FATE OF WORLD AT STAKE

Southland Times, Issue 24234, 18 September 1940, Page 6

FATE OF WORLD AT STAKE

GRIM AIR BATTLES OVER BRITAIN

N.Z. PROUD TO HELP TOWARDS VICTORY

(United Press Association)

GISBORNE, September 17.

“When the Munich Pact was signed late in 1938, many of us thought that the Nazi leaders would accept appeasement, and that we could turn our attention to peaceful objectives instead of living in constant fear of being plunged into war. We know now that the Nazis were never satisfied, that they grew more ravenous with every new success they gained, and that finally they determined to dominate the world by force,” said the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser, speaking to a large gathering which tendered him a civic welcome to Gisborne last night. “A few months after the signing of the Munich Pact, Germany marched over and crushed Czechoslovakia and then turned upon Poland. Denmark and Norway next came under the Nazi heel and then came in turn Holland and Belgium. “These States had been implored by Britain and France to invite the Allies to come up to their frontiers with Germany, but they clung timidly to the policy of neutrality, hoping to appease the Nazis, but there was no appeasing the terror any more, and these countries went down swiftly. Next France crumpled, and Britain was left standing alone against the enemy. Thus was the battle for Britain begun. “In this battle not only the fate of the United Kingdom is at stake, but that of the world. In the grim fight now being waged in the skies over Britain and in the waters that surround the United Kingdom our ideals, hopes and future are being defended. “Though thousands of miles from that area where bombs are dropping day and night upon our own flesh and blood, we are involved as much as though we were on the spot,” he said. “New Zealand is proud to stand beside Great Britain and the other countries of the British Commonwealth of Nations and make her contribution towards a great and lasting victory for right and a crushing defeat for Nazism, Fascism and every form of brutal and devastating tyranny.”