CANNOT PERISH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24418, 2 October 1940, Page 7

CANNOT PERISH

THE SOUL OF FREEDOM MR CHURCHILL’S VIEWS MESSAGE-, TO TOE CZECHS (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, Sept. 30. (Received Oct. 1, at 7 p.xn.) A message to the Czechoslovak people was broadcast to-day by Mr Churchill, who'said: “ To-day is the second anniversary of the Munich agreement, a date which the world will always remember for the tragic sacrifice made by the Czechoslovak people in the interests of European peace. The hopes that this agreement stirred in the heart of civilised mankind had been frustrated within six months and a solemn pledge given by the unscrupulous men who control the destiny of Germany was broken and the agreement destroyed with a ruthlessness which unmasked to the whole world the true nature of their reckless ambitions. The protection which Hitler forced upon you has been a sham and a cloak for the incorporation of your once flourishing country in the so-called greater Reich. Instead of protection he has brought you nothing but moral and material devastation, and to-day followers of that great tolerant humanitarian, President Masaryk, are being persecuted with deliberate cruelty which has few parallels in modern history.

“ In this hour of your martyrdom I send you this message. The battle which we in Britain are fighting to-day is not only our battle, it is also your battle; indeed a battle of all the nations who prefer liberty to soulless serfdom. It is a struggle by civilised nations for the right to live their own lives in the manner of their own choosing. It represents man’s instinctive defiance of tyranny.

“ Throughout history no European nation has shown a greater will to survive than yours, and again today your peonle have given countless oroofs of their courage in adversity. Here in Britain we have welcomed with pride and gratitude your soldiers and airmen who have come by daring escapes to take part with ever increasing success in that battle for freedom which is also the battle of Czechoslovakia. No less sincere is our admiration of those Czechs who, on the home front, are risking death and worse than death in order to foster resistance against a cruel, heartless oppressor. “ It is because we are both fighting for the fundamental decencies of human life that we are determined that neither our strn"gle nor vour struggle shall be in vain. It is for this reason that we have refused to recognise any of the brutal conquests of Germany in Central Europe and elsewhere, that we have welcomed the Czechoslovak provisional Government in this country, and the restoration of Czechoslovak liberties is one of our principal war aims. With firmness and resolution, two qualities which our nations share in equal measure, these aims will be achieved.

“Be of good cheer. The hour of your deliverance will come. The soul of freedom is deathless. It cannot, will not, perish.”