Now economic pressure is not a new thing in the world. It has been
used before by one nation against another and usually with tremendous
effectiveness. When Philip was organizing the great armada the merchants
of London persuaded the merchants of Genoa to withhold credit and moneys
from the Spanish King. The result was that the armada was delayed for
over a year, and then the English were prepared to meet the shock. What
could be done three centuries ago for a year to delay a Power so great as
Spain then was could be done in this century far more effectively. And it
has been employed in this century. When the German Emperor dispatched the
gunboat to Agadir bringing on the acute crisis with France, I happened
to be in Paris. On the fourth day of the crisis I was having luncheon
at the Grand Hotel with a young French banker of the Credit Lyonnais. I
remarked on the fact that the crisis was becoming less acute and inquired
the reason. “We are withdrawing our French investments from Germany,” was
the rejoinder, “and that economic pressure is relieving the situation.”
As we all know, it not only relieved the situation but it served as a
definite means to prevent a war that seemed imminent. Now I submit that a
force which England could use against Spain in the Sixteenth Century and
that France could use against Germany in the Twentieth Century—in each
case let me remind you a single nation was applying force against another
single nation and that nation its enemy—I submit that that force can be
applied by all nations collectively against another nation that refuses
to settle in a World Court a justiciable issue.