BRITAIN & AMERICA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 May 1941, Page 7

BRITAIN & AMERICA

CO-OPERATION MOVEMENT NEW ZEALAND’S POSITION. ADDRESS BY MR. LEIGH HUNT. Speaking at the annual meeting of the Masterton branch of the League of Nations Union on the British-American Co-operation Movement, Mr Leigh Hunt said at the present time, it was a question of “first things first.” An atmosphere of destructive criticism could be met only by constructive thought and planning. Today the world was in a state of flux, and its future depended upon a crusade for the things that mattered. The United States of America, he said, covered an area as large as the whole of Europe. It was a favoured region with fertile soil and vast resources in minerals, oil and water power. Mr Hunt- gave an account of the various high water marks in its history from the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers to the present day. Its history had throughout been characterised by a passion for freedom.

Twenty years ago. when the population of the United States of America was 105 millions, it was composed of many nationalities which included 18 million Germans and four million Italians, while the proportion of British descent was 58 million or a little more than half, he said. Today the population was 131 millions with the various nationalities in much the same ratio. How difficult then, said the speaker, to gauge the will and feeling of the “American” people. They had all come to America as a refuge from oppression, from war, and to work out their own salvation in a land far removed from such repressions. The gangster element of the present generation, said Mr Hunt, was but the scum that rose to the surface from so many conflicting elements. The greyer generation were an open air'people, with faith in themselves, their country, and their future. It was his belief that they would lead the world to peace and freedom. In the past, New Zealand had lived a more or less placid life under the wing of the old Motherland, he said. Now England was fighting for her life and New Zealand had an opportunity to spend every effort in her aid. The cost would be terrible. New Zealand sent supplies, she sent her sons. What else could she do? Ho would never believe that a country fighting for Christian ideals could lose its cause. There must be a star of hope, and that star was the United States of America —Britain’s only friend in the world. Friendship and co-operation with America must be encouraged and extended. “British and American friendship is the greatest asset left: to civilisation today,” said Walter Page. United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom during the last war.

That was the reason why the founders of the movement in New Zealand had got into touch with the BritishAmerican Co-operation Movement in Australia and founded a similar organisation in New Zealand, said Mr Hunt. At the original meeting there was an attendance of only eight. Today its membership was both large and representative. The movement, however, should spread to centres other than the cities. Pacts and truces had a certain value, but the only real international cement W(?> friendship and goodwill, said Mr Hunt. The nucleus of the new League of Nations must be Britain and America. sprung from the same .stock, permeated by the same ideals. To weld together in friendship and understanding 200 millions of people was the greatest crusade ever undertaken in the world.

Mentioning some aspects of future policy along these lines, Mr Hunt said the banishment of prejudices and development of goodwill and the sending of a New Zealand Ambassador to Washington should be the prelude to, for instance, a Pacific pact, all members of which would go the assistance of any one attacked; the encouragement of American tourist traffic, and the development of frosh markets in America. English-speaking people could form the foundation of the new League of Nations, united for defence and with a common currency and free trade. The ideal was an entirely practical one. But peace must be fought for and worked for. Anything worth while could be obtained only at a high price. Public opinion must not be content to follow governments, but must push governments along. He urged support of the British-American Co-ope-ration Movement and the establishment of a group in Masterton.