Charles Albert Gobat Quotes

#1. If we examine the Hague Convention carefully, we see that it considers the offer of good offices a duty of every nation. In other words, such offers should be made whenever a dispute becomes critical and threatens to explode into war.

Charles Albert Gobat

#2. No government, no head of state, made any attempt to avert or arrest the Boer War.

Charles Albert Gobat

#3. Ordinary citizens are obliged and, if need be, compelled by force to meet their commitments. But let higher obligations of an international order be involved, and governments repudiate them, more often than not with a disdainful shrug of the shoulders.

Charles Albert Gobat

#4. Compulsory arbitration is a practical instrument of pacification and, as such, it can and should be enacted by the Hague Conference.

Charles Albert Gobat

#5. It is highly probable that in most cases, war could be avoided or ended. For discussions allow passion to subside, and to persuade alienated neighbors, or at least one of them, to listen to the voice of a conciliator is a step in the direction of peace.

Charles Albert Gobat