On 14 August 1941 US President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill made the following declaration of “certain common principles in the national policies of their respective countries on which they base their hopes for a better future of the world.” [...]
Internationaler Tonfilm? (1931) Der stumme Film war keineswegs in dem Sinne international, in dem die landwirtschaftlichen Maschinen und die Kragenknöpfchen es sind. Gewiß, da er das Glück hatte, keine Worte machen zu müssen – es sei denn in den Bildtiteln, die leicht übersetzbar waren –, konnte er überall hindringen, wo man zu sehen verstand. Aber die Sprache der Bilder ist kaum minder national bedingt wie die der Musik. Und so wenig die musikalische Ausdrucksweise eines Volkes einem anderen ohne weiteres einzugehen vermag, ebensowenig entsprechen die visuellen Verständigungsmittel der verschiedenen Nationen von vornherein einem natürlichen Esperanto. […]
A segregated Germany, which developed in a manner unrelated to Western Europe would constitute a danger to Western Europe and our objectives. Economically, the interrelationship of Germany and the rest of Western Europe is so close and Germany’s economic potential so great that if it were again to pursue a policy of seeking only its own economic well-being and the greatest degree of autarchy, it might well dominate Western Europe.[...]
The undersigned writers, comprising amongst them men and women of the most divergent political and social views, some of them having been for years ardent champions of good will towards Germany, and many of the extreme advocates of peace, are nevertheless agreed that Great Britain could not without dishonour have refused to take part in the present war. [...]
The world has just passed through an agony of pain compared to which the French Revolution was a mere incident. The shock has been so great that it has killed the last spark of hope in the breasts of million of men. They were chanting a hymn of progress, and four years of slaughter followed their prayers for peace. “Is it worth while,” so they ask, “to work and slave for the benefit of creatures who have not yet passed beyond the stage of the earliest cave men?” [...]