No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
The United Nations*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2014
Extract
The fruits of victory in a world war are never easy to appraise and perhaps it is not wise to look this gift horse of Providence too closely in the mouth. We cannot say with any degree of confidence what our condition would have been if we had lost the war, if we had made a compromise peace, or if we had avoided the conflict altogether by submitting to the will of the enemy. And the results of victory consist only in part in escaping the unpleasant consequences of defeat and the possibly less distasteful consequences of compromise or submission. They include, as well, a fleeting opportunity to reorganize the world on better lines.
So probable is it that this opportunity will vanish in abject failure, as similar opportunities have vanished in the past, and so little can anyone do to enhance its prospects of success, that it bears some resemblance to an expensive lottery ticket, whose holder has paid a high price for an infinitesimal chance of winning a great prize. Mathematics may reveal to us (as they did to Pascal) that an infinitesimal chance may have an immense value if the prize is adequate; but psychologically even the most inveterate of gamblers will shrink from backing an argument such as this.
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , August 1948 , pp. 312 - 320
- Copyright
- Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1948
Footnotes
*
This paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association in Vancouver, June 15, 1948.
References
1 The extensive character of the possible sanctions is analysed in a paper which I read on behalf of its author, Hans Kelsen, at the annual meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association in Toronto on May 24, 1946. It has been published in this Journal, vol. XII, no. 4, p. 429.
2 Mr. Justice Byrnes is willing to interpret the Charter more freely: “It is a fact that the Security Council cannot require the member states to take action unless there is unanimity among the permanent members. But that does not mean that the members are not free to act, and should not regard themselves as morally bound to act, if there is a clear violation of the Charter.” Byrnes, James F., Speaking Frankly (New York, 1947), p. 312.Google Scholar
3 See the article by Hans Kelsen cited earlier.
4 The phrase is Mr. Pearson's.
5 Address to the Toronto Board of Trade, Jan. 26, 1948.
6 Contrat Social, chap. V: “C'est pour n'être pas la victime d'un assassin que l'on consent à mourir si on le devient.”
7 Quoted in Mr. L. B. Pearson's January 26 address to the Toronto Board of Trade.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid.