Appeal to the League of Nations
Delivered in Geneva on June 30, 1936, following the Italian fascist invasion of Ethiopia, warning western democracies of the collapse of collective security.
Full Transcript
I, Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia, am here today to claim that justice which is due to my people, and the assistance promised to it eight months ago, when fifty nations asserted that aggression had been committed in violation of international treaties.
There is no precedent for a Head of State himself speaking in this assembly. But there is also no precedent for a people being victimized by such injustice and being now threatened with abandonment to its aggressor.
It is collective security: it is the very existence of the League of Nations. It is the value of promises made to small States that their integrity and their independence shall be respected and ensured.
Should it happen that a strong nation considers that it may with impunity destroy a weak people, then the hour strikes for that weak people to appeal to the League of Nations to give its judgment in all freedom. God and history will remember your judgment.
It is us today. It will be you tomorrow.
Defining Key Excerpts
"It is us today. It will be you tomorrow."
"God and history will remember your judgment."
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