HITLER'S OFFER

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 150, 3 September 1941, Page 6

HITLER'S OFFER

FEDERATION!. OF EUROPE

"It must never be forgotten Ih.-t a European Federation is, in effect, what Kerr Hitler is offering to Europe. He dreams of a Europe deprived of effective military and political independence, compelled

to accept whatever, role he assigns

to each country in a regulated and .centralised European economy. In return he offers them the German conception of peace, a police-regu-

lated life on a meagre ration. This odious conception affronts the conscience and insults the intelligence of free and. Christian men wherever they may be. But a federation which offered even a real peace, ux exchange lor the sacrifice of effective independence, would be equal-

'.VI unacceptable. Once independence is willingly forfeited it can never* be regained. Who, men ask, can guarantee that the liberal and Christian regime which, we ourselves to-day envisage as the happy

lot of a Federated Europe will; be perpetuated? It is given to few men to foresee the future and to none to determine it. What the European States need most, and the need is clearly realised on the Con-

tinent, is not less, but more freedom, and notably freedom of trade with each other and with the world Between a planned world of regitlntcd exchanges, quotas, rations, cartels and international banks, and a world, there lies a wide gulf. On which side of the gulf do Ave British stand? This is what we have to make quite clear before we can begin to acquire even the passive goodwill, let alone the active and enthusiastic co-operation of the masses everywhere."—Mr Doug! ns Jerrold in his new book, "Britain and Europe, 1900-1940."