BRITISH UNITY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 August 1940, Page 5

BRITISH UNITY

IN CAUSE OF TRUTH & JUSTICE BROADCAST BY CARDINAL HINSLEY. DEFENCE OF CHRISTIAN I CIVILISATION. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, August 4. Cardinal Hinsley, Archbishop of Westminster and leader of the British Catholics, in a broadcast over the network of the National Broadcasting Company of America tonight, said: "Without in any way introducing politics, I may be allowed to express admiration for the pronouncements of President Roosevelt, who has shown himself a fearless Christian statesman, worthily discharging his duties as the head of the great North American Commonwealth. "Now I want to say a word in de-, fence of my country. I believe in patriotism. My faith teaches that patriotism is part of the virtue of charity. For charity requires that we love all men in God, according to our kinship with them. I can tell you quite decidedly that in this island we are all united in a determination to live or die together, whatever may assail us.

"Some writers dwell on the iniquities of England in ages past, on her aggressions and her conquests. Quite right—England is not immaculate. Neither are all those who malign her. But, worthy or unworthy, she is on the side of truth and justice in this conflict.

"I am persuaded that our rulers did all in their power to preserve peace at Munich and elsewhere by an agreed settlement of past wrongs. They received promises and pledges. The outstanding grievance was to be remedied by arbitration. Promises and pledges were made apparently only to be . broken. I maintain Britain has kept her word, and, looking back at the closing decades of last century, I remember that she entered into international conventions which were signed by all Powers, including Germany. I defy anyone to prove that Britain has not adhered to those contracts as faithfully as any of the high contracting Powers. "She now stands for the life and liberty of all nations, great and small, powerful and weak. And to me it seems a poor argument to hark back to our old sins in order to discredit our active opposition to the cruel wrongs done Poland, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, and Luxemburg.” Cardinal Hinsley concluded: “I declare that for me neutrality of the heart is impossible in this struggle. I see it as a great conflict between light and darkness. And when I say that this war is, in the deepest significance, a defence of Christian civilisation, I do not mean that we desire the preservation of the existing order. There is very much that calls for radical improvement in the actual conditions, social, economic, and political, of this country and of Europe. We are whole-heartedly and confidently in this struggle to secure a renewal —a reformation —which will oblige us all to apply in every sphere of life a principle of sound philosophy.”