A NATION'S MORALE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 159, 6 July 1940, Page 8

A NATION'S MORALE

VALUE OF FREE PRESS

IN THE ZERO HOUR. BRITAIN'S PEOPLE KNOW THE FACTS. The BatUe of. Britain may begin at any moment, sayt the '"Sydney Daily Telegraph in a leading article published on Wednesday of this week. Mr. Chamberlain has i-trcssed clearly and convincingly the united will of the British people to defeat the invader. "One and all are animated by the same fighting spirit which will never give in. . . Mr. Chamberlain's c-peech, at hngland's critical hour, is of great importance. It is a smashing answer to the Nazi-inspired rumours that the British Government is divided, that the '"old gang" with their dangerous drug of "appeasement" may be trying to come to terms with the enemv.

Propaganda. To make these suggestions on the e\e of the decisive battic of the war is the obvious tactic of German propagandists. With the example of France before them, some Britishers at Home and abroad might have feared that Britain, too, would crack up from within, that certain of Britain's leaders would be glad to compromise with Hitler. Had this belief n<jt been corrected in time, it might 11a \ e crippled the Empire"* morale. Mr. ('haml>crlain ha~ refuted it. flic former champion of "ap|>easement" now proclaims a fight to the finish.

Prepared. Britain is ready. Her material defences, naval, aerial, and military, are strong. Mr. Chamberlain explained how strong. Her Xavy is vastly superior to the German Xavy, her Air Force is stronger than it has been since the beginning of the war. and •-he has a larger Army than ever before in her history. And equally inrportant. her morale is high. There is a reason for this. Her people are informed. Britain has not only learned military l&ssons from the French collapse. .She has learned also the supreme importance of a free and fearless Fress.

In Blinkers. France was defeated not only bv inefficiency and by treachery, but bv ignorance, too. A riirid censorship had kept her people in the dark. Men could have warned their countrymen of dangers, of weaknesses, and of bungling, were stifled. Critics of the (iovernment were imprisoned. Xewspapers were gagged. The. French nation that went into battle against the stujiendoiis Xazi war machine was a nation in blinkers, stumbling to inevitable disaster. When the, blinkers fell off French morale collapsed.

Free Press. The British nation, steeled to meet the Xazi invasion, it« danger* with open eyes. J.ast week the Minister of Information. Mr. DutT Cooper, proposed to impose a compulsory ce.n-or.-hip on the Pie-s, \ igorous ion. squashed the proposal. The ''Manchester Guardian,"' famous organ <>f liberal expression, makes a comment which we should read and remember. '"Once it had been insinuated in the public mind," it says, ' that the British Press was no more than a mouthpiece for official news .md official opinion, we should have begun to tread the same path which so notably contributed to the ruin of France."