GUARANTEEING PEACE.
Many, no doubt, have been the causes of the failure to re-establish confidence after the Great War, but I think that underneath most of them will be found the cardinal fact that there has been left behind a feeling of fear with regard to the possibility of another Great War, which has paralysed confidence and initiative in almost every coun- try. How this confidence is to be re-established as a result of the World Economic Conference I cannot attempt to say, but just as it had been hoped that the horrors of the Great War would have brought about a great movement in favour of international peace, so it must be hoped that the many years of economic distress which have followed upon the conflict may now be able to accomplish what the Great War itself seemed powerless to do. Certain, however, it is that no international co- operation in financial with can be of any real value if it does not coincide with a very definite and practical assurance for the guarantee of international peace.
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