AGAINST AGGRESSION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 October 1938, Page 5

AGAINST AGGRESSION

MR CHURCHILL APPEALS TO AMERICA UNITY NEEDED IN DEFENCE OF CIVILISATION ACTION THAT WOULD CLEAR PATH FOR PROGRESS By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright, i LONDON, October 17. Broadcasting to America today in reply to Herr Hitler’s declaration that if ‘Churchill, Eden and Duff Cooper assumed power, their aim would be immediate war with Germany,” Mr Winston Churchill said that Americans realised more clearly than the English and French public the far-reaching consequences of Czechoslovakia’s ruin and abandonment. Had England, France and Russia in April, May and June, while warning the Little Entente to join them in time, told Hitler that he would be confronted with such a formidable array it would have deterred him from his purpose and enabled the peaceful forces in Germany and the chiefs of her army to make efforts to re-establish peaceful conditions there. Pariamentary democracies and Liberal forces everywhere, however, were defeated, and were now faced with vastly increased dangers. Now was the time when those cherishing the ideals of freedom should take earnest counsel one with another. Nazis, said Mr Churchill, were fed on hatred and must ever seek a new target, a new prize and a new victim. The dictator in all his pride, being gripped by the party machine, must blood his hounds and show them sport or, like Actaeon of old, be devoured. Thereby Britain had sustained an immense disaster. France’s renown was dimmed and hei’ influence diminished. No one could say that Britain, for all her blundering, had broken her word, Indeed, when it was too late, she was better than her word. Nevertheless, Europe lay abashed and distracted before the triumphant assertions of dictatorial power. TRAGEDIES AND CRIMES. “The Spanish quarrel,” went on Mr Church, "has reached the dimensions of a world cause. China is being torn to pieces. Ethiopia has been over-run I Nazi influence is undermining Brazilian society. “Far away you, the people of the United States, are spectators of these tragedies and crimes. Will you wait until Britisn freedom succumbs' and then take up the cause when it is three-quarters ruined? The remaining forces of civilisation are overwhelming. If they were united there would be no war. “On the contrary, the German people are industrious, faithful and valiant, but lacking in civil independence. They would take an honoured place in the vanguard of human society. A small group of violent and ruthless men cannot cramp the forward march of human destiny. • The preponderant world forces on our side need only to unite to be obeyed. Britons will stand erect to face all that may come, but alone they are insufficient. We must add to them the power of ideas. < UNEASY DICTATORS. “You see these pedestailed dictators surrounded by truncheons and bayonets and guarded by, armed men and cannon. They vaunt themselves before the world, yet in their hearts is the unspoken fear of words spoken abroad and thoughts stirring at home, which terrify them the more because they are forbidden. “They try to exclude them, being afraid of the workings of the human mind. They can make cannon and aeroplanes, but they cannot quell the promptings of human nature, which is an inherited armoury, potent with indestructible knowledge. Dictatorship is a passing phase, which cannot endure in contact with the healthy outside world. “Now, at last, we are far enough ahead of barbarism to control and avert it, if only we make up our minds in time. We shall do it in the end, but the longer we delay the harder our toil will be. The sole guarantee of peace is a swift and resolute gathering of forces to confront military and moral aggression. "A resolute and sober acceptance of their duty by the English-speaking peoples'and by all nations who wish to walk with them would, almost between night and day, clear a path foi progress and banish the fear which darkens the sunlight to hundreds of millions of men.”