"NO LITTLE WAR."

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 154, 1 July 1940, Page 8

"NO LITTLE WAR."

PRESENT CONFLICT. Great Oceans And Air Spaces Will Play A Part. BRITAIN ONLY FRONT LINE. British Official Wireless. (Received 2 p.m.) RUGBY, June 30. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Information, Mr. Harold Nicolson, in a speech, urged that there were three things, as thoughts, which should be uppermost in the minds of all British people—firstly, the avoidance of defeat; secondly, the achievement of victory, and, thirdly, the construction of a new world bearing little resemblance to the old world, and in which the opportunity of equality and security should, at any sacrifice, be secured for all.

Two special products of German propaganda needed combating by all rightthinking men and women —firstly, that Germany is irresistible.

"This is not a little war waged in certain areas in western Europe, nor will it come to a conclusion within the narrow land frontiers in which alone Hitler can operate," he said. "This is a war in which the great oceans and great air spaces of the world will play a, decisive part.

"Do not let us think of ourselves as a people besieged in a small island within an iron ring of enemies. Let us think of ourselves as holding the front line of a vast defensive position with behind us the great force** of our Empire, the great resources of the Americas and the whole of the highwavs of the world."

Mr. Xieolson continued that to the German people to-day Hitler appeared as sumo Messianic, almost supernatural, leader, whose might could not be resisted bv any force.

He had until now triumphed by the perfection of his mechanism, but he now was faced with a new element, which broke the power of Spain as it broke the power of Napoleon. He was faced by the unconquerable supremacy of the British Navy.

"Look at large maps. Do not look at little maps. Remember that if we can resist this invasion, and falsify this prophecy, the Hitler legend will have received' the first tremendous refutation. Hitler knows that he, and still less Italy, cannot survive a protracted war. Britain's Great Resources. "He knows that as the months pass we, with greater resources, shall acquire first equality and then supremacy in the air. He knows, for instance, that in the British Dominions no fewer than 20,000 pilots are being produced every year. He knows that if he cannot succeed immediately, eventually failure is bound to come."

The second element needing refutation was the theory spread by the Fifth Column that the ordinary man and woman in Britain would be no worse off if Hitler conquered. The.se people did not realise that the working claeeos of Britain, like the working classes of other countries Hitlor had conquered, would be deprived of those rights won in the> great battle of the last 150 years.

They did not realise that the whole of Britain's trade would fall into German hands apd that the life of the humblest man and woman in the. country would become a life of which he could not dispose freely, but which, in its every day and hour would be ruled, regulated and controlled from Berlin.

Mr. Xicolson concluded by saying that he was filled with anger and pride. Anger ap-ainst the evil men who plotted the destruction of our gentle civilisation, and pride that the task should be given Britain once again to save Europe from the domination of evil mastery.