The members of the Peace Congress were entertained at dinner
at the Hotel Cecil yesterday week by Mr. Harcourt on behalf of the Government, and Mr. Asquith in proposing the toast of the evening, "The International Peace Movement," made a sensible speech. The armaments on which the civilised nations of the world annually spent between four hundred and five hundred millions sterling were not accumu- lated and did not exist for ornament and display, but were intended to be used. He deprecated the futile and impobent
fatalism which acquiesced in this state of things, but, speaking for himself, he was not sanguine enough to think that the youngest of those present would live to witness the advent of the day of universal disarmament. Lord Courtney, who responded, very properly denounced the evil superstition of thinking that commercial competition involved international antagonism, the fact being that, under Free-trade, the industrial development of one nation was a help to the industrial development of its neighbour.
Previous page
