SECURITY AND THE PROTOCOL.
For me to discuss the bearing of the Protocol of Geneva upon the
security of States means that I go outside my brief.
No technical juristic reasoning is applicable to a feeling which lies
at the heart of national sentiments, sentiments of patriotism and of
devotion to country, which are as deep rooted in the souls of millions
as are the love of family and the belief in religion.
This matter of security is in verity a matter of national feeling, a
state of mind in the truest sense. For no human agency, no belief, no
will, outside of the country concerned, can alter or affect it.
Ourselves alone must say, we and our rulers, whether or not we are in
fact secure--if we say yes, that is enough; but if we say no, it is not
for any one else to question, much less for any one else to seek to
argue the matter.
So I shall merely seek to state the theory of the Protocol in regard to
this matter of security. That theory is this: if the nations of the
world will agree to outlaw war, if they will agree to substitute law
for force, to settle by pacific means all disputes among them, if they
will agree to unite against any people which so agrees but then betrays
humanity by tearing up its own agreement, then we may develop
intra-nationally a belief in security, a confidence in a settled order,
a hope for the future, which will slowly but inevitably disarm the
forces for war and lift the curtain on a new day.
Such is the theory of the Protocol of Geneva.
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