Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1939. EMPIRE COOPERATION.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 October 1939, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1939. EMPIRE COOPERATION.

A TIMELY and pertinent introduction to the informal conference of Empire Ministers about to open in London was supplied by Mr Anthony Eden (Dominions Secretary) in the broadcast address which was reported briefly yesterday. There would be no formal conference with the visiting Ministers, Mr Eden said, and there would be no need to draw up an agenda, but there would be informal and practical discussions which would Jesuit in the closer co-operation which was their aim. That is an entirely unsensational statement and yet the tacts it embodies are tremendously important as they bear upon the war now in progress and upon the future of the l>n isi people and that of humanity at large. It is a redeeming feature of the tragedy in which our own nation and others are now encompassed that a new and impressive demonstration is being given of the essential unity of the British Empire. Only a few months ago, no one could have guaranteed that the Dominions would stand united y wi i the Mother Country in the event of war. In face however, ot the actual emergency it has been demonstrated that the uni y of the Empire is more than ever a reality. _ It is true that South Africa had to exchange one Prime Minister for another in order that the ruling sentiment of her people might hud expression and that Eire, under Mr de' Valera s leaders up, ias adopted a somewhat ambiguous attitude. Any note of dissent or of half-hearted support that is raised is of minor importance, however, in comparison with the demonstrated determination of the people of the Empire to pool their resources m the common cause. It is the simple truth that closer co-operation with Britain is, as Mr Eden said, the aim of the Dominions. That truth is the more impressive since in the overseas Empire, as in the Mother Country, war was the last thing desired. The people of the Empire have gone to’war in no spirit of jingoistic fervour, but with a grim and dour determination born of the fact that no other way could be found of ending a state of world affairs that had become as intolerable as it was menacing. In their own observation of the course of events in Europe and of the policy and methods of the Nazi dictatorship, the people of the Dominions have been forced to the same conclusions as weie expressed by Mr Eden when he said that: — The war had been thrust upon us and upon the world by the German nation’s flagrant breaches of faith and by the German Chancellor’s obsession that his will must prevail at all costs. We were not fighting against any land or for any given frontier, but in support of a principle for good faith between peoples, for without it tnere could be no peace. Desiring'peace and abominating war, the people of the Dominions, in common with their kinsfolk in the Homeland, have been forced to the conclusion that war is a lesser evil than continued weak compliance and concession in face of Nazi aggression. Holding that belief, the people of the Dominions will not shrink from the efforts and sacrifices that the war must entail. On what lines the war is destined to develop has not become by any means fully apparent, but the Dominions in any case will bear their full part. It already seems likely that the countries of the overseas Empire may make an even more decisive contribution to victory in the present conflict than they did in the last war. The great air training scheme, which was instanced by Mr Eden as one example of Empire co-opera-tion, is eommandingly impressive in conception and in the possibilities it opens up. While Marshal Goering is talking about raining bombs on the British Isles, Britain is not only meeting the German air forces on more than even terms, but has her part with the Dominions in a development of Empire air power which neither Germany nor any other nation can hope to rival.

It need not be doubted that at the conference of Empire Ministers about to open in. London good reasons will appear for entertaining confident hopes of ultimate victory. At the same time it is thoroughly in keeping with the spirit in which the war is being'fought by the Empire and its Allies that we should heed the note of warning sounded by Mr Eden when he said that we must win the war, and the after-war, “and the latter might prove the more difficult task.” The justice of that warning is emphasised by saddening memories of the outcome and aftermath of the Great War. With victory in hand, our own nation and others will still have many mistakes and pitfalls to avoid. We may agree with the Dominions Secretary that it will be the task of the Allied nations, when they have won the war, “to work for a united and wider understanding, for international order, for religious tolerance, and a denial of the worship of aggressive nationalism.”

At that stage, as well as in the present phase of opening conflict, there will be splendid scope for co-operation between the partner States of the British Commonwealth of Nations. The broad demand made is for a genuinely enlightened treatment of both national and international problems. We failed, on the whole, to meet that demand at the close of the last war. Another similar failure would put. the future of civilised humanity in desperate jeopardy.