Speaking on a Pacificist amendment to the Address, which secured
only twenty-eight votes on a division, Mr. Balfour took the opportunity of explaining, what should be the very obvious truth, that diplomacy was out of court as far as the Central Powers were concerned. Their principles and ours were so utterly divergent that it would be useless to talk about peace with their Ministers. No Peace Conference could be fruitful until the belligerents had attained a certain community of ideas .and aims. The complaint that the Versailles Conference had confined 'itself to the military work in hand—a complaint echoed by Mr. Runciman—was pointless, for Germany was still unrepentant and still resolved to dominate the world. Lord Robert Cecil closed the debate with a very effective speech in which he paid special attention to .Mr. Snowden's un- founded charges against the good faith of Greet Britain and France.
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