600.0031 World Program/157½

The King of the Belgians ( Leopold III ) to President Roosevelt 23

My Dear President and Friend: My Prime Minister, on his return from the United States, conveyed to me your kind message which greatly touched me and for which I thank you most sincerely.

He gave me an account of the conversation that you had with him: I was impressed by what you said about the necessity to draw the world’s attention to something quite new.

I am taking this opportunity to send you the copy of a letter that I have just addressed to Monsieur van Zeeland and I hope that you will consider with interest the ideas that I have exposed in it.

Believe me, dear President,

Yours very sincerely

Léopold
[Enclosure—Translation]24

The King of the Belgians ( Leopold III ) to the Belgian Prime Minister ( Van Zeeland )

My Dear Prime Minister: When one reflects on the disorganized state in which Humanity is plunged, a feeling of deep anxiety causes the future to appear in a very obscure light.

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So it is necessary to encourage with strength and conviction every attempt at organization, the pursuit of which can lift the mind toward an ideal of human solidarity.

This consideration emphasizes the importance of the mission that Great Britain and France confided, thanks to your assistance, to Belgium, and which has gone far beyond the bounds generally attributed to it, as it may lead to a search for the elements of an organization of world economy.

The welcome that you received across the Atlantic is an indication of the friendly sentiments of the United States of America regarding the effort owed to the initiative of Great Britain and France. These three Nations thus bring us the proof of their generous desire to take part actively in the establishment of a better order, which the entire world demands.

The increased burden that you have taken on yourself, by accepting this heavy task, will arouse the gratitude of all who understand its true aim and who measure its vast extent.

When you are ready to set forth the preliminary results of your inquiry, allow me to make you a suggestion: it might be essential, I think, to bring into being some organism for economic studies, the value of which would be stamped by its three-fold character of universality, permanence and independence. A search for the elements of an organization of world-wide economy and a continuous adaptation of this organization to the constant variations in the factors of the economy, such would be the object of the studies of this institution.

The economic science, derived essentially from life, submits to the rhythm of the latter, and the problems it poses can not receive any immutable solution.

Finally, to be apt for the fulfilment of its mission, the institution contemplated must be as independent as possible of national influences.

Undeniably, it is very difficult to isolate the field of economy from political contingencies. But it is precisely this difficulty that constitutes the knotty point of the problem you have undertaken and on which all our efforts must be concentrated.

Under these conditions, the principal point would be that the suggested institution should be able to depend on the collaboration of persons who—all over the world—are best acquainted with the ensemble of questions relating to industry, commerce, agriculture, finance and labor. These persons would lend their aid, by reason of their personal competence, and not in pursuance of orders given them.

The lowering of tariff barriers, not more than any other partial measure, can alone put an end to the disorder that threatens peace. If we really wish to avoid war and to bring men back to a more [Page 687] pacific state of mind, we must have the courage to envisage the economic question in its generality and to furnish a solution to the great problems which threateningly confront Humanity as a whole:

—the distribution of raw materials,—the distribution of means of exchange,—the international division of labor,—the equilibrium between agricultural and industrial nations, etc.

I do not have any illusion in regard to the difficulties that the realization of so extensive a program admits. I have the conviction, nevertheless, that the moment is favorable to attempt it, and that we should be able to hope to find, in the accomplishment of this effort, not only the support of all Governments, but likewise the approbation and support of great collective bodies of social, religious and philanthropic character; in a word, of all men who have in their hearts a desire for understanding and solidarity.

We can not affect ignorance of the fact that whole segments of the human community no longer understand one another.

If a first step can be made to bringing them together, we should bring to Humanity, and notably to the Orient—otherwise than by our words—the proof that the Occident places above immediate prepossessions of a material order the spiritual force emanating from a true feeling of fraternity.

Believe me, my dear Prime Minister, devotedly yours,

Léopold
  1. Photostatic copy obtained from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N. Y.
  2. Translation supplied by the editors.