File No. 763.72119/1785
The text transmitted is official.
[Enclosure—Extract]
Remarks of the British Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs (
Balfour
) Delivered in the House of Commons, June 20, 1918
1
We have never rejected any proposals which we thought had the
slightest probability of producing the sort of peace which most
of us—and, I hope, all of us—desire. There is no evidence
whatever that the German Government have ever been serious in
making such offers of peace. I have more than once referred to
Belgium, though I always do so with some hesitation lest hon.
Gentlemen should run away with the idea that, in my judgment,
the restoration of Belgium would by itself give all that we
ought properly to ask for as a result of the War. The case for
Belgium is merely an example. It is a good example of German
methods, because Belgium, as the hon. Member2 has pointed out, was the occasion
of the War. I am not sure whether the hon. Member would admit
that, but at any rate it was intimately connected with the
opening phases of the War. The treatment of Belgium is, and
remains, the greatest blot upon German honour and German
humanity. German honour and German humanity, I think, have been
violated in many parts of the world, but Belgium stands out as
the great and unanswerable proof of what it is that the German
Government will do if they think that any military advantage is
to be got by it. Have the German Government ever openly and
plainly said in any document, or in any speech, that Belgium is
to be given up, that Belgium is to be restored, that Belgium is
to be placed in a position of absolute economic as well as
political independence? I know of no such statement. It has been
suggested that Belgian territory should be restored, and there
have been other suggestions of one kind or another, but you will
never find any frank avowal that Belgium, having been taken by
one of the most iniquitous acts of which history has record, is
to be put back, so far as the perpetrator of the crime is
concerned, as far as possible in the position in which she was
before the crime was committed.
Does not the hon. Gentleman think that perhaps when he is
discussing the reasonableness of terms he might have reminded
the House of that fact? What he does is to point to ambiguous
speeches and doubtful resolutions, and he turns his eyes
resolutely away from the clear-cut and unmistakable statements
on the other side, made by German writers of repute and German
politicians of position. He turns his eyes resolutely away from
what Germans write and what Germans say, and he turns his eyes
still more resolutely away [Page 281] from what Germans do both in the east and the
west, and then he presents a picture of German statesmen on that
side offering reasonable terms of peace to the English statesmen
on this side, and the English statesmen obstinately shutting
their ears and insisting on going on with the War and
determinedly forcing this country and its allies to go on with
the expenditure of blood and of treasure, and he expects us to
listen to him patiently and not to say that, whatever his
intention may be, his acts in this House have the effect of doing everything that
can be done by a speech in this House to discourage the Allies and their friends
and to encourage the Central Powers and their friends. I must
honestly say that I think that is a lamentable performance. If I
understood one part of his speech aright—I may have failed to
get the clear meaning—he seemed to think that we differ from
President Wilson upon
these points. So far as I know, there is no difference between
the Allies and President Wilson upon war aims. I believe that we cherish
the same ideals, we are fighting for the same purpose on the
same fields of battle, we are making; similar sacrifices, and we
are working towards the same end.
I cannot conceive why the hon. Gentleman, animated as I am bound
to suppose he is by a public-spirited policy, suggests that
there should be in this matter of war aims the smallest
difference between us and our American allies. There is no such
difference, neither is the hon. Gentleman right when he supposes
that these secret treaties are an obstacle to peace. The notion
is fantastic. I am not going to discuss the secret treaties. I
have often explained to the House that these treaties were made not by me,
not by the party to which I belong, not by the present
Government; they were made in obedience to motives which I
believe would have moved any government in power at the time to
make the same or similar arrangements. It is very easy for the
hon. Gentleman to say that if the treaty with Italy to which he
referred—I am not going to discuss it—were discussed, it would
be disapproved of in this meeting or that meeting throughout the
country. If you want to judge the treaty rightly, remember the
circumstances under which it was made, and ask the people
whether, if they had been responsible for the conduct of
affairs, they would have hesitated to come to arrangements of
that kind. Even if the treaty is open to criticism, even
granting—and I am not going to make any admissions about it—that
it was open to this criticism, it is a mistake to suppose that
it stands in the way of peace.
The Allies are prepared to listen collectively to all reasonable
arrangements. Certainly His Majesty’s Government are not going
to shut their ears to anything that can be called a reasonable
suggestion. If such a suggestion was made, and it met with the
approval [Page 282] of the Allies
collectively, does the hon. Gentleman really suppose that the
fact that three years ago, or whenever it may have been, they
took a different view that that would stand in the way of
accepting this reasonable suggestion? Of course it would not!
Any proposal to the Allies will be considered by the Allies on
its merits. These treaties were entered into by this country
with other members of the Alliance, and to these treaties we
stand. The national honour is bound up with them, and I really
cannot conceive a more unfortunate moment in which the hon.
Gentleman should criticise our Italian allies than at the very
moment when those very allies are fighting with heroic courage
in the battles which they are now carrying out against their
Austrian enemy.