WHY BRITAIN FIGHTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 December 1939, Page 6

WHY BRITAIN FIGHTS

WAR DECLARED ON BEHALF OF LIBERTY & LAW. SIR PHILIP GIBBS SUMS UP. There is no doubt in any mind —outside Germany—as to why Britain, desiring peace above all things, felt, bound to come into a war which may last a long time and will be, beyond all doubt, the most severe ordeal ever faced by the British people, demanding all their courage, sacrifice and spirit in a life-and-death struggle, writes Sir Philip Gibbs. The judgment of the world —outside Germany—has already been given. Britain came into that war on the third day of September in this year of Fate to defend all that we mean by civilisation and its code of liberty and a decent chance of life, from a reign of violence and brutal domination under the leadership of one man. possessed, it seems, by an evil spirit and surrounded by evil counsellors. There could be no security for any nation in Europe, nor, indeed, for the civilised world, so long as Hitler remained unchecked in his aggressive policy of intimidation and lawlessness. We had been deceived by him too often. He had broken pledge after pledge, most solemnly macle. A line had to be drawn against him beyond which, if he passed, force would be met by force. He passed that line when he launched his attack upon Poland. without an ultimatum, without giving the Poles time to consider his demands, and when Britain and France were making every possible effort io secure a settlement by peaceful negotiation. On behalf of liberty and law. then, Britain was forced to declare war upon this man of broken pledges and false faith, whose violence, suggestive of a diseased mind, had become a menace to the whole world.