"What struck me at the League was the prestige in which our Government and our Prime Minister are held. What has struck hon. Members who have listened to this Debate is the fact that public opinion in the dictator countries has conceived a profound admiration for our Prime Minister and our country. Our country, therefore, is the country which is in a priceless position for securing the future of peace...It seems to me that we have two choices either to settle our differences with Germany by consultation, or to face the inevitability of a clash between the two systems of democracy and dictatorship. In considering this, I must emphatically give my opinion as one of the younger generation. War settles nothing, and I see no alternative to the policy upon which the Prime Minister has so courageously set himself—the construction of peace, with the aid which I have described. There is no other country which can achieve this, and I ask hon. and right hon. Gentlemen opposite sincerely to believe that in our efforts to understand, to consult with and, if possible, to get friendship with Germany, we do not abandon by one jot or tittle the democratic beliefs which are the very core of our whole being and system. In conclusion, I must gratify the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Wakefield by quoting Shakespeare. The right hon. Gentleman will remember the little poem "Under the Greenwood Tree"—"Here shall he see" "No enemy," "But winter and rough weather". We have the winter before us, and we have a great deal of political rough weather, but in that rough weather, do not let us forget the joint idea of peace which animates us all."
React to this quote
More by Rab Butler
See allResonant Thoughts
"As the imperialist countries attained a high degree of wealth and affluence— the result both of scientific and technical progress and of their plunder of the nations of Asia and Africa— these individu…"
"It is admitted that the power of taxing the people and their property is essential to the very existence of Government, and may be legitimately exercised on the objects to which it is applicable, to t…"
Explore Further
Related Quotes
"I believe that simplifying municipal work so that all citizens can understand exactly what the city governm…"
— Cheng Wen-tsan"The key to efficiency, for the New Class, was to remove as much of life as possible from the domain of "pol…"
— Kevin Carson"Moreover, the entire international trading system is prone to corruption and bribery by foreign contractors."
— Michel Chossudovsky"I do believe that the president of Venezuela is really, really destroying his own country, economically, po…"
— Condoleezza Rice"If you release a game in a bad state, you will always regret it."
— Shigeru Miyamoto"The British people won't be scared into backing a woeful Brexit deal nobody voted for"
— Boris Johnson