164 J.-A. PEMBERTON
Like Konoe, Schacht drew on House’s division of the world into ‘Haves’
and ‘Have nots,’ making the observation that standing against the ‘great
national economic domains’ of Great Britain, France, the United States
and Russia, were the ‘countries with large populations and limited territo-
ries’ which, because of their ‘inadequate land resources...are much more
dependent than the others upon the international exchange of goods’.^269
Having asserted this, Schacht then quoted a speaker in the House of
Lords, who, according to Schacht, had recently observed, after having
noted the vast amount of natural resources at the disposal of the British
Empire, the following: that ‘it was not surprising that there was unrest in
Germany, Japan and Italy; it was true that Great Britain was probably the
most peace loving country in the world; that was because she had got all
that she wanted.’^270 Schacht stated that what was interesting about this
observation was the connection it drew between access to raw materials
and the ‘love of peace’: that the author of the statement recognised that a
country that cannot access those resources that are needed in order to live
is potentially a source of instability. Schacht added that events had ‘unfor-
tunately’ conspired to render the situation of Germany now very different
from that of Japan and Italy.^271 Elaborating on this point Schacht stated:
Despite the League of Nations and its alleged assurances of peace, Japan
has meanwhile decided to help herself and has acquired Manchuria; while
Italy, by the conquest of Abyssinia, has expanded the territory which she
requires for life. As a result, Japan and Italy are no longer among the
ranks of the unsatisfied nations...Germany remains the lone unsatisfied
large Power. So long, then, as the problem of colonial raw materials is not
solved for Germany, so long will she remain a source of unrest despite all
her love of peace. It is that love of peace which still permits her to enter-
tain the hope that she can solve the colonial problem peacefully and that
she can take her place in the ranks of the Haves...There will be no peace
in Europe until this problem is solved. No great nation willingly allows its
standard of life and culture to be lowered and no great nation accepts the
risk that it will go hungry.^272(^269) Schacht, ‘Germany’s Colonial Demands,’ 227.
(^270) Ibid., 227–28.
(^271) Ibid., 228.
(^272) Ibid.