Samad Khan Momtaz os-Saltaneh, Iranian diplomat (1869-1965). Autograph quotation signed ("Prince Smad"). In French.

€ 1.800,00

The original autograph contribution of Samad Khan to the Committee of the World League for Peace (Ligue Mondiale pour la Paix), a remarkable organization formed in 1925 with close ties to the League of Nations. The Committee itself was composed of such notaries as Queen Elizabeth of Belgium, King Carol II of Romania, John D Rockefeller, Marie Curie, and Albert Einstein, who personally gathered the present manuscripts over the course of seven years (1925-32). Among the public figures who contributed to the project were numerous dignitaries from the newly-created League of Nations' member states. "War, terrible in all times, has become vain and profitless today, and is equally disastrous for all involved, as even the counquering countries, as well as neutral countries, without exception, can no longer escape the suffering engendered by that calamity! The solidarity between nations has thus become fatally clear. Because of this, peace is no longer simply an ideal, it is becoming a necessity and an obligation. Even the most sceptical among us must finally give pause and reflect. Yet, how rarely are the means we choose to attain this much desired goal the most practical ones! Despite the fact that it is easy to understand that warfare and arms are merely effects, and that it is illogical to wish to avoid them while their causes persist! Can we extinguish an electric light without turning off the switch? Peace can only be seriously envisaged if it is also on a solid base, honest and practical, cemented by the work of the League of Nations, itself equipped with the effective means of intervention! Security for all, men of state and the people, should be the objective, the effect of which will be an inevitable disarmament and sincerity between nations. General fear must make way for a general trust and for faith in the respect of rights and in the future of humanity. Our civilisation owes this to itself, lest it be overcome. [Signed] Prince Smad, former Extraordinary Ambassador to London, former Persian Minister in Holland, and in France, former Premier Delegate of Persia to the Conference in The Hague and the Conference on the Revision of the Geneva Convention, and Permanent Court of Arbitration". Prince Samad was Ambassador to London, Holland, France. He personally owned the Embassy in Paris, which he made his home. Briefly Prime Minister of Persia in 1918.