BRITISH WAR AIMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 November 1939, Page 5

BRITISH WAR AIMS

NO DETAILED DEFINITION I MEANTIME I i BROAD POSITION PLAINLY I INDICATED. | REPLY TO INSINUATIONS BY NAZIS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. November 5. In Parliament, the Prime Minister, Mr Chamberlain, and the Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, have declined to undertake a closer definition of "war aims" than is already available in their own speeches and statements, and have urged objections to an attempt to state the British aims in detail at the present while there is great uncertainty as to the length of the war and the conditions in Europe afterward. In view, however, of the renewal of Nazi insinuations that one British war aim is the partition of Germany, passages in Mr Chamberlain's' speech on November 12 are recalled. He said: "It is not part of our policy to exclude from a rightful place in Europe a Germany which will live in amity and confidence with other nations. On the contrary, we believe that there is no effective remedy for the peace of the world that does not take account of the just claims and needs of all countries.”

He also said: “We desire nothing from the German people which should offend their self-respect." and "I am certain that all the peoples of Europe, including the people of Germany, long for peace —a peace which will enable them to live their lives without fear and devote their energies and gifts to the development of culture, the pursuit of their ideals and the improvement of their material prosperity.’’ In a speech today, the Deputy-Lead-er of the Opposition. Mr Arthur Greenwood. said that Britain declared war with the firm purpose of ending for ever the torture of other nations by dictatorship. Though the decision involved great sacrifices, a refusal would have meant the sacrifice of human freedom. Wastage of life and treasure was the price which had to be paid to rid the world of the scourge of an inhuman dictatorship which was eating into the vitals of Christian civilisation. Britain could not ignore the challenge whether freedom or brute force should prevail. There was no doubt about the result, “but when the war is over we shall see that there is freedom not only for ourselves, but for the German people and all other peoples. It shall be a peace without rancour against other peoples and without territorial and political ambitions, a peace worthy of the sacrifices that have been made."