GOLDEN AGE FORESEEN

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 59, 11 March 1939, Page 9

GOLDEN AGE FORESEEN

IF PEACE ASSURED

SIR S. HOARE'S VISION

GREAT OPPORTUNITY

THE WORLD'S LEADERS

(British Official Wireless.) (Received March 11, 11.45 a.m.)

RUGBY, March 10.

The Secretary for Home Affairs, Sir Samuel Hoare, in a speech in his constituency, eloquently depicted the opportunity which lay before the leading statesmen of the world to create peace and prosperity. He asked his audience to imagine the possible results of abolishing the political uncertainties which stand in the way of settled co-operation between the nations.

"Suppose that political confidence could be restored in Europe," he said. "Suppose that for the space of five years there were neither wars nor rumours of wars. Suppose that the peoples of Europe were able to free themselves from the nightmare that haunts them and from the expenditure on armaments that beggars them. Could we not then devote the almost incredible inventions and discoveries of our time to the creation of a golden age in which poverty could be reduced to insignificance and the standard of living raised to heights we have never been able to attempt before? Here, indeed, is the greatest opportunity that has ever been offered to the leaders of the world."

He went on to stress the essentially defensive character of the re-arma-ment of the democracies, and said: "Some people on the Continent are saying that we are building up great armaments for the purpose of attack and that we are marching towards war. Nothing is further from the truth. We are doing no more than to raise our standard of defence to the point that has already been reached by the dictator countries, and we are raising it with extreme reluctance. We are thinking only of a conference, and we shall always be ready to lessen the appalling burden which the modern standards of defence have imposed on the world if a general agreement that leaves each of us safe from aggression can be reached by international negotiation." REMOVING CAUSES OF WAR. Sir Samuel Hoare declared that the new strength of the democracies would not make them blind or rigid to problems that called for remedy. They were as anxious as ever to remove the causes of war in the world. "They believe, for instance," he said, "that great progress^ might speedily be secured if they could cut through the entanglements that now stifle trade and destroy friendly. intercourse. They are always ready for discussions on these lines. They welcome, therefore, the contacts now being made between British and German industrialists. They are glad that Mr. Stanley should visit Berlin. They hope that the result of this closer intercourse will be to remove some of the obstacles that now stand so formidably in the way of world trade." "Five men in, Europe—the three dictators and the Prime Ministers of England and France —if they worked with singleness of purpose and unity of action to this end, might in an incredibly short space of time transform the whole history of the world. These five men, working together in Europe and blessed in their efforts by the President of the United States might make themselves eternal benefactors of the human race. Our own Prime Minister has shown his determination to work heart and soul to such an end. I cannot believe that the other leaders in Europe will not join him in the high endeavour upon which he is engaged." RETURN OF CONFIDENCE. The speech to which this forceful appeal for the triumph of good will was a climax began with a description of the return in recent months of a mood of confidence and resolution to people in Britain. Sir Samuel Hoare commented on the astonishing freedom with which all aspects of the country's defence provisions were still discussed in the British Parliament and on the chance it afforded to all citizens to realise how the huge sums, running to nearly £600,000,000 this year, which were j being spent on defence were now producing results. Statements on the defence estimates and recent debates had shown that the long period of preparation had come to an end, and that results were now emerging with remarkable effect.

They show, I am convinced, that we could not be defeated in a short war by any knock-out blow, and that in a long war our almost inexhaustible resources would ensure final victory, he said. These conclusions are of incalculable importance not only to us, but to every country that is bent upon peace. DEMOCRACIES' SOLIDARITY.

"There is another fact which has emerged in recent weeks. It is the solidarity of the effort in the three great democracies. At the end of the year there were many foolish people who went about saying that the democracies were effete^ Few say so today, aril none will say so tomorrow. For the great re-armament programmes in the British Commonwealth, France, and the United States are much more than the repair of gaps in the national defences. They are outward and visible signs of the strength and vigour of the three countries and o£ their

unshakable resolution to ward off attack on their historic liberties. "Never in our memory has there been so fundamental a unity or so firm a resolve in all three democracies, each differing from the other in almost every respect and each forming its conclusions in its own way, but all three inevitably impelled upon the same programme of national defence. "Between the British and French democracies there have been forged especially close bonds of common interest. They are both in Europe, and European dangers have encompassed them. America is in a different position. It is out of Europe and does not wish to be drawn into European entanglements. It has its own problems to solve, and does not want them to be compromised by foreign obligations. We realise these differences and accept them, and we should be both meddlesome and foolish if we attempted to run counter to them. American democracy will go its own way and no one here will try to deflect it. MOST SIGNIFICANT FACT. "But that is not a significant fact at the moment. The significant fact is the simultaneous rejuvenescence of democratic "strength in each of the three great democracies, not least in the American, and the equal determination of all three to resist, and resist victoriously, any and every attack upon its life and liberty." ~_