"In 1919 we pledged our honour as a country that we would disarm as soon as possible, and other countries did the same. In the face of that Germany accepted the Treaty of Versailles. We had done nothing. We had offered a Disarmament Conference which might well make the gods laugh if they desired the destruction of the human race. We had got to realize the extraordinary gravity of the European situation—the pass to which the National Government had brought the world. The worst Foreign Secretary for 200 years had led this country into folly after folly in the international field. They ought to warn the Government that in no circumstances would they break any of the pacts they had made not to go to war. There was only one effective way in which they could make that threat effective...and that was to call a general strike. It was for the people of this country, in answer to that call, to put themselves behind the trade unions and to compel the trade unions to draw up plans immediately for that great resistance."
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Members of the Parliament of the United KingdomFellows of the Royal SocietyLawyers from EnglandLabour Party (UK) politiciansChancellors of the Exchequer
Original Language: English
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Speech in Bristol (28 October 1933), quoted in The Times (30 October 1933), p. 14
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stafford_Cripps
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Stafford Cripps
Sir Richard Stafford Cripps (24 April 1889 – 21 April 1952) was a British Labour Party politician, barrister, and diplomat. He served as British Ambassador to the Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II, and later joined Prime Minister Winston Churchill's war cabinet. He later served as President of the Board of Trade and Chancellor of the Exchequer under Prime Minister Clement Attlee.
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