Anthony Eden

“ We must never forget that Germany is the worst master Europe has yet known. Five times in the last century she has violated the peace. She must never be in a position to play that role again. Our political and military terms of peace will be designed to prevent a repetition of Germany's misdeeds. ”

“ In the actions we have now taken we are not concerned to stop Egypt, but to stop war. None the less, it is a fact that there is no Middle Eastern problem at present which could not have been settled or bettered but for the hostile and irresponsible policies of Egypt in recent years, and there is no hope of a general settlement of the many outstanding problems in that area so long as Egyptian propaganda and policy continues its present line of violence. ”

“ But if peace brings disappointment and such conditions continue beyond the disciplined period of war, social security can hardly survive.
No one can suppose that the economic reorganization of Europe after the Allied victory will be an easy task. But we shall not shirk our opportunity and our responsibility to bear our share of the burdens. The peaceful brotherhood of nations, with due liberty to each to develop its own balanced economic life and its characteristic culture, will be the common object. ”

“ The lasting settlement and internal peace of the Continent as a whole is our only aim. The fact that at the bottom of his heart every combatant knows this is the ultimate source of our strength. To every neutral, satellite or conquered country, it is obvious that our victory is, for the most fundamental and unalterable reasons, to their plain advantage. ”

“ The Government remain convinced that we could have done no other and discharge our national duty. Now, it is, of course, an obvious truth that safety of transit through the Canal, though clearly of concern to the United States, is for them not a matter of survival as it is to us and, indeed, to all Europe and many other lands. Indeed, Mr. Dulles himself made this clear on 28th August, when he said the United States’ economy is not dependent upon the Canal. ”

“ And social security will be our policy abroad not less than at home. It will be our wish to work with others to prevent the starvation of the post-armistice period, the currency disorders throughout Europe, and the wide fluctuations of employment, markets and prices which were the cause of so much misery in the twenty years between the two wars. We shall seek to achieve this in many ways which will interfere as little as possible with the proper liberty of each country over its own economic fortunes. ”

“ The countries of the British Empire and their Allies, with the United States and South America, alone are in a position to carry out such a policy. For irrespective of the nature of the political settlement, continental Europe will end this war starved and bankrupt of all the foods and raw materials which she was accustomed to obtain from the rest of the world. She will have no means, unaided, of breaking the vicious circle. She can export few goods until she has, first of all, received the necessary raw materials. ”

“ We have no desire whatever, nor have the French Government, that the military action that we shall have to take should be more than temporary in its duration, but it is our intention that our action to protect the Canal and separate the combatants should result in a settlement which will prevent such a situation arising in the future. ”

“ So it is that Nazism seems to pretend to itself that there might be some permanence in the thralldom it imposes. And so it is that Hitler has found it necessary to give some decent covering to the naked policy of terror and robbery on which he has embarked in Europe. He has for this purpose invented what he calls "The New Order." Hitler pretends that this New Order is to bring prosperity and happiness to those countries which have been robbed by him of their liberty and their normal means of livelihood. ”

“ There has never been anything so brutally thorough in all history. Hitlerism imposes servitude not only on the body but on the mind and even on the spirit. It is serfdom made absolute. It is tyranny imposed by a military machine of immense power; it is tyranny by an utterly ruthless despotism. ”

“ We have taken the only action which we could clearly see would be effective in holding the belligerents apart and which would give us some chance to re-establish the peace of the area. In entering the Suez Canal area we are only protecting a vital international waterway. ”

“ Let no one suppose, however, that we for our part intend to return to the chaos of the old world. To do so would bankrupt us no less than others. When peace comes we shall make such relaxations of our war-time financial arrangements as will permit the revival of international trade on the widest possible basis. ”

“ The right economic outcome after the war requires on our part no exceptional unselfishness but will require constructive imagination. It is obvious that we have no motive of self-interest prompting us to the economic exploitation either of Germany or of the rest of Europe. ”

“ It is the establishment of an international economic system, capable of translating the technical possibilities of production into actual plenty, and maintaining the whole population in a continuous fruitful activity, which is difficult. The world cannot expect to solve the economic riddle easily or completely. But the free nations of America, the Dominions and ourselves alone possess a command of the material means. ”

“ He is the alien and the oppressor. Wherever Germany's vast armies of occupation are stationed the men of those armies know that the peoples whom they hold in subjection by their presence pray for their defeat and flight. The Nazi uniform is the emblem of servitude in all these lands. So it is that the Nazi is building up against himself a flood unparalleled in force and volume. When the dam bursts it will sweep Hitler and his gang away, the Gestapo, the Quislings, and the satellites, and much else besides. ”

“ The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants-everywhere in the world. ”

“ Shipping will be short and local organization in Europe in a state of collapse. It is, therefore, important to begin in good time the discussion of priorities and allocations. Our friends and allies now represented in London will tell us what their liberated countries will need most urgently, in order that we may all co-operate and be ready for prompt action. ”

“ Institutions and arrangements of international finance must be so set up that they lend aid to the essential enterprises and continuous development of all countries and permit payment through processes of trade consonant with the welfare of all countries. ”

“ It is a fixed and deliberate policy of subjection. The next step in the "New Order" for Europe is the creation of slaves.
Hitler has destroyed the bases of political and social co-operation throughout Europe and he is destroying her economic structure. The future of Europe will depend on how moral and material reconstruction is brought about throughout the world. ”

“ Currency devices will fix the terms of exchange between Germany's industrial products and the output of the other States, so as to maintain a standard of life in Germany much above that of her neighbours. ”

“ It is this man and his satellites, all except the Deputy Führer, now otherwise engaged, who control the lives and liberties of all who dwell in these vast territories. In all these lands once free, no man or woman can by any legal means read in a newspaper, hear on the wireless, or harbour a thought of which the Führer does not approve. ”

“ Wasteful wartime cultivations in many lands will leave agriculture almost as weak as industry. Thus Europe will face the vast problem of general demobilization with a general lack of the necessary means to put men back to work. ”

“ The huge latent demand for food, clothing and other articles of prime necessity which cannot be satisfied under war conditions will, he went on to say, again become active after the signature of the peace treaty, but the production of such commodities will not for a long while exceed war-time output. ”

“ We cannot now foresee when the end will come. But it is in the nature of a machine so rigid as the German to break suddenly and with little warning. When it comes, the need of succour to the European peoples will be urgent. ”