POST-WAR NEEDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 3, 3 July 1943, Page 5

POST-WAR NEEDS

SIR S. CRIPPS'S VIEWS

TWO MAIN DEVELOPMENTS

RUGBY, July 1

Further international co-operation for military, economic, and social tasks, combined with all possible encouragement of the diverse, national, social, cultural, and religious activities, were two of the main developments foreseen for post-war needs by Sir Stafford Cripps when opening the | International Youth Centre in London. What was needed, he said, was a J development which not only provided! for its members, through co-operation and security, against aggression and: want, but preserved the rich diversity of culture and self-respecting neighbourly , freedom, which was the true | basis of democratic life. "The first line of development, demands a co-operative effort from the United Nations working through* international organisations designed to undertake those social, economic, and defence tasks which will only be accomplished successfully insofar as they are approached with an international outlook," said Sir Stafford. "Such combined organisations would serve perfectly the interests,of every mem-; ber, since, security and prosperity for all are their aim, and these are fundamental requisites to every peace-loving nation. "The second line requires encourage- \ ment of the freest possible expression of the social, cultural, and religious life of every land. The two lines are .parallel and need never, cross one another provided we begin by establishing a sound framework for the international order. , . "Neither freedom from *want nor from fear can be achieves by any single nation. The technical development of modern aviation and armament dictates either a vast, single totalitarian empire, or a world system of military security in "which the whole body of the United Nations can to a gr.eat extent relieve the individual nations of the impossibly heavy burden of individual defence in the modern circumstances of mechanised warfare. "Elimination of the world economic depressions such as shook the world to its foundations in the early thirties, calls for an international organisation to engender and control the rising spiral of economic activity throughout the world. Equalisation standards as between the people of the different nations, as well as between classes, demands a new kind of combined operation between nations directed towards raising the economic and social standards, of the common man of almost every land. "Already the United Nations have made a beginning, and in some directions we are already going further than wartime collaboration. For instance, at Hot Springs a beginning was made with food, and the diet of the common man was raised to a status* of major concern in international affairs. I hope that while we bring military and economic activities as far as possible into the international order, we shall all seek both to develop our own national culture and to understand and appreciate that of other countries. "I look forward to the widest pos-'j sible developments, to language study, j cheap foreign travel, student exchanges, and all those other devices j by which we can enlarge and spread j knowledge concerning the cultural heritage and ways of life throughout every land."-~8.0.W.