ALLIED WAR AIMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 October 1940, Page 5

ALLIED WAR AIMS

TASK OF BUILDING BETTER WORLD MR CHURCHILL’S REPLY TO SUGGESTION. NO FURTHER DECLARATION MEANTIME. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, October 15. Mr Churchill was asked in flip House of Commons whether, in anticipation of the time when Britain and her allies would be in a position to resume the military offensive, he would take an early opportunity of stating their - aims in general terms. He replied that this was being borne in mind. Mr Churchill added that the time had not come when an official declaration could be made on the war aims beyond the very carefully-consid-ered statements which had already been made public. He did not think the opinion prevailed anywhere that Britain was fighting merely to maintain the status quo. Britain was fighting to survive. “When our capacity to do that is more generally recognised throughout the world—when conviction about it becomes more general —then we shall be in a position to take a further view of what we shall do with victory when it is won,” he said. It was urged upon the Prime Minister that an important factor in victory would be an assurance felt throughout the world that Britain stood ready to lead in organising a better world. It was pointed out in reply that there was great danger in makingstatements which were not of a very general character, and Mr Churchill voiced his conviction that world opinion was in little doubt about the British cause and wholeheartedly endorsed it. The question of the war aims was subsequently raised on the adjournment, and Mr Duff Cooper, replying for the Government, said that while everyone was aware for what Britain was fighting, that was a different mat-, ter from a formal statement of war aims. Any statement that the Government might make must be one which would command the greatest possible unanimity not only among parties in Britain but also in the great Dominions and among those who were friends and allies of Britain. The war, said Mr Duff Cooper, was destroying a great part of the political, social, and economic as well as the material structure of the world, and it would be a duty after victory was achieved to rebuild a better, saner, and more beautiful fabric. It was their duty even now to be thinking how it could be rebuilt. Speaking of political organisation; the Minister pointed to the British Commonwealth of Nations as a great example for a combination of nations.