PUBLIC JUDGMENT

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 188, 6 May 1940, Page 9

PUBLIC JUDGMENT

Minister Confident Of Approval WHEN FACTS KNOWN (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, May 3. ’ hi a speech in London tonight at a meeting of the Liberal National Party, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir John Simon, referring to the decision to withdraw from Trondheim, said: “Speaking with the complete information which only members of the War Cabinet can at this stage have, I am quite confident that when the whole situation is laid before the impartial public its judgment will be that the action decided upon was wisely taken and to the best advantage.”

He emphasized the full collective responsibility of Cabinet, saying that if anybody was disposed to criticize this Minister or that, or draw distinctions, he would be woefully’ disappointed. When the debate took place -it would be seen that the joint responsibility of Cabinet was, in fact, based on complete agreement. Speaking of the lessons which could be drawn from the war, Sir John Simon referred to the unparalleled unity and determination with which the British people were meeting the challenge. He added that there could be no vestige of doubt concerning the nature of the issues for which' they were fighting.

“It is as plain as anything can be in the tangled story of human life on this planet,” he said, “that this conflict is in defence of the ordinary human liberties and of the ordinary common rights which free people know to be threatened with destruction.” The whole idea of freedom w’as inimical to Nazi ideals, said Sir John Simon. It was, therefore, not merely a rhetorical phrase which declared that a German victory meant the end cf liberty. Three Conclusions. Turning to the wider aspect of the last eight months, he said that we Could draw three conclusions. The first was the enormous power of the instrument of war which Germany had been engaged in building up and perfecting in recent years, and the remorseless skill with which it was used to trample down Germany’s neutral neighbours and to spread the area of German occupation. He reminded his audience that the German army had not yet tried its strength on level terms with the land forces of a great Power, and the German navy had been crippled. Nevertheless, the first conclusion to bo drawn was that we had to beat and overthrow- an opponent of enormous strength. The second lesson was the unparalleled unity and determination with which the British people and the British Commonwealth were meeting this challenge. That unity was not the result of an enforced aud machinemade thing used for dragooning public opinion by the methods of Goebbels and the Gestapo. It was the spontaneous response of democracy which valued liberty above everything else. The British people loathed war, and no power on earth could sweep them into it save the compulsion of their own deliberate judgment, that it must, at all costs, be undertaken. This was a solid uprising of free people against the wicked ambitions of a handful of men. The third lesson was the true character of the issues for which we were fighting. Trade unionists knew that the victory of Hitlerism meant the end of the rights of the workman.