You have the further connection of the attitude of America to the
problem. America said, officially through Mr. Hoover and unofficially
through a number of her leading financiers, that she was not ready to
come forward and take her share in the economic restoration of Europe so
long as Europe is squandering its resources upon arms. The connection is
quite definitely and explicitly recognised in the Covenant of the League
of Nations. Article 8 begins: "The principles of the League recognise
that the maintenance of peace requires reduction of national armaments
to the lowest point consistent with national safety, and the enforcement
by common action of international obligations." These words were
promulgated in 1919. Personally, I find myself in complete agreement
with what Lord Robert Cecil said this morning, and what Lord Grey said a
few days ago at Newcastle, that one of the prime causes of the war was
Prussian militarism. By that I mean the influence of that tremendous
military machine, which had been built up through years of labour in
Germany, in moulding the public opinion of that country.


A GROUP OF NEW ARMIES

Well, how do we stand in regard to that to-day? We stand to-day in the
position that the armaments of Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, have
all been compulsorily drastically reduced, but in their place you have a
whole group of new armies. You have armies to-day which did not exist
before the war, in Finland, Esthonia, Poland, Lithuania, and
Czecho-Slovakia, and the sum total is that at this moment there are more
armed men in time of peace in Europe than in 1913. Is there no danger
that this machine will mould the minds of some other peoples, just as
the German machine moulded the minds of the Germans? This is the