INVASION BY RUSSIA

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 130, 17 March 1950, Page 3

INVASION BY RUSSIA

COMMON FRONT NEEDED CHURCHILL’S WARNING (N.Z.P. A.—Copyright) (Rec. 11.35 a.m.). LONDON, March 16. Mr Churchill to-night warned the House of Commons that it was at once grave and imperative to form a front in Europe against possible further invasion by Russia and her satellites. Returning to the role of war strategist in the non-vote debate on defence costs, Mr Churchill declared that such a front could not be defended without Germany’s active aid. The veteran statesman told silent Commoners: “Do not nurse foolish delusions that j'ou have any other overall effective shield at the present time from mortal danger than the atom bomb in the possession, thank God, of the United States. But for that there would be no hope that Europe could preserve its freedom.” Mr Churchill referred to the school of thought in America that held Western Europe to be indefensible, and believed the only line where the Soviet advance could be held was the English Channel and the Pyrenees. “I am glad this view has been decisively rejected by the United States, ourselves and all the Powers concerned with the Brussels Treaty and the Atlantic Pact.” Mr Churchill said that the active aid of Western Germany was essential to the defensive plans of the Atlantic/ Pact Nations. “We are unable to offer any assurances to the Germans that they may not be over-run by the Soviet or by a satellite invasion.” . Germany Cannot Assist "Germany, at present disarmed, is .unable to give any forces to assist in the defence of her eastern frontier,” said Mr Churchill. “The mighty mass of the Russian armies and their satellites lies like a fearful iloud upon the German people, and the Allies cannot /give them any direct protection. We have no guarantee to give except to engage in a war which, after wrecking what is left of European civilisation, would no doubt end- ultimately in ■ the defeat of the Soviet, but it might begin by Communist enslavement of Western Germany, and not only of Western Germany. I say without hesitation that effective defence on Europeap frontiers cannot be achieved if German contribution is excluded. The decision does not rest with this country alone, but we must have a policy, and the House ought to know what that policy is. It is painful to witness the prespnt indecision and also petty annoyances by which the reconciliation of France and Britain with Germany is hindered by the belated dismantling of the few remaining factories, and the still more belated trials of aged German generals. All this plays into the hands’of the Communist fifth column in Western Germany,'and assists in reviving Nazism or Neo-Nazism, which is only another variant of the same evil.”