STIRRING CALL

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 139, 13 May 1940, Page 7

STIRRING CALL

TO, VANQUISH EVIL. BRITAIN’S SPIRIT. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received May 13, 11.30 a.m. LONDON, May 12. Preaching in Canterbury Cathedral, the Archbishop of Canterbury made a stirring 1 call to the nation for unity and courage in the face of the danger threateningl it. Referring to the fact that the full force of the war might at any moment reach (Inpeople’s own doors, His Grace saicl: “The hour has come. It has struck, and with it comes the testing of the nation. By the invasion of Belgium and Holland following quickly on the invasion of Denmark and Norway the ruler of Germany has thrown down the challenge to the peace and freedom of the whole world. “It is the spirit of the people that must rise to meet the challenge. Let the whole nation 6tand behind the King’s Forces on the sea and land and in the air with indomitable, undaunted spirit. At the present momentous time in human history can we doubt that the forces of evil now breaking the peace of the world and overthrowing the freedom of nations and of free peoples,'scorning the truth and trampling on justice and mercy, are arrayed against everything we can conceive the Divine will and purpose to be?” The Archbishop led the congregation in prayer for the leader of the Government, for the Forces, and tor the peoples who have suffered the bitter ordeal of invasion, THREAT TO CIVILISATION. MR ROOSEVELT’S ANALYSIS. SHOCK AND ANGER. MONTREAL, May 10. President Roosevelt, addressing the Pan-American Scientific Congress, said; “All here are heavy hearted at the tragic news that three more independent nations have cruelly been invaded by force of arms. The whole world has seen attack follow threat on so many occasions in the last few years that we have cotno- to the reluctant conclussion that a continuance of these processes of arms presents a definite challenge to the continuation of the type of civilisation to which all of us three Americas are accustomed. “The dim, unpleasant possibility that other Continents might become so involved in wars brought on by a school of destruction, that the Americas might have to become the guardian of western culture and the protector of Christian civilisation was then merely a feai. “To-day that fear has become a fact, and the inheritance which we hoped to share with the whole world is momentarily left largclv in our keeping. It is our compelling duty to guard and enrich that legacy and preserve it for the world which must be reborn from the ashes of the present disaster. WAR BROUGHT NEARER. “To-day we know that till recent weeks many citizens of the Americas believed themselves wholly safe from the impact of the attacks against civilisation which were progressing elsewhere; yet speaking in terms oi moving of men, guns, ’planes and bombs, every American acre is closer to the homes of the modern conquerors’ scenes of attacks in Europe than was the case in the historic efforts to dominate the world in bygone centuries. “From the viewpoint of conquests it is a shorter distance from Europe to San Francisco than it was for the ships and legions of Caesar to move from from Rome to Spain or to Britain. To-day it is four or five hours from the continent of Africa to the Continent of South America, where it was four or five weeks for the armies of Napoleon to move from Paris to Rome or to Poland- “ Those who seek to dominate vast continental areas, if successful, will, we must now admit, enlarge their wild dream to encompass every human being and every mile of the earth’s surface. The most immediate issue that the Americas are facing is, can we continue our peaceful construction if all other Continents embrace hv preference or by compulsion a wholly different principle of lifer “I am a pacifist;, you are pacifists. but we beljoye, through overwhelming majorities, that in the longrun, if necessary, we will act together to nrotcct our culture, freedom and civilisation.” Ninety per cent, of thousands of ta’egrams favour President Roosevelt’s speech. MESSAGE TO LEOPOLD. President Roosevelt lias invoked the Neutrality Act against Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. He has sent a message- to King Leopold in response to the King’s appeal for moral support as follows : “As I stated last night in an address to representatives of the American Republics, the cruel invasion by force of arms of the independent nations of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg has shocked and angered the. people of the United States, and I ieel sure their neighbours in the Western Hemisphere, the people of the United States, hope as 1 do that the policies which seek to dominate peaceful and independent peoples by force of military aggression may be arrested and the Government and people of Belgium may preserve their integrity and freedom.”