15370 OPENING ADDRESS THE LIBRARY OF THE MAY 6-1937 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS INTER-AMERICAN CONFER MAINTE The primary purpose of this Conference is to banish war from the Western Hemisphere. In its earnest pursuit of this great undertaking, it is necessary at the outset to visualize numerous dangerous conditions and practices in general international affairs to the extent that they bear upon and affect the work of this Conference. It is manifest that every country today is faced with a supreme alternative. Each must play its part in determining whether the world will slip backward toward war and savagery, or whether it can maintain and will advance the level of civilization and peace. None can escape its responsibility. The 21 American republics cannot remain unconcerned by the grave and threatening conditions in many parts of the world. Our convocation here in Buenos Aires utters this hemisphere's common voice of its interest, nay, its intense concern, over the determination of this momentous question. The repercussions of wars and preparations for wars have been so universally disastrous that it is now as plain ♪ as mathematical truth that each nation in any part of the world is concerned in peace in every part of the world. The nations of all the Americas, through their chosen delegates, have assembled to make careful survey and analysis of all aspects of their responsibilities; to take account of their common duties; and C. V. 25-27, 1 Delivered by the Honorable Cordell Hull, Secretary of State of the United States and Chairman of the American Delegation to the Inter-American Conference for the Maintenance of Peace, at Buenos Aires, Argentina, Dec. 5, 1936, 2 p. m., eastern standard time. 991851 |