First World War
During the First World War his language skills led to his employment as an Intelligence Officer in the Balkans. Later, as an under-secretary in Lloyd George's national government, he helped draft the Balfour Declaration (1917). He also encouraged Ze'ev Jabotinsky in the formation of the Jewish Legion for the British Army in Palestine.
Amery was an opponent of the idea of a League of Nations that was canvassed during the war as he believed that the world was not equal and therefore a League of Nations that treated all states as equals with equal voting rights was absurd. Amery instead believed that the world was tending to larger and larger states, with the outcome resulting in a balanced world of inherently stable units. He contrasted this idea favourably to President Woodrow Wilson's "facile slogan of self-determination".
Read more about this topic: Leo Amery
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or war:
“When a woman starts out in the world on a mission, secular or religious, she should leave her feminine charms at home.”
—Jane Grey Swisshelm (1815–1884)
“Haven’t you heard, though,
About the ships where war has found them out
At sea, about the towns where war has come
Through opening clouds at night with droning speed
Further o’erhead than all but stars and angels
And children in the ships and in the towns?”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)