Page:Paul Samuel Reinsch - Secret Diplomacy, How Far Can It Be Eliminated? - 1922.djvu/223



dence making all our intercourse absolutely open. There certainly need not be any secrets between the United States and the great commonwealths of Canada and Australia. Our interests, our con- dition, our institutions, all make for the closest understanding. Through them there may be also realized that harmony which ought by every nor- mal reason to exist between the United States and the English people, and which is disturbed only from time to time when the policy of the British government is determined more from the point of view of the supposed needs of the British Em- pire in India, than of that of the true tradition of the English-speaking world. I do not think of treaties or of alliances, but of something much stronger an intimate understanding among peo- ples, based on mutual trust and confidence, and the consciousness of a common destiny, common purposes, and a common belief in the things which alone will prevent civilization from extinguishing itself in senseless hatreds.