PUGWASH ADDRESS
Cyrus Eaton Accepting
International Lenin Peace Prize Award
Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Canada
July 1, 1960
Dr. Nicholson, Professor Skobeltzyn, Ambassador Menshikov and Ambassador Aroutunian, other distinguished visitors from many lands, neighbors and friends, this is a proud and happy moment in my life. I thank all of you for coming here today, but especially Professor Skobeltzyn. He has been exceedingly generous to take so much
time away from his important work to come from Moscow to my native Pugwash for this occasion.
I accept the International Lenin Peace Prize with the warmest gratitude. I accept it not so much as recognition of my personal efforts for better world understanding, but as evidence of the earnest desire of the Soviet people and their government for peace
on earth and good will to all mankind. This, I must emphatically add, is a wish devoutly shared by most Americans and Canadians.
In these troubled times, when bitterness and misunderstanding have broken out
anew, just as we finally seemed to be attaining firm enough world friendship to ensure
peace, a special significance can be found in today's ceremony. For the USSR, leader
of the socialist 'nations, to pay such respect to an acknowledged apostle of capitalism
from the USA, leader of the capitalist countries, offers a hopeful omen for brighter days
ahead.
I have said before, and I repeat, that I sincerely believe Premier Khrushchev's
United Nations address of September, 1959, with i1;8 clearly outlined disarmament program,
will go down as one of the historic utterances of modern years. I have not the
least doubt that Premier Khrushchev and the members of his government would like to
concentrate the immense resources of their vast country not on the costly modern instruments
of annihilation, but on more and better homes and schools, on industrial and
agricultural progress, and on physical fitness and intellectual excellence.
Everyone certainly understands that peace depends on the efforts of all countries,
and not on the efforts of the Soviet Union alone. It is a matter for .. egret that the Soviet
proposals for general and complete disarmament have not met; with the sympathetic response
to which they are entitled.
Pugwash represents a uniquely felicitous choice of place for today's proceedings.
This is the home of our Thinkers Conferences, where schol3..rs and scientists have been
gathering for some years to strive for warmer international understanding and to seek
renewal of intellectual life. Here, in 1957, we held the world's first postwar meeting
of scientists from East and West, to consider ways and means of diminishing the mortal
hazards of nuclear warfare. At the conclusion of this original nuclear conference, the
eminent French participant eloquently predicted that Pugwash, though only a village,
would live in history with Austerlitz and Waterloo, two other villages that marked a
drastic change in the course of human events.
In the past six years, more than 20 conferences have been held under the Pugwash
name, in the United States and Europe, as well as here. Five 01 them have been scientific
meetings, bringing together a total of 112 authorities from 23 capitalist and socialist
nations, to deal with the grave problems of biologic3.1 and chemical as well as nuclear
weapons. Through these conclaves, the name Pugwash has come to stand in many parts
of the globe as the synonym for peace.
Seeing so many of my friends and neighbors here today recalls the last large
assemblage I witnessed in this village, on June 20, 1897,. when we celebrated the Diamond
Jubilee of Queen Victoria's reign. Posters that were put up everywhere. to proclaim
the magnificent festival, were emblazoned with a map of the globe. showing the
British possessions colored in red and triumphantly declaring. We hold an Empire on
which the sun never sets. 'I With the rest of the world, the British Empire has undergone
vast evolution and change. The ambitions of empire that they obtained have yielded to
other ideals.
During the ensuing 63 years have come almost incredible scientific discoveries
and advances, Who would have been optimistic enough to believe then that it would one
day be possible to communicate almost instantaneously with every part of the world, or
to fly in a few hours to the most remote corner of the earth? Who would have been pessimistic
enough to imagine that mankind could invent the means of his own swift and
utter destruction?
My first visits away from this village, also in the 'Nineties, were railroad excursions
to Halifax, then North America's major naval and military base. Each year we
made the long journey, for the round trip fare of one dollar, in order to attend the provincial
exhibition, with its exciting array of the newest and finest examples of agricultural
and industrial proficiency. The most thrilling attraction was saved for nightfall,
when the throngs were regaled with a re-enactment of one of the engagements of the
Crimean War.
