace in the world. Patience was needed, but progress had been made, notably at Washington, where Mr. Balfour had played a noble part. Nothing had ever done as much to restore good understanding between us and America. In Europe, as the French political crisis showed, we had to tread warily among many bristling suspicions. The only way out was to bring the nations to the test of reason rather than of force. If no single conference had settled any dispute, yet each conference was a rung in the ladder leading to peace. The Prime Minister avowed his preference for conferences rather than for the interchange of dispatches. " The greatest appeal for a return to the old diplomacy comes from the land which has been devastated by it."
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