| We are told now of
the so called independence of the States and of their treaties with the
Paramount Power which are sacrosanct and inviolable and apparently must
go on for ever and ever. We have recently seen what happens to international
treaties and the most sacred of convenants when they do not suit the purpose
of Imperialism. We have seen these treaties torn up, friends and allies
basely deserted and betrayed and the pledged word broken by England and
France. Democracy and freedom were the sufferers and so it did not matter.
But when reaction and autocracy and imperialism stand to lose, it does
matter and treaties, however moth-eaten and harmful to the people they
might be, have to be preserved. It is a monstrous imposition to be asked
to put up with these treaties of a century and a quarter ago, in the making
of which the people had no voice or say. It is fantastic to expect the
people keep on their chains of slavery, imposed upon them by force an fraud,
and to submit to a system which crushes the life-blood out of them. We
recognise no such treaties and we shall in no event accept them. The only
final authority and paramount power that we recognise is the will of the
people, and the only thing that counts ultimately is the good of the people. |