As the 20th Century began and hopes surfaced for a new and optimistic age, Winston Churchill made the following statement:
“Europe is now groaning beneath the weight of armies. There is scarcely an important government whose finances are not embarrassed; there is not a Parliament of people from whom the cry of weariness has not been wrung.
“What a pity it would be if, just at the moment when there is a good hope of a change, our statesmen were to commit us to the old and vicious policy. Is it not a much more splendid dream that this realm of England. . . should be found bold enough and strong enough to send forth . . . the message which the Russian Emperor tried vainly to proclaim: that the cruel and clanking struggle of armaments is drawing to a close, and that with the new century has come a clearer and calmer sky.”
Winston Churchill, 1901
