FREEDOM & PEACE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 November 1939, Page 5

FREEDOM & PEACE

MR CHAMBERLAIN ON WAR AIMS HOPES OF A BETTER EUROPE. GERMANY'S NEED OF NEW SPIRIT. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. LONDON. November 26. In the course of his broadcast address, reported yesterday, the Prime Minister (Mr N. Chamberlain) said:— ‘■l do not forget that I am speaking to a wider audience throughout the Empire. I wish 1 could thank individually all the peoples for the support they have freely and swiftly given. -We are fighting for freedom and peace, which are vital principles to the Empire. The unity of the Empire gives us moral, as well as material strength to win. There are still questioners who feel that we have not defined our aims or have distinguished between our war aims and our peace aims. Our war aim is to defeat the enemy, not merely militarily, but also to defeat his aggressive, bullying mentality. ■‘Our definition of the peace aims is necessarily at present in most general terms, but the principles are the establishment of a new Europe, not in the sense of tearing up old frontiers, but with a new spirit, in which the nations will approach difficulties with good will and mutual tolerance. “In such a Europe the fear of aggression will have ceased and adjustments of boundaries will be thrashed out between neighbours sitting in equal terms round the table. In such a Europe there will be. no lasting peace without a full and constant flow of trade, for only thus can the living standard be raised. In Europe each country will have an unfettered right to choose its own form of internal government as long as the Government does not pursue an external policy injurious to its neighbours. “In such a Europe armaments will gradually be dropped, except internally. The establishment of this Utopian Europe is not to be accomplished in a few months. Indeed, conditions never cease to change and some machinery which cannot at present be specified will be needed for the adjustments. I hope a Germany animated by a new spirit will participate in the operations of this machinery.” The Prime Minister’s broadcast was his first since he announced a state of war.' He declared himself fully fit after his indisposition. NAZI OUTBURST BRITISH AIMS CALLED DESTRUCTIVE. MONSTROSITY OF VERSAILLES RECALLED. LONDON, November 27. According to a Berlin message the German official wireless states that Mr Chamberlain’s war aims are destruction of the present German Gov-. eminent and extinction of the spirit ruling Germany today. Mr Chamberlain. it states, will not be satisfied with a military victory, but wants to purge Germany of everything constituting her greatness. “His peace aims will deeply disappoint all who, like Gandhi, the French Government and great numbers of the British people, have expected something more concrete. His picture of a new Europe is too unpleasantly reminiscent of Wilson’s Fourteen Points and the monstrosity of the Versailles Treaty,” the radio declares.

AMERICAN VIEWS PART FOR NEUTRAL NATIONS TO PLAY. NEW YORK, November 27. The responsible Press features the text of Mr Chamberlain’s speech. The “Hehrald-Tribune” states that Mr Chamberlain has dropped the notion of a mere patching-up of a new balance of power and is thinking in terms of a full-scale reorganisation of Europe. Practical statesmanship is incapable of translating such a broad objective into a settlement unless there is wide agreement among the belligerents and the neutrals, including America, which would profoundly influence the success. Yet the discussion of a concrete settlement is impossible till the terms of the war’s end are known. A victory by Hitler would render the question aca- , demic. The Allies’ use of a victory would depend on whether they had won after an exhausting war or whe- . (her Germany was prostrate or strong . under more responsible and less bel- ( licose hands. While statesmanship is ] compelled to wait the practical pos- j sibilities, opinion must be hammering T out a broad basis of which statesmen may avail themselves.