AN EMPIRE FALLS.. AND RISES

Chronicle (Levin), 24 February 1947, Page 5

AN EMPIRE FALLS.. AND RISES

Press Assn.

By Telegraph

-Conyright

lyeeetvod Suiulay 9.0 p.m. NEW YORK, Fcb. 22. Tlm New Y ark Tinies, in an editorial heacted "Au Empire Falls — and Rises, " says that as a power exercising doniinioji by i'orce oi' amis, Britain has indeed gi'^wn weaker. She cgnnot now impose hcr wishes upon wilJing peopl^s. But that was not the. wliple pictui'e — she no lougev wished to. "The oak of British democracy, I'ooted in the Magna Ua Ha and Bill oi Rights, has not ceased to grpw. We may quarrel with the economic theories of the Labour (tovpmnieut but. \ye eannot dispute that this goveniment is oi', by and i'or the people and that it stands i'or a national eonscience. It is a consci ence too that is ehanging the empire — indeod abo^islpng it. "We are witnessing an evolution that is reall-y a peaceful revolutio.li. We are secing the bvoadening down oi' I'reedoni, a growing scnse that the Bill of Rights is not limited by raee, eolour or culture. Au old Empire in it^ imperia) phasp, is at its twilight. "But the brave spiint which ereatpd it nped not dip however the needs of the moment and demoeratie ideal may transf'prm it. The new Britain is more appealing to the Ameripan mind than the old. AVe ean uuderstand it hetter. In its hour of ' darkp'ess it breathes eourage and liberation."