“World War One – Far From Home” - Photography Exhibition, organized by the Permanent Mission of Belgium

Excellences,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you for being here with us today.

And thank you to Ambassador Muylle and the Permanent Mission of Belgium for bringing this important exhibition to the Palais.

In 1906, in a fictional narrative, the German writer F.H. Grauthoff warned that - and I quote - “a war in Europe…must necessarily set the whole world ablaze.”

This was no Eurocentric boast.

For when, less than 10 years later, the leaders of Europe’s empires “sleepwalked” into the abyss of war, the conflict immediately took on global proportions.

In fact, the first shot fired by a soldier in British service was not in the trenches of Europe; it was fired in present-day Togo. And days after the war had officially been declared over, the last shot was fired in what is today Zambia.

The “Great War”, as it became known, was thus global in geographic scope - with fighting from Belgium to Iraq, Greece to China, the North Sea to the Pacific Ocean.

But the war was global not just because of where the fighting took place, but because of who was fighting.

1.4 million Indians fought for the British Empire; as did 1.3 million Canadians, South Africans, Australians and New Zealanders. France, meanwhile, enlisted almost 500,000 colonial troops from across the African continent.

Letters sent home by these soldiers from the trenches speak a haunting language of dislocation and despair. “The shells are pouring like rain in the monsoon”, declared one Indian soldier; another wrote that “the corpses cover the country, like sheaves of harvested corn.”

Millions perished, many more were injured.

To us, who look back on this time; and who have ourselves lived through one of the longest periods of great power peace in history; to us, it is impossible to fully imagine the terror of that war.

And yet, it is also impossible not to be moved by these images of young men, visibly alien to their surroundings, some about to head off for battle, others nursing terrible wounds.

These photographs remind us of the horror of war, a horror we must never forget.

But neither must we ever forget the hope that greeted the war’s end, exactly 100 years ago.

It was that hope that first gave rise to the idea of multilateralism; that created the League of Nations.

The League itself would not endure, but its ideal and vision of a different world - a world in which might does not make right; in which cooperation trumps competition - that vision would survive. It found its enduring expression in the United Nations.

Today, as we reflect on the generation of soldiers from all across the world lost over a century ago, let us recommit ourselves to support and uphold multilateralism for the generations to come.

Thank you.