“TARANAKI CENTRAL PRESS.” THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1936. UPHOLDING BRITISH FREEDOM.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 306, 10 December 1936, Page 4

“TARANAKI CENTRAL PRESS.” THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1936. UPHOLDING BRITISH FREEDOM.

The supreme lesson of the years that have followed the Great War is that the world can be safe for democracy only so long as democracy is strong enough to hold its own, asserts the London Observer. Every organism is doomed that cannot command the defence appropriate to its environment. Ihe environment in this case is a circle of nations that value the creed of individual liberty far less than the interests of corporate security and aggrandisement. 1 he cause of self-government and free speech enjoys no moral ascendancy when it confronts them. On the contrary, it rests under the imputation of being “soft”—as indeed it would be if many of its noisiest exponents had their way. Ihe political philosophy dominant in Europe to-day regards those who have wealth and no arms as the natural prey of those who have arms and little wealth. The whole outlook for the moral government of mankind turns upon Britain, as the fortress of freedom, becoming impregnable tp attack. If Britain were to fall, the history of the last two centuries would be obliterated, and an epoch of scientific barbarism would open in which there would be no place for the sanctities of individual life or for the humane standards with which the name of name of Britain is identified. Ihe main incentive behind the ‘‘dark forces” is the belief that self-government as Britain has developed it is inherently weak both in spirit and mechanism—that its defence commands neither the needful readiness for sacrifice nor the capacity for applying means to ends. If that conviction is not refuted, we can ‘‘roll up the map of Europe.” If we British prove that freedom in this country is coupled with the’ readiness to pay our debt to it in full, we shall again save ourselves by our exertions and ihc soul and destiny of humankind by our example.