I yield to no one in my devotion to this great League of Nations, but not even for this will I destroy that smaller but older league of which my own country was the birthplace, and of which it remains the centre† Beware how you so draw tight the bonds, how you so pile obligation on obligation and sanction on sanction, lest at last you find that you are not living nations but dead states.

-Chamberlain, Sir (Joseph) Austen
  Speech, League of Nations  Assembly, Geneva, 9 Sep.