No doubt a somewhat radical reconsideration of many of the
rules of international practice hitherto thought to be established may
be necessary in order to make the seas indeed free and common in
practically all circumstances for the use of mankind, but the motive for
such changes is convincing and compelling. There can be no trust or
intimacy between the peoples of the world without them. The free,
constant, unthreatened intercourse of nations is an essential part of
the process of peace and of development. It need not be difficult either
to define or to secure the freedom of the seas if the governments of the
world sincerely desire to come to an agreement concerning it.
It is a problem closely connected with the limitation of naval armaments
and the cooeperation of the navies of the world in keeping the seas at
once free and safe. And the question of limiting naval armaments opens
the wider and perhaps more difficult question of the limitation of
armies and of all programs of military preparation. Difficult and
delicate as these questions are, they must be faced with the utmost
candor and decided in a spirit of real accommodation if peace is to come
with healing in its wings, and come to stay.
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