“THE SAME FAMILY”

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 63, Issue 271, 26 August 1943, Page 4

“THE SAME FAMILY”

MANNER OF TALKS AT QUEBEC. THE ACHIEVING OF VICTORY. d BUILDING POST-WAR WORLt). SPEECH -BY MR ROOSEVELT. 'N.Z Press Association— Copyright.) (Rec. 10.45 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 25. President Roosevelt delivered a broadcast speech in the Canadian Parliament. The President said that in the North-west Pacific a relatively small campaign had been assisted by the Japanese themselves in the elimination of the last Japanese from Attu and Alaska. “We have been told that Japan would never surrender. Their headlong retreat satisfies us just as well.” The President said: “Great councils are being held here on the free, honoured soil of Canada —councils which look to the future conduct of the war and to years of building.new progress for mankind. These councils, Canadians and Americans alike, again welcome that wise, good and gallant gentleman, Mr Churchill.

“The combined staffs have been sitting around the table, talking things over and discussing ways and means in the manner of -friends and in the manner of partTners. I may even say in the manner of members of the same family. We talked constructively of our- common purpose—our determination to achieve victory in the shortest possible time—our essential co-operation with our great brave fighting Allies, and we arrived harmoniously at certain de-f-inite conclusions.

“In due time we shall communicate the secret information of the conference at Quebec to Germany, Italy, and Japan. We shall communicate this information to our enemies in the only language their twisted minds seem capable of understanding. “Sometimes I wish that the great master of intuition, the Nazi leader, could be present in spirit at the conference at Quebec. If he and his generals had known our plans they would realise that discretion was still the better part of valour and that surrender would pay them better now than later.

“The evil characteristic that makes the Nazi a Nazi is the utter inability t<? understand, and therefore respect the qualities or rights of his fellowmen. His only method of dealing with his neighbour is first to delude him with lies, then attack him treacherously, then to beat him down and step on him, then either kill or enslave him. The same is true of the fanatical mili- / tarists of Japan. “That is why our enemies are doing their desperate best to misrepresent the purposes and results of this conference at Quebec. They still seek to divide and conquer the Allies, wl!o refuse to be divided just as cheerfully as they refuse to be conquered.

“We spend our energies, resources and the very lives of our sons and daughters because a band of gangsters in a community nation declines to recognise the fundamentals of decent human conduct, making sure that this time the lesson will be driven home to, them once and for all. We are going to be rid of the outlaws this time.

“It is no secret that at Quebec there was much talk of a post-war world. There is a longing in the air. what they call ‘the good old days.’ I would rather believe we can achieve new and better days. “I am everlastingly angry only at those who assert vociferously that the four freedoms and the Atlantic Charter are nonsense because they are unattainable. If they had lived a century and a half ago they would have sneered and said that the Declaration of Independence was utter piffle. If they lived nearly 1000 years ago they would have laughed uproariously at the ideas of Magna Carta. If they had lived several thousand years ago they would have derided Moses when he came from the mountain with the Ten Commandments.

“We have conceded that these great landmarks of human freedom are not always lived up to to-day and that the good old world cannot arrive at Utopia overnight, but I would rather be a builder than a wrecker. —British Official Wireless.