PROSPECTS OF PEACE

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26576, 12 November 1951, Page 7

PROSPECTS OF PEACE

COMMENT BY MR CHURCHILL

LONDON, November 9. The Prime Minister (Mr Churchill) voiced a fear to-night that the Soviet Union and the West might tumble or drag each other into a third world war. In a speech at the annual dinner of the Lord Mayor of London, Mr Churchill said: "What is the world scene as presented to us to-day? Mighty forces, armed with fearful weapons, are baying at each other across a gulf which, I have a feeling to-night, neither wishes, and both fear, to cross, but into which they may tumble or drag each other to their common ruin.” Mr Churchill said that American efforts to deter Communist aggression were the main foundation of peace. “A tithe of the efforts now being made by America would have prevented a second world war and would have probably led to the downfall of Hitler with scarcely any blood being shed except his own,” said Mr Churchill. “I feel deep gratitude towards our great American allies. They have risen to leadership of the world without any other ambition but to serve its highest causes faithfully.” Peculiar Risks Mr Churchill said that Britain had taken peculiar risks in providing the principal atomic base for the United States in Britain. As a consequence Britain had placed herself in the very forefront of Soviet antagonism. “We have, therefore, every need and every right to seek and receive the fullest consideration from the Americans for our viewpoints, and I feel that this will not be denied us.” Dealing with home affairs, Mr Churchill said that the Government had been shocked and surprised by the economic situation confronting It when it took over. “We have certainly been left a tangled web of commitments and shortages, the like of which I have never seen before,” he said. “I hope and pray that we may be granted the wisdom and strength to cope with them efficiently. Nothing would be easier than for this country, politically rent asunder as it is, to shake and shatter itself into bankruptcy and ruin. But under grave pressures we proved ourselves to be a wise, unconquerable people, and I am sure we will succeed.”