Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1940. WAR AND PEACE AIMS.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 February 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1940. WAR AND PEACE AIMS.

gOME familiar ground was covered by the British Prime Minister (Mr Chamberlain) and the Leader of the British Liberal Party (Sir Archibald Sinclair) in the speeches on Saturday in which they set out the objects for which Britain and the Allies are fighting and the terms on which they would be prepared to conclude peace. There is by this time a firm and assured agreement, not only between, the Allied leaders, but among the people behind them, that there can be no peace with Hitler and his : gang, either in its present guise or under any deceptive metamorphosis it may undergo. The way to peace is as it has been wide open, so far as the Allies are concerned, but only when the German people are prepared honestly and spontaneously to undo as far as that is possible the foul crimes that have been committed in their name against nations that, as Mr Chamberlain said, once were free, and to co-operate in establishing conditions in which small as well as great nations will be able to live in security.

An essential first step in that direction will be taken by the German people when they deal in appropriate and exemplary fashion with the authors of the. national and international crimes that meantime, stand unexpiated. It may be hoped that the speech by Hitler which was reported yesterday—an utterance that may be summed up as the distempered ravings of an unmasked criminal —will help in some degree to bring nearer the day when Germany will rid itself of its debased tyranny. The Fuehrer’s speech certainly was well calculated to awaken disgust in any German mind in which elementary instincts of human decency remain implanted.

Interesting passages in the speeches of the British Prime Minister and Liberal Leader were those in which they disclaimed frankly and freely any idea of the Allies attempting unaided to establish a new international order. Mr Chamberlain said on that subject:—

But and Britain cannot and would not wish alone to settle the new Europe. Others must come in and help us, above all to bring about disarmament, which could only be attained after the re-establishment of confidence between nations. In this, Germany could do more than other nations, for she, more than any other, has done most to destroy it. When she is ready to give reliable proofs of her good will she will not find others lacking ’ in the will to help her to overcome the economic difficulties that will accompany the transition from war to peace.

There are elements of opinion in the Allied countries, and in other countries where the ruling desire is for the re-establish-ment of a rule of law, which criticise declarations of this kind as being too vague to be. of any value. In fact, however, the Allied leaders have expressed themselves as explicitly as could be desired in regard to some of the most- vital aspects of: possible peace terms —notably in disclaiming any desire to dismember Germany or to ask of her more than that she should redress the crimes of which she has been guilty under her present Government'.

Demands for the formulation of elaborate plans for the establishment of a new international order, to be created when peace has been restored, are in an entirely different, category. The just and sufficient answer to such demands is that made by Mr Chamberlain—that. France and Britain alone cannot settle the new Europe. What may fairly be asked of the Allied Powers is that they should be asked io do everything they can to open the way to the establishment, and development of a better international order—in the first place by bringing again into the forefront the institution of practical system of collective security by the co-operation of nations prepared to enter into an actual partnership to that end —in other words the revival of the League of Nations or of some better and more effective organisation in its place. At this, and at the promotion of the broadest and freest economic co-operation and collaboration in which the nations can be induced to engage, the Allies undoubtedly should aim in a most direct and purposeful fashion.

To suggest, however, that it. is open to the Allies to map out now in its details a new international order, to be brought into existence and operation as soon as the war is over is 1o build up dangerous illusions and to encourage anticipations that are hound to be disappointed. If as an outcome of this war the world again begins to build on foundations of collective security, the war will not have been fought in vain.