The Southland Times FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1942. A Message to the United Nations

Southland Times, Issue 24882, 23 October 1942, Page 4

The Southland Times FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1942. A Message to the United Nations

THE SPEECH made by the Prime Minister of South Africa to the united assembly of the House of Lords and the House of Commons was especially notable for the circumstances in which it was delivered. There were few passages upon which readers of the text could fasten as the expression of new points of view. The reason is simply that the occasion demanded a general survey; and the speaker was too wise to pass beyond the basic truths in search of novelties of opinion. There are certain stages or phases of the war which are clearly marked, and which have been explained many times by statesmen and writers from Mr Churchill downwards. The collapse of France, the battle of Britain, the invasion of Russia and the attack on Pearl Harbour are the great events which stand above the panorama of wai like the dominant peaks of a mountain range. History may give them new meanings; but for the peoples now engaged in a life and death struggle the facts are part of their collective experience. There are times, however, when the logic of cause and effect is forgotten amid the pressures of new dangers. It has never been sufficiently understood how close a connection exists between the fall of France and the early, spectacular victories of Japan. General Smuts, who spoke as the leader of a nation which can look eastward across the Indian Ocean as well'as westward across the Atlantic, once again emphasized the indivisible nature of world strategy. “After the fall of France,” he said, “the Vichy regime opened the door to Japan in Indo-China, and the flood poured into Siam, Malaya and Burma. The Dutch East Indies and other island groups in the Far East were doomed to fall before the Japanese flood was stopped just short of the shores of Australia and New Zealand. The Allies have been blamed for these tremendous setbacks, which have been hinted at as a sign of the approaching downfall of the British Commonwealth. As a matter of fact the .situation developed as a logical sequence to the fall of France.” From this key passage in a speech which aimed everywhere at the simplification of great issues there came the suggestion that the war had entered a new phase with the final alignment of forces. Although there may be reverses and disappointments in special areas the point has been reached where a defensive strategy must be replaced by a world-wide movement to attack. That this process of recovery has been possible after so many Axis victories is a fact which can be explained by the steadfast spirit of the British people when they stood alone against a powerful and apparently successful enemy, and by the blunders of that enemy in his strivings for world domination.