COLD WAR

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 104, 15 February 1950, Page 5

COLD WAR

APPROACH TO STALIN \ ' MR. CHURCHILL’S CONVICTION (N.Z.P. A.—Copyright) (9.15 a.m.) LONDON, Feb. 14. Mr Churchill hinted that if he became Prime Minister again, he would personally approach Mr Stalin “in a supreme effort” to try to end the cold war. In a speech to a huge election meeting at Edinburgh, which was broadcast to the United. Stages, Mr Churchill recalled his earlier relations with Mr Stalin, and then said: “I can’t help coming back to this idea of another talk with Russia upon the highest level. The idea appeals to me of a supreme effort to bridge the gulf between the two worlds so that each can live their life, if not in friendship, at least without; hatred of a cold war. It is my belief that superiority in the atom bomb, if not indeed almost _a monopoly of this frightful weapon in American hands, is the surest guarantee of world peace. It is my earnest hope that we may find our way to some more exalted and august foundation for our safety than this grim and sombre balancing power of the bomb."

Protection of America

“When I say ‘we,’ I must not let you forget that ‘we’ means the United States, and it is- their power which protects not only Britain but also Europe.” Mr Churchill said that Britain was spending enormous sums on the Army, Nayy and Air Force, yet it was “very odd that we' should not have been able to make the atomic bomb for ourselves by now.” This, Mr Churchill added, was tone of the most extraordinary administrative lapses that have ever taken place.” Mr Churchill said that the British although busy with national and party controversies, must not'forget the gravity of Britain’s position, or that of the world. “Soviet Russia—that immensely powerful band of men gathered together in the Kremlin—has ranged itself against the Western democracies. They have added to their dominion satellite States. Yugoslavia has broken away, Greece.has broken away and has been rescued by the United States, which is carrying on the task we began. At the other end of the world 500,000,000 in China have fallen into the sphere, but Communism is not all.”

* Only Shield of Safety

Mr Churchill declared that China was old, and he did not regard it* as having finally accepted Soviet servitude. “Still, when you look at the picture as a whole, you see two worlds ranged against each other more profoundly and on a larger scale than history has ever seen before.* The Communist world has by far the greatest military Force, but the United States has the atomic bomb, and now we are told they have a thousandfold more terrible manifestation of this awful power.” • Mr ' Churchill warned that t the Western Powers must not pass away their only shield of safety—the atom bomb—until they could find something better and surer and more likely to last. , . , . Mr Churchill said he still felt m his heart the same, sentiments that prompted him in 1945 to cable the Kremlin appealing for co-operation. He read out his cable, which ended: “Even embarking on a long period of suspicion of abuse and counterabuse and of opposing policies would be a disaster hampering the great development of world prosperity for the masses, which is attainable only by our trinity.”

‘‘Horrible Exactitude”

Mr Churchill continued: “That was ' written nearly five years ago. Alas,, it was only too true. All came to pass with horrible . exactitude. It is not easy to see how things can be made woVse by parley at the summit. I feel that Christian men should not close the door upon any hope of finding a new foundation for life of the self-tormented human race.” Raising his voice, Mr Churchill declared: “What prizes lie before us—peace, food, happiness and wealth for the masses never known or dreamed of, a glorious advance into a period of rest and safety for all the hundreds of millions of homes where little children can play by the fire and girls grow up in all their beauty, and young men march to fruitful labour in all their strength and valour. Let us not shut out hope that the burden of fear and want may be lifted for a glorious era from the bruised and weary shoulders of mankind.”

Dealing with home affairs, Mr Churchill said he had never suggested that Britain should use dollars to buy petrol. Refineries to handle vast masses of petroleum in the sterling area would be in existence and at work to-day “if the Socialist Ministers had not shown their usual ineptitude and incompetence. Everything they touch turns to muddle, whether it is Mr. Ernest Bevin”s mismanagement and .loss of influence in the Middle East, which has led to the closing of the Haifa refinery, or whether it is the Socialist departmental red tape that has paralysed the construction of the great refinery at Southampton.”