No one remembers now, and no one knew then, why Great Britain and Russia
contested with each other in the Crime'.\. from 1853 to 1856, at the expense of half a
million lives, almost equally divided between the two sides. Among the British
casualties were a number of Nova Scotians, including some of my close kinfolk.
Forty years later in Halifax, as we watched dramatizations of the Siege of Sevastopol and
the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava, we were seized with admiration for the
courageous contenders on both sides, to the point where we would practically have
welcomed a new war in which our own gene ration might demonstrate its gallantry.
Today, such spectacles of chivalry and patriotism as we witnessed at Halifax
are as obsolete as the outmoded combat they portrayed. In this age of missiles and
nuclear warheads, whole nations are now armies. The science of destruction has reached
such staggering proportions that war must be branded absolutely absurd by reason by
its own monstrosity.
Each country, as it spends its substance piling up more and more hideous weapons
in its arsenals; claims that it arms only for peace. In the same breath, it accuses its
rivals of arming only for war. The long history of arms races shows that both sides are
laboring under a fatal illusion, for the feveri.sh stocking up of weapons has always eventuated
in war. Against this sobering realization, all of us had better face the awful
fact that we are living in the era of the war that nobody can win but everybody must lose.
r devoutly believe in the possibility of peace with honor to all. I hope the people
of the Western world everywhere will elect men of peace to highest office, and will
educate these statesmen to the grave responsibility of this dangerous age. Men who
make opinion must seize every opportunity to proclaim the moral dignity of peace, as
well as its practical advantages. For my part, I shall never cease to appeal to my fellow
men) of whatever race, creed or color, for peace, I call on the lofty principles of religion,
the kindness of the human heart, the prudence of business leaders, the reason of
scholars and the wisdom of statesmen to :tvert the final tragedy that hangs over the great
family of mankind.
Let us find a way to get on with the world's constructive work, in a spirit of
amiable rilvary. Let us, in fact, forswear the vainglory of war for the glorious
possibilities of peace.
Cyrus Eaton Accepting
International Lenin Peace Prize Award
Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Canada
July 1, 1960
Dr. Nicholson, Professor Skobeltzyn, Ambassador Menshikov and Ambassador Aroutunian, other distinguished visitors from many lands, neighbors and friends, this is a proud and happy moment in my life. I thank all of you for coming here today, but especially Professor Skobeltzyn. He has been exceedingly generous to take so much
time away from his important work to come from Moscow to my native Pugwash for this occasion.
I accept the International Lenin Peace Prize with the warmest gratitude. I accept it not so much as recognition of my personal efforts for better world understanding, but as evidence of the earnest desire of the Soviet people and their government for peace
on earth and good will to all mankind. This, I must emphatically add, is a wish devoutly shared by most Americans and Canadians.
In these troubled times, when bitterness and misunderstanding have broken out
anew, just as we finally seemed to be attaining firm enough world friendship to ensure
peace, a special significance can be found in today's ceremony. For the USSR, leader
of the socialist 'nations, to pay such respect to an acknowledged apostle of capitalism
from the USA, leader of the capitalist countries, offers a hopeful omen for brighter days
ahead.
I have said before, and I repeat, that I sincerely believe Premier Khrushchev's
United Nations address of September, 1959, with i1;8 clearly outlined disarmament program,
will go down as one of the historic utterances of modern years. I have not the
least doubt that Premier Khrushchev and the members of his government would like to
concentrate the immense resources of their vast country not on the costly modern instruments
of annihilation, but on more and better homes and schools, on industrial and
agricultural progress, and on physical fitness and intellectual excellence.
Everyone certainly understands that peace depends on the efforts of all countries,
and not on the efforts of the Soviet Union alone. It is a matter for .. egret that the Soviet
proposals for general and complete disarmament have not met; with the sympathetic response
to which they are entitled.
Pugwash represents a uniquely felicitous choice of place for today's proceedings.
