Date: 2 February 1933
Location: Geneva
Speaker: Aga Khan III
Source: Speeches of Aga Khan III – K K Aziz
Full Text
Love of peace among Indians – call to the member nations to resolve their differences – goal of security and disarmament Western superiority in science and invention but not in spirit and morals – Asian countries’ appeal to use science for beneficial pur poses – the positive effort of co-operation – Ramsay MacDonald’s plan for disarmament – the draft convention.
The Aga Khan (India) supported whole-heartedly the appeal from the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to all parties to the Conference to make what contribution they could towards the promotion of the spirit of peace and the will to pursue peace. At one of the plenary meetings over a year ago, he had ventured to use the following words:”I am speaking here for many millions of my fellow countrymen, who place the love of peace and the repudiation of violence among the first of the human virtues; with them, the ideal of peace is no mere economic expedient; it is an element deep-rooted in their very nature. That is the spirit which it is my task to reflect in making what contribution I can to the proceed ings of this Conference.”
In the same spirit, he appealed to his fellow-delegates and to the Governments they represented to make the supreme effort called for at the present moment to resolve differences between them and to face the crisis in the deliberations of the Conference with a firm resolution to avert the great risk – indeed, the cer tainty – of disaster to international relations and to world peace which would be involved in the Conference’s failure or even in its adjournment without conclusive results achieved in the twin spheres of security and disarmament.
In making these remarks, he was thinking in particular of the continent of Europe. To-day, in India, and probably in other parts of Asia, all sections of society were convinced that in science and invention, Western culture had reached a far higher standard than Asiatic, but the peoples of Asia did not admit any superiority of the West in the realms of spirit and morals. Nevertheless, the Indians and their friends in Asia were grateful for the practical lessons they had learned from Europe.
They wished to absorb the methods of applied science, with all the benefits they offered to mankind in the mass and in the individual. But they had seen, too, how science and civilization could be shaped to the purposes of warfare and destruction of culture. Could they not fairly appeal to Europe to show a still better way, the way to harmonious co-operation and international unity in the new command of natural forces for the benefit rather than the destruction of fellow-men? Europe must face her responsibility – whether she would go down before history as the one who had taught Asia how to improve the material conditions of men, or how to destroy them.
In the present Conference, and outside it, the theory of insuring against war by armed preparation had been given too prominent a place. To think, to speak, or to act as though war was not only a possibility, but an imminent probability, was the surest way of bringing about that indescribable disaster. Let men talk of peace, let them think in terms of peace, and they would achieve, not only the success of the Conference, but peace as well, that peace which was not merely the absence of war, but a positive effort of co-operation amongst the nations of the world towards a Society of Nations.
With regard to the procedure for attaining the successful issue of the Conference, he fully agreed with Mr. MacDonald that the time had come to face the facts, however unpalatable, and to pass, for the time being, from the study of details in compartments to the consideration of a complete plan of disarmament. He particularly welcomed the plan put forward by Mr. MacDonald because it brought the Conference face to face with concrete proposals based on specific facts and figures, to which delegations must give a definite answer. Further, it had the great merit of bringing together the different issues involved, and seeking an answer to each in relation to the rest. While it was true that the Conference was thus confronted with numerous proposals, not all of which were likely to be acceptable to anyone, the project nevertheless assumed a certain rough balance which made it possible to view it as a whole and which should facilitate a decision on each part thereof. On some such basis as the docu ment before the commission he hoped and believed that common agreement would be possible, if all the nations were determined to approach the problem in a mood of conciliation and compromise. The draft convention represented no more than a first draft of the instrument the signature of which by the representatives of all States would be the happy conclusion of the Conference’s work. There might be adjustments which could and must be made in the draft if the legitimate needs of various countries were to be met, in accordance with Article 8 of the Covenant. There were, without doubt, points of detail which would require careful consideration and concerning which he, and no doubt others, would wish to speak in due course. But in its general outline, the draft convention was a document which, on behalf of India, he welcomed most warmly as a means of enabling the delegations to co-ordinate their efforts and to reach an early conclusion of their work.
Source: N. M. Budhwani (ed.), The Aga Khan and the League of Nations, Dhoraji, 1938, pp. 39-44.