PEACE AIMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 November 1939, Page 6

PEACE AIMS

CANNOT BE LAID DOWN BY BRITAIN ALONE DOMINIONS & ALLIES TO BE CONSULTED I POSSIBLY THE VANQUISHED ALSO. MR CHAMBERLAIN'S REVIEW. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received This Day. 11.50 a.m.) LONDON, November 28. After reviewing the progress of the war, the Prime Minister (Mr Chamberlain) in the House of Commons, said: “The peace aims to be achieved when the war is over cannot be laid down by Britain alone. The Dominions and our Allies and possibly the vanquished must be consulted before it can be decided how a new and better world could be laid out. "We have not entered the war vindictively,” he continued, “and we do not intend to impose a vindictive peace, but the condition in which Europe has been kept so long by Germany’s policy has made it impossible to progress in the building of a better world, or to carry out schemes of improvement, and has forced Britain and the Allies to take up arms. The conditions for achieving our peace aims cannot now be foreseen.” Adding that none knew how long the war would last, nor how it would develop, nor who, when it ended, would be standing by our side and who would be against us, Mr Chamberlain said it would not only be futile, but mischievous. to attempt to lay down the conditions under which a new world could be created. THE NEW ORDER MR ATTLEE’S SUGGESTIONS. PREMIER ON THE MEANING OF IMPERIALISM. (Received This Day. Noon). LONDON, November 28. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr C. R. Attlee), emphasised the importance of looking beyond immediate victory. He declared that a new order of international democracy should be planned in which the rights of all nations, racial, cultural and those of religious minorities, would be respected. Aggression should be abandoned and also the spirit of absolute sovereignty and imperialism and disinterested arbitration should be accepted, with recognition of an international authority with power to enforce its decisions. Mr Chamberlain pointed out that Mr Attlee, in saying that imperialism must be abandoned, had not defined imperialism nor indicated what country he had in mind as practising imperialism today. “I don't know what he means,” said Mr Chamberlain, “but if imperialism means an assertion of racial superiority and suppression of the political and economic freedom of other peoples and the exploitation of other countries for the benefit of the imperialist country, then these are not characteristics of this country, but are characteristic of the present administration of Germany. We have no thought of treating the British Empire on such lines. The administration of the Colonial Empire is a trust to be conducted primarily in the interests of the peoples of the countries concerned. Sir A. Sinclair declared that the Librals were dissatisfied with the handling of war economy, particularly export trade. He added that a total of 14 million unempoyed three months after the outbreak of war was evidence of the Government’s failure fully to use its resources. He requested a two-day secret session.