SINCERE TRIBUTE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 65, Issue 267, 22 August 1945, Page 3

SINCERE TRIBUTE

MR EDEN PRAISES MR BEVIN. POLICY ACCEPTABLE TO ALL. (N.Z. Press Association— Copyright.) LONDON, Aug. 20. Mr R. A. Eden in the House of Commons congratulated Mr Ernest Bevin on the forthrightness of his speech. He said that during the four and a half years they served together in the War Cabinet he did not remember a single difference between himself and Mr Bevin on important issues of foreign policy. “Mr Bevin helped me in that critical period and in the same spirit 1 would like to try to help him now,” said Mr Eden. It was not his duty as a member of the Opposition to emphasise divergencies but to state them frankly in order to try to reach agreement so that Parliament might in these difficult years function largely as a Council of State. The greater the agreement at home the greater would be the authority of Mr Bevin abroad. Mr Eden said he agreed entirely with Mr Bevin regarding Greece. The charge that Greece had aggressive intentions against her northern neiglibours would not bear for a moment examination, especially- in view of the military capacity of Greece, because the Greek Army was destroyed in 1941 and had never been reconstructed. Bulgarian Propaganda. “If there was one country about whose radio propaganda and criticism of Greece I feel badly it is Bulgaria,” said Mr Eden. “Bulgaria’s treatment of our prisoners has been bad, and generally she is not a country for which we have any cause to be tender. I think Poland’s western frontier has been moved too far west, just as after the last war her eastern frontier was moved too far east. “We have to make every contribution possible to alleviate Europe’s economic position, not merely because wo want to be generous, but because it is in our own interests that Europe’s economy should not collapse, but we know how straitened are our circumstances, and how small our contribution can be with the best will in the world.” Mr Eden added that Mr Bevin’s remarks received the approbation of the House as a whole. They represented a foreign policy acceptable to all parties. “I repeat my good wishes to him, and every section of the House will endorse those wishes,” he said. “Victory this time has come with its stark, unparalleled warning. I said in San Francisco that it was the world's last chance. We pray that the world will seize this last chance, and any efforts Mr Bevin makes wisely to guide and encourage it we shall support to the utmost of our strength.” (Cheers).