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nIE DISARMAMENT CONFERENCE OF 1932 99
The results of technical progress are most baleful where they
fumish means for the destrUction of human life and the hardwon
fruits of toil, as we of the older generation experienced to
our horror in the World War. More dreadful even than the
destruction, in my opinion, is the humiliating slavery into which
war plunges the individual. Is it not a terrible thing to be
forced by society to do things wlllch all of us as individuals
regard as abominable crimes? Only a few had the moral great·
ness to resist; them I regard as the real heroes of the World War.
There is one ray of hope. I believe that today the responsible
leaders of the nations do, in the main, honestly desire to
abolish war. The resistance to this absolutely necessary step
arises from those unfortunate national traditions which are
handed on like a hereditary disease from generation to generation
through the workings of the educational system. But the
principal vehicle of this tradition is military training and its
glorification, and, equally, that portion of the Press which is
controlled by heavy industry and the military. Without disarmament
there can be no lasting peace. Conversely, the continuation
of the armament race on the present scale will inevitably
lead to new catastrophes.
That is why the Disarmament Conference of 1932 will decide
the fate of this generation and the next. When one thinks how
pitiable, on the whole, have been the results of former conferences,
it becomes clear that it is the duty of all intelligent
and responsible people to exert their full powers to remind
public opinion again and again of the importance of the 1932
Conference. Only if the statesmen have behind them the will to
peace of a decisive majority in their own countries can they
attain their great end, and for the formation of this public opinion
each one of us is responsible in every word and deed.
The doom of the Conference would be sealed if the delegates
came to it with ready-made instructions for a policy: to impose
it on the Conference would at once become a matter of prestige.
This seems to be generally realized. For meetings between the
statesmen of two nations at a time, which have become very frequent
of late, have been used to prepare the ground for the Conference
by conversations about the disarmament problem. This