NOTE OF LEADERSHIP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 January 1940, Page 5

NOTE OF LEADERSHIP

SOUNDED BY THE FRENCH PREMIER CONSTITUTION OF NEW EUROPE. APPROVING PRESS COMMENT IN BRITAIN. (British - Official Wireless.) RUGBY, January 1. Several newspapers today refer to the striking speech by the Prime Minister of France, M. Daladier, last week, in which he spoke of recent agreements on economic and financial co-operation between France and Britain, and declared his view that “a new Europe should have a far wider organisation than that which now exists.” The French Premier went on to say that it would be necessary to multiply exchanges and perhaps to envisage federal ties between the various Stales of Europe. This insistence by M. Daladier on the value of Anglo-French solidarity for the future of Europe is remarked upon by “The Times,” while the “Manchester Guardian” thinks that he has sounded a note of leadership for which the democracies have been looking for many years. “His firm tone for the present and his bold views for the future show that the Western Governments have taken the initiative and have their own plans for a new Europe,” the “Guardian” continues. "The completeness with which Britain and France can achieve economic unity, and the liberality with which they can maintain trading relations with other States during the war, will largely decide the prospects of the new Europe.” The "Daily. Herald” also commends M. Daladier’s vision of the future, saying that he is "the first leading statesman to say what millions of ordinary men and women have been thinking. Everybody with any common sense realises, that the nations must relinquish some of their unrestricted national sovereignty if there is to be any hope of a stable peace and progress.” , “The Times” observes: “The Europe of 1939 is gone for ever and few will regret it. Whatever is built out of the ruins wilt be a very different, and we must hope, a finer structure. In creating an international order capable of perpetuating peace, we must be prepared for far-reaching changes and it may well be that a national Sovereign State, as Europe has known it for 400 years, will consent to modifications hitherto regarded as impracticable. It is right that even while wt grapple with the stern ordeal before us some minds at least should be concentrated on working out those problems that lie far ahead. The immediate task for 1940 is a bitter fight with an unscrupulous, ruthless, and formidable adversary, but we can face it with a higher courage and a deeper assurance of victory if our hearts are set .on the ultimate achievement of a juster work!.”