SELF-RELIANCE NEEDED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 41, 18 February 1942, Page 5

SELF-RELIANCE NEEDED

Lesson of Singapore

(Rec. 9 a.m.) BATAVIA, Feb. 17. "Let Singapore's fall be a lesson to all of us never again to expect help from outside, but to have confidence in our own pOwer as General Mac Arthur and his heroes have done ahd Still do," declares an editorial in the "Java Bode." The "Nieuws van den Dag" says: "Singapore and Malaya fell not because of Japanese superiority, but because of their own weakness. ! "The situation in the Netherlands Indies, however, is slightly different. Our strength lies in the fact that we have trusted solely in ourselves. "Therefore Singapore's fall does not make us lose our heads. We do not gamble. We do not bluff. Our strength is built on reality. "We have a real chance in this game of life.and death."

would be full, . frank, and searching, added: "I am absolutely certain I could say things to this House "which would arouse, members to the seriousness Of the situation and to the way in which the dangers might be aggravated by action which we may take or'fait'to take, but I could not say it in public."

. Answering critics who wanted an immediate debate, Mr. Churchill said: "I think that a very excited debate taking place all day wMle all our minds are oppressed by what has happened might easily have the effect of causing a very bad and unfavourable reaction all over the world." STATEMENT LATER. He thought he would be more prepared to make a statement at the next series of sittings, jand would have more information. He begged that the debate should be absolutely frank and measured only by regard for the public interest. . I A Labour member said he was much indebted to the Prime Minister for meeting the House in the way he h,ad done, and that the debate in the course of the next sitting would meet the case satisfactorily. Questions that people were asking, he said, were how far had the results of the Channel battle affected invasion, what was going to happen in the Far East, and what politir cal and strategic part was the British Government playing in theb battle in Asia? A Conservative member said that members were not so concerned about finding fault with individuals as having a united country and House behind the Prime bMinister. Sir Percy Harris (Liberal) said the public would want the House to have a full debate. The Prime Minister had no rival, but he asked him to listen to the counsel of his friends. "GRAND INQUEST" DEMANDED. A political correspondent, commenting upon the discussion, writes: "The real key to the attitude Of those who go under the general description of 'critics' was given by Earl WintertOn. He. said: 'I do not accept the line that all that has happened is inevitable, and.that if we question its inevitability we are showing panic'

"What Lord Winterton wanted, and the cheers of Other members showed they agreed with him, was, in the good old English phrase, 'a grand inquest.'

"That," the -correspondent says, "has nothing to do with niggling criticism. It has to do with a deep inquiry into causes."