BRITAIN PROSPERS

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 74, 21 December 1937, Page 10

BRITAIN PROSPERS

Sub-Conscious Fear Of War Apparent MENACE TO LIBERTY “Everything is booming in Britain and prosperity seems firmly established,” said Mr. M. Fraser, C.V.0., 0.8. E., who, with Mrs. Fraser, returned to Wellington by the cruise liner Strathaird yesterday after a six-inonths tour abroad. Mr. Fraser retired in 1934 after being Government statistician for 21 years and Under-Secretary for Internal Affairs for three years. "There is a very considerable subconscious fear of war in Britain and, I think, a keen realisation that individual liberty has never been so seriously menaced in the world as it is to-day, since in most of' Europe it is already gone,” Mr. Fraser continued. “All sections of the British people, whether Conservative or Radical, appear to be unanimously agreetf on the need for adequate armament and defence to preserve to the democracies the liberty of the individual.” Mr. Fraser visited Germany, where the people 'appeared to be happily employed. Politics, however, was never discussed. Practically every hotel, dining-room, and shop had an enlarged photograph of Herr Hitler on the wall. In many of the hotel diningrooms this was the only picture. Mr. Fraser was struck by the fine physique of all the German uniformed men; they were big, courteous, and friendly. In the country there was intensive cultivation of every possible area, and a number of women were noticed working in the fields.