REQUISITES FOR VICTORY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 8, 10 January 1941, Page 7

REQUISITES FOR VICTORY

LORD HALIFAX IN REPLY

(British Official Wireless.) (Received January 10, 12.50 p.m.)

RUGBY, January 9

Lord Halifax, speaking at the Pilgrims' luncheon, said he could claim none of the special qualifications of personal experience in the United States which made Lord Lothian an ideal Ambassador, but on the other hand he thought there Avas no precedent for the advantage he enjoyed in passing directly from the War Cabinet and the chair of the Foreign Secretary to represent Britain in Washington.

"My duty, as I see it," he said, "will not be confined to the business of oneway traffic in thought by interpretation of the United States to the British Government and people. Not less vital is the transplantation of British thoughts and purposes to the Government and peoples of America. Events, indeed, have spoken more loudly than any Avords and have had the effect both of making the attitude of our people unmistakably plain and of bringing the people of America to the same awakening to the full significance of this'struggle as has already come to us."

After recalling the dark days of the collapse of France Avhen "we saw Avorking at its best the spirit of democracy —a great Prime Minister and a great people Avorking m complete mutual trust." Lord Halifax added: "Three things are necessary for victory—a good cause, the material strength to support it. and a people Avith a spirit not unworthy of it. As to the first issues, they have been restated with penetrating simplicity by Mr. Roosevelt. As regards material, apart from the steady development in this country and all parts of (he Empire, we are able to count increasingly on the massive industrial strength of America, the value of which it is impossible to overestimate. Of the spirit of our people it is hardly necessary to speak." '

Lord Halifax concluded: "There is no hope for free human civilisation unless the foundations of its life, now challenged, can be secured. We are encouraged by the knoAvledge that the will to resist this German attempt to secure world domination is as strong on the other side of the Atlantic as it is here, and Aye do not doubt that the achievement of our purpose is Avithin the power of the English-speak-ing peoples."