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Don't think that I underrate the very great debt we owe to the old diplomacy. Before the new system came into existence, diplomacy was the only prote… - Robert Cecil
" "Don't think that I underrate the very great debt we owe to the old diplomacy. Before the new system came into existence, diplomacy was the only protection we had against war; and its achievements were of the utmost importance and value to the human race. But perhaps it is natural that, with rare exceptions, the whole strength of this very powerful organization has been against the new ideas and new principles at Geneva. The old diplomat liked to move with deliberation, in secret, following well-established traditions and working through what he loved to describe as "the usual channels". To him, the open debate carried on, not by professional diplomats, but by politicians and statesmen having little regard for the use of the technical phraseology of diplomacy and intent merely on reaching results which would make diplomacy unnecessary, was offensive to all his instincts.
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About Robert Cecil
Edgar Algernon Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood (14 September 1864 – 24 November 1958) was a lawyer, politician and diplomat. He was one of the architects of the League of Nations and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1937. Although both have been known as Lord Robert Cecil, he should not be confused with his father, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, nor with the much earlier Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury.
Also Known As
Birth Name:
Robert Gascoyne Viscount Cecil
Alternative Names:
Edgar Algernon Robert Gascoyne-Cecil
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Lord Robert Cecil
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Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood
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Edgar Algernon Robert Gascoyne Viscount Cecil of Chelwood
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Edgar Algernon Robert Cecil
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Additional quotes by Robert Cecil
We see the world as it is now, after these defeats of the League, and we can compare it with what it was six or seven years ago. The comparison is certainly depressing; the contrast is terrible. And we have not yet reached a time when we can estimate the full material losses and human suffering which have been the direct result of the ambitions of one set of powers and the weakness of the others. Nor is there any purpose in attempting to do so. Let us, rather, examine where we now stand and what steps we ought to take in order to strengthen the international system and thrust back again the forces of reaction. In the first place, let us admit that the first ten years of the League were in a sense unnatural. The horror of war to which I have already alluded was necessarily far more vivid than it can be expected long to remain. That tremendous argument for peace, the horror of war, was a diminishing asset. Most of us, at that time, were, I think, quite well aware that unless we could get the international system into solidly effective working order in the first ten years, we were likely to have great difficulties in the succeeding period, and so it has proved.
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During the earlier years of the League we were fortunate in having many statesmen of outstanding ability who were convinced supporters of international cooperation under the League Covenant. … It is enough to say that under the leadership of those great men the first ten years of the League of Nations was a period of almost unbroken prosperity. The League moved from strength to strength. It established its organization and its Secretariat — a very remarkable achievement which has worked extremely well. Then, too, came the Permanent Court of International Justice, which has also been a very marked success and which, I trust, will establish ultimately the rule of law in all international affairs.
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