ABSTRACT
This historical survey clearly shows how the principle of neutrality in foreign relations has grown by natural necessity out of the national existence of the Confederation, its geographical situation, its federal structure, its position as a minor state, its religious cleavage, its multi-racial character and its democratic organization. These constants of Swiss life are all interrelated and interdependent. With them, neutrality forms one organic whole, no element of which can be torn out without grievous harm to the rest. It is the axiom of Swiss sovereignty which has borne the test of centuries of foreign relations. For the experience of Swiss history yields one perfectly unambiguous result—without neutrality, no national sovereignty. But without neutrality also, no Swiss freedom, which must be taken to cover the manifold institutions of liberty which are regarded by the world as being of the very essence of Swiss policy. Only under the shield of neutrality could they thrive and bloom. It was only the subjection of foreign to home policy which permitted Switzerland to give permanence to her free institutions. In the same way, in England it was the long peace due to her insular position which enabled her free institutions to develop, a blessing which rarely falls to the lot of the great power. For the great power generally makes its home policy the handmaid of its foreign policy, and often, to assert its power, must order its internal organization to meet the needs of foreign policy.
