POST-WAR WORLD

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 252, 6 August 1941, Page 2

POST-WAR WORLD

r TASK OF RECONSTRUCTION. ENGLISH jSPEAKING PEOPLES. (P.A.) WELLINGTON, August 5. Tho opinion that the English-speak-ing peoples, with their ideals and traditions, were better fitted than any other people to lay the foundation of a new world order after the war, was expressed by the Governor - Genei’al (Sir Cyril Newall), addressing the English-speaking Union in Wellington this afternoon.

“The woi'ld at the moment is, to put it roughly, in a frightful mess,” said his Excellency. “With destruction and desolation on all sides, we are assailed by the powers of evil; but we are going to win. When the war is finished, someone will have to build a new world out of the chaos which must inevitably ■ result from the present conflict. We must be concerned about who is going to do that work in the interests of humanity. I say that the British people, and people with their ideas and traditions, are the people to do it. We, as a nation, are not dictators. Our people are allowed to worship God in the way they please. They have freedom of thought, and freedom of speech. I am convinced, therefore, that the people of the British Commonwealth of Nations are in a position to lay the most secure and most lasting foundations for the new world, We have our faults, as everyone has—faults that engender hatred and call for forgiveness; but if wo realise them and endeavour to overcome them, there is no harm done. “The English and American peoples have a comimon heritage. They have language, law, traditions, and ideals in common. Exactly as American people find things They don’t like in England, so we find things we don’t like in America; hut we are tho same people fundamentally in dur outlook. God knows we have to he thankful for what they are doing for us now in America.

“We two peoples should therefore get together in the closest possible union. Tho closer that union non':, the closer will be the bond that will unite our children to whom, at no long distant time, we will all have to hand over everything we hold as sacred and to be cherished. Thus will be created a groat force on sound traditions to build up the new world. We have a responsibility after this crisis, and a responsibility now, to see that our children are so educated that they will he able to face the task of reconstruction that must fall on their shoulders.”

Movements such as the Englishspeaking Union would help to fit the post-war generation for its task, said his Excellency in conclusion. Ho expressed the hope that the union would form a national headquarters which, lie believed, would help extend the influence of the organisation.