speak for when they speak to us, whether for the Reichstag majority or for the military party and the men whose creed is imperial domination. We have spoken now, surely in terms too concrete to admit of any further doubt or question. An evident principle runs through the whole program I have outlined. It is the principle of justice to all peoples and nationalities, and their right to live on equal terms of liberty and safety with one another, whether they be strong or weak. Unless this principle be made its foundation, no part of the structure of international justice can stand. The people of the United States could act upon no other principle, and to the vindication of this principle they are ready to devote their lives, their honor, and everything that they possess. The moral climax of this, the culminating and final war for human liberty, has come, and they are ready to put their own strength, their own highest purpose, their own integrity and devotion to the test. VI BRITISH LABOR PARTY'S ADDRESS JANUARY 15, 1918 We have reached a crisis in the war. The negotiations at Brest-Litovsk have been interrupted because the Germans have refused to admit the principle of self-determination of peoples and the doctrine of no annexations. In thus acting, the Central Powers are speaking clearly in the name of a militarist state. In this crisis the British people must speak, because the Russians can only succeed in their great and perilous task if supported by the people everywhere. The British people must proclaim to Russia and the Central Powers that its aim is identical with Russia's; that we, too, see no solution for the evils of militarism except self-determination and no indemnities. In applying this Russian principle to our own case we are conscious of the problems raised, but we do not shrink therefrom. The British people accepts the principle of no annexations for the British Empire. This applies in our case to the Middle East, Africa, and India. We wish to remind the Russian people that Great Britain, taught by the loss of the American colonies in the eighteenth century, was the first modern state to grant complete self-determination to any group of its inhabitants, for example, the Dominions of Canada, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand. We accept the principle, also, for India and other dependencies of the British Empire, though we believe that the record of the British Government here gives little occasion for reproach. We intend to meet this by more rapid development of self-government. We respect the sovereign independence of the Turkish people in their national home, but we believe that the domination of their Government over other peoples is a hindrance to their own national development. Our Government is pledged to some of those peoples-Arabs, Palestinians, Armenians -that the Ottoman rule shall not again be imposed on them. This responsibility should be undertaken by the peace conference and a permanent international organization that we hope will be there constituted. In tropical Africa we repeat our renunciation of annexations. Nobody contends that the black races can govern themselves. They can only make it known that the particular government under which they have been living is bad in some or all respects, and indicate the specific evils from which they desire liberation. We believe that the peace conference would be well advised to place all tropical Africa under uniform international control. We adjure the peoples of Central Europe to declare themselves or make their Governments speak for them in answer to Russia and ourselves. We call on them to renounce annexations in Europe with the same good faith in which we are renouncing them in Asia. We call on them to give the same self-determination to the French, Alsatian, Italian, Polish, and Danish members of their states as Russia has given to Finland, Courland, Lithuania, and Russian Poland. The family interests of dynasties or the desire of the German, Austrian, and Magyar governing classes to dominate other classes and nationalities must no more be suffered to prevent self-determination in central Europe, and thereby imperil it in Europe as a whole, than the interests of British imperialism or British capitalism must be suffered to do elsewhere. Peoples of Central Europe, this catastrophe of the human race, this fatal schism in the civilized world, can only be ended by the defeat of militarism on both sides, and by the victory on both sides of moral and intellectual fair dealing. If the world is to be saved, it must be saved by good faith and reciprocity on the part of all. Do not fail us now. Do not let your Governments drive the British people, as they are driving the Russian people, into the terrible choice between continuing the war and abandoning the only principles that can save the world. If this choice is forced upon us, we shall choose as Russia chose. We shall continue, but the responsibility will be yours. INTERNATIONAL CONCILIATION Published monthly by the American Association for International Conciliation. THE UNITED STATES AND JAPAN I. The Text of the Root-Takahira Understanding of November 30, 1908 II. The Text of the Lansing-Ishii Agreement of November 3, 1917 III. Japan and The United States. Address at a luncheon in honor of the Imperial Japanese Mission, New York, October 1, 1917, by the Honorable Elihu Root IV. The Lansing-Ishii Agreement. Address to the Liberal Club of San Antonio, Texas, November 15, 1917, by the Honorable James L. Slayden V. What of Our Fears of Japan? by Kenneth S. Latourette AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR INTERNATIONAL CONCILIATION NEW YORK CITY |