294
38
His Exc. Jonkheer de Marees van Swinderen said:
I reascend this platform to conclude, in a few final words, the deliberations of this Conference feeling more confident than ever that the task of civilization to which you have devoted such energy will be realized in its widest conception and that the contingency foreseen in the last of the coeur which the Conference has seen fit to express, is only the logical result of the wise and careful foresight which has governed your labors. From your deliberations has arisen a certain conviction that the honor of the whole world is at stake; that to err in the means of obtaining the consent of all the Powers of the world would be equivalent to dimming the lustre of modern civilization.
You have quite rightly believed this consent, this common accord, to be indispensable if the Convention is to have the desired effect, but you have also shown unshaken faith in the triumph of the ideas and principles which have guided you in the formulation of these rules and regulations, by motives of material interest in the separate elements of which that better union humanity is composed. The great forward step that we have made is that doubt as to the depth of our individual intentions has disappeared and that we are all convinced that we are united and allied in the further peaceful campaign that we must undertake to convince the delinquents.
You have been so kind as to entrust the direction of this campaign to the Government of the Netherlands. It will assume this task with enthusiam and perseverance but not without the strongest appeals to the efficient assistance of all the other participants. As early as to-morrow we will undertake the task and nothing will be left undone in order that you may learn, before the end of the year, that the signatures are all obtained and that the whole world shares in the work of the Opium Conference.
Let us disperse, Gentlemen, strong and confident in the firm intention to contribute toward the accomplishment of this hope.
(Great applause.)
With permission of the President I declare the Conference closed.
Come