Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 1941. THE ATLANTIC CHARTER.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 August 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 1941. THE ATLANTIC CHARTER.

JJKE others which have gone before, the broadcast, in which Mr Churchill lias given his own account of his meeting with President Roosevelt in the North Atlantic —a meeting which, as he said, symbolised in a form, and manner everyone could understand the deep underlying unities which stirred and at, decisive moments ruled the English-speaking peoples throughout the world —is noble in. range and purpose and well-timed. Mr Churchill dealt adequately with all the leading aspects ol: the crisis by which humanity is confronted on account 01. the outbreak of Nazi barbarism and bestiality and defined clearly the only foundation on which hope for the future can be based —in. the first place a wholly united and unsparing war effort and then broad combined action, in which the English-speaking peoples must play an all-important part, in re-establishing peace and making it secure.

The British Prime Minister was guilty of no vagueness in dealing with any of the problems raised. He addressed himsell. as frankly to .Japan as to Hitler ami his gang and told the Japanese, militarist factions in blunt and uncompromising words that their aggression had got to stop. He spoke unquestionably with the full weight of the British nation behind him when he told, the subjugated and oppressed millions of Europe to have faith and hope and promised them ultimate liberation.

All this being said, the question that stands out commandingly concerns the extent to which the other great branch 01. the English-speaking nation can also be depended upon to uphold and make good what Mr Churchill called the Atlantic Charter. At the Atlantic meeting, as he observed, the President of the United Slates and the British representative pledged their countries to the destruction ol Nazi tyranny. So far as the military defeat and overthrow of Hitlerism is concerned, there does not appear to be the slightest doubt that this pledge ■will be honoured jointly io the full. American material resources are being devoted in an enormous and ever-increasing measure to the defeat of the Axis Powers and no doubt it is perfectly true, as Mr Churchill declared, that it rests primarily with Hitler—who has, in the British Prime Minister’s telling phrase “murdered half a dozen countries lor far less than the, I nited States is doing—to determine whether the United States shall, or shall not become a belligerent.

It may be taken for granted that in one way or another the United States will continue to make its ever-increasing contribution to the defeat, and extirpation of totalitarian aggression. Whether, however, the United States will continue to play in the iTO.st-war world the part that is needed to safeguard its own freedom and that of other nations is a question that has vet to be determined.

This question evidently is fateful for all humanity and not least for the United States itself. Effective American collaboration after the war of 1914-18 probably would have averted the present. Avar. Should American collaboration be refused, or given in something less than fully adequate measure, Avhen this Avar has come to an end, hopes of stable Avorld order and security will fade.

Under the Atlantic declaration, Mr Churchill has pointed out, the United States and Britain intend to take ample precautions against future Avar by disarming the guilty nations, while remaining suitably protected themselves —the joint declaration shows that this is intended to be a phase preliminary and preparatory to “the establishment of a Avider and more permanent system of general security.” Tn becoming, on behalf of the United States, a party to this policy, President Roosevelt is backed by an apparently overAvhelming Aveight of American public opinion. Only the future can shoAV, hoAvever, Avhether isolationism, uoaa’ pretty completely discredited, though not silenced, is destined again to assume importance in the United States.

The best reason for believing that this calamity may be. averted is that hard-headed common sense and a wise appreciation of self-interest may be expected to make common cause with enlightened idealism, in the United States, in rejecting any return to the policy of isolation. It is itoaa’ Avell and Avidely recognised by the American people that the assistance they are giving to Britain and her allies is not charitable aid, but a contribution to the fighting power of nations which, in defending themselves, are defending the United States. An equally informed and enlightened outlook, if it be maintained Avhen totalitarian aggression in its present manifestation has been defeated and overthroAvn, Avill make it impossible for the United States to relapse into a policy of isolation. It will. remain lime that aggression, developing unchecked in any part of the Avorld, is a definite and deadly threat to any and every free country, and that even to a great and poAverful nation like the United States the policy embodied in the Atlantic Charter Avill offer guarantees of security it could not otherAvise enjoy.