Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1941. A LIGHT THAT WILL BRIGHTEN.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 December 1941, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1941. A LIGHT THAT WILL BRIGHTEN.

AMIDST all the horrors, dangers and stresses of war in whichthe world is passing from one year to another there is for all liberty-loving human beings a wealth of sustaining hope in the new unity that is taking shape, not merely against the forces of evil and aggression, but to the end of establishing i a new and better international order. It is not from a limited standpoint that the free nations are combining to defeat the ruthless attacks of lawless and predatory dictatorships, but with a rising and extending recognition’ of the truth, affirmed by Mr Churchill in his momentous address to the members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives, that duty and prudence alike demand that “adequate organisations should be set up to make sure that the pestilence (of aggressive war) can be controlled at its earliest beginnings, before it spreads and rages throughout the entire earth.”

Whatever the as yet unsolved problems and perils of the moment, in the Pacific and elsewhere, it is possible to believe, with the British Prime Minister, that now that Britain and America are joined in a righteous comradeship of arms and in a common resolve, a new scene has opened on which a steady light will glow and brighten.

While it is not in doubt that had the United States and Britain combined in international leadership after the last war, and even in comparatively recent years, all the calamities the world is now enduring and’ must yet endure for a time might have been averted, it would be hardly profitable at this stage to attempt an analysis of the conditions in which the democratic nations failed to combine in extirpating the disease of aggression of which Hitler is the focal, point. It may be believed, however, that the lesson of that failure and the penalty it entailed has been learned and that not only the Englishspeaking nations but many others are united in a determination that when victory over the forces of evil and barbarism has been Avon the world shall be reorganised on the basis of the principles set forth in the Atlantic Charter.

The deliberations’ that have taken place within the last few days in Washington are of good promise as they bear, not only on the prosecution of a war that may yet be long and hard, hut on the whole future of humanity. The unity of aim, purpose and action achieved by the British Empire and the United States is the more confidently to be hailed and welcomed since there is, as has been said, nothing exclusive about it. The English-speaking nations are uniting, not only to win the Avar but to offer a lead and invitation to all. free men, and to all who aspire to be free to combine in establishing and safeguarding a just peace.

Already the representatives of Allied nations, including some whose territory is meantime wholly occupied by the aggressors, have beep called into consultation by the leaders of the English-speaking nations and there is every indication that Britain and the United States are assured of broad cooperation and support in the establishment of a stable international order.