PROBLEMS AFTER THE WAR

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23350, 9 June 1941, Page 3

PROBLEMS AFTER THE WAR

Home Secretary’s Address (8.0. W.) RUGBY. June 6! The Home Secretary (Mr Herbert Morrison) addressing representatives of the foreign press in London said: “Lord Halifax a few months ago spoke of the British Empire’s post-war .aim as prosperity justly shared. Mr Roosevelt in a message to Congress listed freedom from want as one of the four great bases of democracy.. Last week the Foreign Secretary (Mr R. A. Eden) took up his words and pointed to social security, not only at home but also abroad as our aim.

"In thinking out the further significance of these utterances we can go a long way before we enter upon ground where political ideologies begin to divide us. Let us start with two propositions which are agreed to by all. One is the necessity for internal economic security if we are not to drift again into distress and disillusionment and conflict- The second is the necessity for achieving close co-operation between the United Kingdom and other countries of the British Commonwealth, the United States and all the freedomloving countries of the world. “Neither of these two aims can bs realised without the other. The Nazis have realised that common men will want something different in future from the world of the past, but their alternative is a snare and' a delusion. What they offer is essentially the same policy of nationalism and restriction.on a continental scale, but still with Berlin as the headquarters. Germany means to take all Europe to be her province. “The Nazis’ new order is but the old autarchy writ large,” Mr Morrison continued. “With what guiding idea shall we approach the future? I suggest that we , may find it in our conception of human welfare as well as in the avowed aim and object of our international post-war policy. We must direct the whole of our policy to achieving for everyone in all countries a really high standard of health, diet, physical well-being and education —of that happy combination of peace of mind with a strenuous constructive effort which is the true mark of civilised man. We must reach higher than any country has ever aimed before the war. “Whether and how far the new economics will require Socialist ideas for working out is a matter on which men may differ. What really matters is that Socialists and non-Socialists alike should attack these problems without too many preconceived ideas and with no respect at all for vested interests on either side of the line. Need for Clear Programme “All alike must remember that unless the peoples of enslaved Europe have before their eyes a clear and constructive programme, the defeat of . the Nazis may swiftly and indeed immediately bring social collapse and civil war throughout the Continent. Failure in imagination, unselfishness or foresight on the part of the democratic leaders will plunge the world back into an era, not only of bloody conflict, but of civil dissolution and disintegration in which everything that free men everywhere hold dear may pass for generations out of mankind’s grasp. “One post-war question may be whether wives are to be financially dependent or independent by . having their statutory income deducted from their husbands’ income,” said Mr Morrison in the course of his speech. “That is the next item on the agenda, and I warn you it is coming. What women did in the last war was child’s play compared with what they are doing now. Woman are going to be a handful to manage ut the end of this war. They will demand changes.”