The Press SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 1946. The Victory Parade

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24896, 8 June 1946, Page 6

The Press SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 1946. The Victory Parade

To-day in London the people of the heart of the Commonwealth will be celebrating a truly great occasion—the victory of t|ie Allied arms over the forces of Nazism and Fascism. Gathered in London are representatives pf thg fighting torceg the Dominions and colonies, who rallied to the Empire’s cause when the freedom and way of life of the British peoples were threatened by merciless and unscrupulous foes. The Commonwealth’s represents - tives will join with the people of Great Britain, who laore with magnificent endurance and matchless fortitude the brunt of the enemy’s attack ai)d wfio, in the (Jark days wffen by any ratipnal measure all might have seemed lost, defied the enemy and determined to fight on. It is that trait in the character of the British peoples that leads them to-day to celebrate one victory before all that they fought for can be counted as won. By all superficially rational standards there is no great cause for celebration ta-4ay, Daily perusal of the newspapers discloses a grim picture of a world still divided against itself—a world in which suspicion marches with famine, distrust with recrimination and hatred with veqgeance. ,It is an ugly picture, in which all seems shade and little light penetrates the gloom. It is, indeed, of a type with other pictures that the British people have gazed upon over the last six dreadful years. To-day Londoners may remember when Britain’s defeated and weaponless armies poured back from the Continent across the Channel tp the doubtful shelter of their isianef fortress; when France decided to make a separate peace with the Germans and Britain stood alone. Most of all, they will remember when the mighty Luftwaffe, striking at the heart of an almost defenceless people with unimaginable terror, tried to destrov their metropolis and reduce them to servile submission. They will remember the black days of 1940 and 1941, the hell of their nights and the dread and dreary weight of their days, when they stumbled to work across the rubble of destruction. They will remember the long and weary years of the black-out and the new terror that they had to face near the end of them, when the stricken beast that was Germany unleashed the last of the deadly weapons fashioned for the promotion of total war. And remembering all of these things as they watch today the iparch through their London streets of the fighting men and women of their nation, of their kinsmen from across the seas, and of their Allies, and their own aeroplanes flying on a peaceful mission across their own clear skies, they may find cause enough for rejoicing and new hope for a free and friendly world. In the contrast they may renew and strengthen their determi - nation not to allow the horrors of the past to overtake them again; they may ‘reset their purpose to seek a new and better understanding among themselves and have done with the artificial divisions that come with peace and have no place in a nation at war; and they may resolve to work with and support their freely elected leaders in their efforts to reach a lasting understanding with the leaders of other nations and to build with them indestructible foundations for permanent peace.