“If We Achieve This— No War For Hundreds Of Years”

Chronicle (Levin), 21 February 1949, Page 5

“If We Achieve This— No War For Hundreds Of Years”

Received Sunday, 7 p.m. LONDON, Feb. 19. "Work on the AtJantic Pact had been held up because oL' tlie iiussian attitude, so Britain had to turn to the people with whom she could work and who wanted to work with lier, said Mr. Ernest Bevin when speaking at Bristol. ."Therei'ore we are noiv in the process oi' trying to create an Atlantie eonimunity — a vast eonimunity, a great, industrial communiiy, a powerful eonimunity. J want to i'eel that Ameriea. and others who join the pact are together contributing to each other 's welfare. "If we achieve this, if the West and other peace-loving nations get together now and get a complete understanding and coordinate defence efforts, I assert there will be no war for hundreds of years. "If we get cooperation instead of going- into conferences and listening to aliuse as we have had to do, we shall sit jdown and do business. Others will live their way. "We shall ljve ours and peaee will be assured for generations to come. We don't want to do this for war. We shall attaek no oue but we are ainiing not to be attacked by anyone." Mr. Bevin continued : "That is our policy. We shall never be aggressoi's — we never have. Nothing would have given me such pleasure as to have got political decency and cooperation, to have been joining with everv country in the world for economic recovery and rehabilitation. Must Play Fair. "Britain is in the process of a veritable economic revolution. We have had to face the issue that, because of the dollar problem and our own difficulties, certain countries wanted to charge higher prices. At times we had to refuse to buv and we may have to refuse to buy again rather than be bled. The world has got to realise that taking advantage of shortages between oue country and another is not the way to keep stab.il ity and is not a goocl augury for peaee.

"The British Government and peojile are willing for ali countries to have the system they want but not at the expense of endeavouring to l'oree it on us. If it is thought socialism meant the destruction of human liberty and denying the people the right to say what they think, I would not lie a supporter of it. " "Anything stopping the liberty of the mincl is disastrous. We have seen in Eastern Europe democracy as we understand it completely wdped out." Mr. Bevin said he read Foreign Office reports about people of Eastern Europe who were taken away and never heard of again. Some had been taken to slave canips "as bad at Hitler's."