1 PEACEFUL CHANGE OR WAR? 31with a view to the preparation of documentation concerning the German
attitude towards the post-war distribution of colonies for the benefit of
the ISC’s 1937 conference on peaceful change.^100
Toynbee’s lecture at the Akademie für Deutsches Recht took place on
February 28. In the course of his lecture, Toynbee told his Berlin audi-
ence that peaceful change, that is, peaceful revision of the status quo,
was a topic on which the British were now focusing their attention:
the British were ‘beginning to think very hard about possible ways and
means of arriving at some peaceful adjustment between “have-nots” and
“haves”—of whom we [Great Britain] are the chief.’^101 According to an
account of his speech in the Times, Toynbee presented the following case
in support of peaceful revision:
He said the question was whether relations between States were to be gov-
erned by law or by might and violence, as hitherto had almost exclusively
been the case. He distinguished between the repressive side of law which
sought to prevent violent alterations of the status quo, and the construc-
tive side, which envisaged peaceful alteration of the existing condition of
things. Those Powers which were wealthy and satisfied with their present
position concerned themselves more with the repressive side of law, that
was, with collective security; the poorer and unsatisfied Powers with peace-
ful revision.
Great Britain and the other satisfied countries—for example, France,
the United States, Canada, and Russia—must attempt to meet the
demands of the unsatisfied countries—Italy, Japan, Hungary, and
Bulgaria—by the method of peaceful revision. Unless the law provided
for change by orderly, peaceable means, the law would sooner or later
be set aside by alterations of a violent, revolutionary character, which,
in view of modern technical developments, would be the destruction of
civilization.^102(^100) Toynbee to Bonnet, 10 October 1934, AG 1-IICI-K-I-1.n, UA, and H. O.
Christophersen to Henri Bonnet, 29 October 1936. Conférence permanente des hautes
études internationales: Groupe international d’études pour les questions coloniales, du 1er
September 1936 au 1er janvier, 1937, AG 1-IICI-K-I-18.d, UA. Christophersen reported
to Bonnet that Fritz (Friedrich) Berber had recently told him that he would be visiting
England on a bi-weekly basis.
(^101) Toynbee, 1936, quoted in McNeill, Arnold J. Toynbee: A Life, 171.
(^102) ‘Unsatisfied Nations: Professor Toynbee on Peaceful Revision,’ Times, February 29,
1936.