BRITISH SUPPORT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 126, 30 May 1941, Page 8

BRITISH SUPPORT

ARAB ASPIRATIONS

PLEDGE GIVEN BY MR. EDEN

"NATURAL & RIGHT"

(Rec. 11.15 a.m.) RUGBY, May 29. Discussing the situation in Irak during his speech at the Mansion House, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Anthony Eden, said that reports were encouraging and the pretensions of Rashid Ali to speak for Irak had been proved false.

"I hope, therefore, very soon, we shall have rid Irak of this self- j constituted dictator, who has j brought much unnecessary suffering to his fellow-countrymen," said Mr. Eden. "Then a basis for cordial co-operation in accordance with our treaty rights will be established. "We have no design of any kind against the independence of Irak. Britain's long tradition of friendship with the Arabs has been proved by deeds. Some days ago I said in the House of Commons that Britain had great sympathy with Syrian aspirations for independence. I would like to repeat that now, but I would go further. "The Arab world has made great strides since a settlement was reached at the end of th 2 last war, and many Arab thinkers desire for the Arab peoples a greater degree of unity than they now enjoy. In reaching out towards this unity they hope for our support. STRENGTHENING OF TIES. "No suoh appeal from our friends should go unanswered. It seems both natural and right that cultural and economic ties between the Arab countries, yes, and political ties too, should be strengthened. Britain, for her part, will give her full support to any scheme that commands general approval." Mr. Eden then turned to the future of the world as designed by Hitler, and said the immediate result of the remarkable ruthless military achievement, whereby Europe was conquered from Norway to Greece, was that in all these lands no one can by any legal means read newspapers, hear the wireless, or harbour thoughts of which the Fuhrer would not approve. "For many reasons this vast, sinister fabric cannot endure," he said. "It is boundless in ambition, .and in order to survive will have to continue to march into every country and every continent. None wil] be safe anywhere until this system is smashed. It wall be the universal realisation of this truth that will first set a term to Hitler's power."—B.O.W.