BEAT THE JAPS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 151, 28 June 1945, Page 5

BEAT THE JAPS

BRITAIN'S FIRST JOB

Mr. Eden Outlines Task Of Next Government British Official Wireless Rec. 1 p.m. RUGBY, June 27. Mr. Anthony Eden, making his first broadcast since 1941, said an autumn election would have meant continuous manoeuvring for position, with devastating results on the authority of the Government at home and abroad. The new Parliament's first duties will be to win the war against Japan and make and keep peace in Europe. Both are immensely formidable tasks.

"When I was in Washington a few weeks ago I found no inclination there to regard the Japanese war as any less formidable than the German war," he continued. "In many ways it is a heavier task, and surely there can be no doubt who is the man who should lead us in that war? Through all these years I have sat in the Defence Committee with the Prime Minister as one of his civilian colleagues. Every one of us who watched him there, whatever his party politics, will agree that he is above all others the man for that job. He is a master builder—unmatched for such a task."

Socialist Argument Dangerous

Dealing with Parliament's task of making and keeping peace, Mr. Eden said: "It has been suggested by Sir Stafford Cripps and others that to have good relations with the Soviet Union we should have a Socialist Government in this country because —so the argument runs—British Socialists are more sympathetic to Russian objectives than are the Conservatives and Liberals.

"Such an argument is not. merely false—it is dangerous. International relations are governed by the policy of any given foreign country on the main international issues. To ■attempt to align your international friendship primarily with Governments who share the same domestic political creeds—whatever their foreign policy may be—is just crazy."

Answering the allegation that the Conservative party would divert Mr. Churchill himself from the foreign policy which the Coalition Government pursued, Mr. Eden said: "The foreign policy of the past live years not only had the approval of the Liberal party, but the greater part of the Socialist parly. We will continue to pursue that policy if returned." Free Enterprise Policy Mr. Eden declared that the National Government stood for free enterprise and for the encouragement of individual initiative, but these tendencies must not be allowed to develop in a way conflicting with public interest. "Don't, imagine the choice before you lies between complete State Socialism and the anarchy of unrestricted private enterprise," he said, i

"There are certain public enterprises for which it should be for Parliament to decide whether they can be managed singly or locally under private or Statq control, but there is a far larger category which, by the variety and diversity of their character, call for special initiative, individuality and imagination, which are just the qualities we most need in the post-war years. The National Government's policy is to find a middle Way between the extremes of uncontrolled free enterprise and bureaucratic tyranny."

Mr. Eden got tip from a sick bed to deliver his broadcast, which he made, wearing pyjamas and dressing gown, from the study in his home.