WISE USE OF NAVIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 May 1941, Page 5

WISE USE OF NAVIES

MAY DETERMINE DESTINIES OF FREE PEOPLES ADDRESS BY AMERICAN AMBASSADOR. NOT BRITAIN'S FIGHT ALONE. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. May 14. “Oil the wise use of the navies of the world may hang the destinies of the tree peoples of the world. Kindly Providence, at this time of stress and danger, has placed at the head of the two great English-speaking people two men whose knowledge of the sea is probably greater than that of any other statesman of any time,’’ said the Uniled States Ambassador, Mt Winant, when addressing the Eng-lish-speaking Union. "It is probably the crowning virtue of the English-speaking countries that they recognise and respect virtue wherever they find it and are not inclined to beguile themselves with the primitive and barbaric idea that they themselves have a monopoly of it.” Mr Winant said. “That is why today, throughout Europe and throughout the world, people of all races and all religions are hoping praying, and. wherever they are given the chance, fighting for victory for Britain and for the English-speaking countries which rally to Britain's aid. "Only this week in London, in the early morning hours of the Sabbath enemy bombs destroyed the House of Commons room of Parliament and smashed the altar of Westminster, Abbey. These two hits seemed to symbolise the objectives of a dictator and pagan. “Across the street from the wreckage of these two great historic buildings of State and Church the statue of Abraham Lincoln is still standing. As I looked at the bowed figure of the great emancipator and thought of his life I could not help but remember that he loved God, that he had defined and represented democratic government, land that he hated slavery. "As an American I was proud that he was there in all that wreckage as a friend and sentinel of a gallant day that had gone by and a reminder that in this great batlie for freedom he awaited quietly support of those things for which he lived and died." Mr Winant added: "The freedomloving peoples of this earth are coming |to realise that this is not Britain’s fight alone. When clever and cunning dictators are striking with lightning speed at any and every free nation that dares to stand in their way. lhe time has come for the democratic nations to prove to the world that. I while they are free to debate, they have the power and the will to act.”