This is the home of our Thinkers Conferences, where schol3..rs and scientists have been
gathering for some years to strive for warmer international understanding and to seek
renewal of intellectual life. Here, in 1957, we held the world's first postwar meeting
of scientists from East and West, to consider ways and means of diminishing the mortal
hazards of nuclear warfare. At the conclusion of this original nuclear conference, the
eminent French participant eloquently predicted that Pugwash, though only a village,
would live in history with Austerlitz and Waterloo, two other villages that marked a
drastic change in the course of human events.
In the past six years, more than 20 conferences have been held under the Pugwash
name, in the United States and Europe, as well as here. Five 01 them have been scientific
meetings, bringing together a total of 112 authorities from 23 capitalist and socialist
nations, to deal with the grave problems of biologic3.1 and chemical as well as nuclear
weapons. Through these conclaves, the name Pugwash has come to stand in many parts
of the globe as the synonym for peace.
Seeing so many of my friends and neighbors here today recalls the last large
assemblage I witnessed in this village, on June 20, 1897,. when we celebrated the Diamond
Jubilee of Queen Victoria's reign. Posters that were put up everywhere. to proclaim
the magnificent festival, were emblazoned with a map of the globe. showing the
British possessions colored in red and triumphantly declaring. We hold an Empire on
which the sun never sets. 'I With the rest of the world, the British Empire has undergone
vast evolution and change. The ambitions of empire that they obtained have yielded to
other ideals.
During the ensuing 63 years have come almost incredible scientific discoveries
and advances, Who would have been optimistic enough to believe then that it would one
day be possible to communicate almost instantaneously with every part of the world, or
to fly in a few hours to the most remote corner of the earth? Who would have been pessimistic
enough to imagine that mankind could invent the means of his own swift and
utter destruction?
My first visits away from this village, also in the 'Nineties, were railroad excursions
to Halifax, then North America's major naval and military base. Each year we
made the long journey, for the round trip fare of one dollar, in order to attend the provincial
exhibition, with its exciting array of the newest and finest examples of agricultural
and industrial proficiency. The most thrilling attraction was saved for nightfall,
when the throngs were regaled with a re-enactment of one of the engagements of the
Crimean War.
No one remembers now, and no one knew then, why Great Britain and Russia
contested with each other in the Crime'.\. from 1853 to 1856, at the expense of half a
million lives, almost equally divided between the two sides. Among the British
casualties were a number of Nova Scotians, including some of my close kinfolk.
Forty years later in Halifax, as we watched dramatizations of the Siege of Sevastopol and
the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava, we were seized with admiration for the
courageous contenders on both sides, to the point where we would practically have
welcomed a new war in which our own gene ration might demonstrate its gallantry.
Today, such spectacles of chivalry and patriotism as we witnessed at Halifax
are as obsolete as the outmoded combat they portrayed. In this age of missiles and
nuclear warheads, whole nations are now armies. The science of destruction has reached
such staggering proportions that war must be branded absolutely absurd by reason by
its own monstrosity.
Each country, as it spends its substance piling up more and more hideous weapons
in its arsenals; claims that it arms only for peace. In the same breath, it accuses its
rivals of arming only for war. The long history of arms races shows that both sides are
laboring under a fatal illusion, for the feveri.sh stocking up of weapons has always eventuated
in war. Against this sobering realization, all of us had better face the awful
fact that we are living in the era of the war that nobody can win but everybody must lose.
r devoutly believe in the possibility of peace with honor to all. I hope the people
of the Western world everywhere will elect men of peace to highest office, and will
educate these statesmen to the grave responsibility of this dangerous age. Men who
make opinion must seize every opportunity to proclaim the moral dignity of peace, as
well as its practical advantages. For my part, I shall never cease to appeal to my fellow
men) of whatever race, creed or color, for peace, I call on the lofty principles of religion,
the kindness of the human heart, the prudence of business leaders, the reason of
scholars and the wisdom of statesmen to :tvert the final tragedy that hangs over the great
family of mankind.
Let us find a way to get on with the world's constructive work, in a spirit of
amiable rilvary. Let us, in fact, forswear the vainglory of war for the glorious
possibilities of peace.
Russia's Peace Prize Presented to Cyrus Eaton Ceremony is Staged at Pugwash,
THe Chronicle Herald, Halifax, July 2, 1960
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