With a right comity of arrangement no nation need be shut away from free access to the open paths of the world’s commerce.
 Woodrow Wilson, A World League For Peace (22 January 1917). copy citation

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Author Woodrow Wilson
Source A World League For Peace
Topic access nation
Date 22 January 1917
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6870/6870-h/6870-h.htm#1

Context

“So far as practicable, moreover, every great people now struggling toward a full development of its resources and of its powers should be assured a direct outlet to the great highways of the sea. Where this cannot be done by the cession of territory, it can no doubt be done by the neutralization of direct rights of way under the general guarantee which will assure the peace itself. With a right comity of arrangement no nation need be shut away from free access to the open paths of the world’s commerce. And the paths of the sea must alike in law and in fact be free. The freedom of the seas is the sine qua non of peace, equality, and co-operation.
No doubt a somewhat radical reconsideration of many of the rules of international practice hitherto sought 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.” source