EVILS OF HITLERISM

Evening Star, Issue 23422, 13 November 1939, Page 7

EVILS OF HITLERISM

RULE BY BRUTE FORGE " DESTROY IT WE MUST " NEW WORLD ORDER WILL FOLLOW (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, November 11. The Parliamentary Secretary to tho Ministry of Information (Sir Edward Grigg) in a speech said:— " Hitlerism. which we pledged ourselves to destroy, is something much stronger and more penetrative than tbp mind and character of a single man. There would he no Hitler to-day if tho German people were not susceptible to crude and brutal leadership of the typo he represents. Nor would there be any Hitler to-day if there were not in every German town and village a number of men ready and willing to inflict, upon their own compatriots the awful cruelties and tyrannies which mark his regime. Evil things in Germany at present dominate the good, and the only one means by which that Satanic spirit in Germany can be destroyed is by the arbitrament to which it has itself appealed—' the arbitrament of tho sword.' " Destroy it we must and will, but what then ? The question is being asked all over the world. Britain has no territorial ambitions of any kind, and she has no desire to maintain a position of exclusive privilege under which tho great resources she commands will be denied to the rest of the world. It is time, and more than time, that the nations of Europe regarded their civilisation in Europe and elsewhere as a common charge. We want no exclusive control of tho wealth of other continents for ourselves. We seek no dictated peace, but a peace by agreement in which all peoples, including the German, will play their part. We seek a peace which is guaranteed by general acceptance, not peace guaranteed by the strength of two or three dominant Powers, while other people remain weak and disarmed. There must be force behind all law, but the wider the consent on which the law is based the less the danger that force will have to be used. " Our third principle," he continued, " is that we shall strive for the economic welfare not merely of tho victorious countries but of Europe as a whole. The greatest weakness of tho Treaty of Versailles and its sister treaties was their blindness to the economic needs of various new States which they set up. The States of Europe will, I hope, come to realise that without cooperation on a scale unknown in the past they cannot hope to be either safo or prosperous. .We must strive to bring that about by making every possible contribution to the common good. " It is being said by Germany and Russia," he went on, " that we entered this war to maintain an imperialistic domination over Europe and other parts of the world. That is a lie. We want nothing but the extension of freedom, a higher standard of living, and an ample, abundant life for our own people and for all peoples."

MR FRASER IN FRANCE

VISIT TO BRITISH HEADQUARTERS INTERVIEW WITH VISCOUNT GORT LONDON, November 12. (Received November 13, at 10.5 a.m.) The correspondent of the Australian Associated Press with the British expeditionary force in France says Mr P. Fraser, Mr Casey, and other dominion Ministers explained to Viscount Gorfc yesterday the steps the dominion governments were taking to strengthen the British forces on the western front, and Viscount Gort and his Chief-of-Staff, Major General Pownall, and Air vice-Marshal Blount, described the strategical situation as seen through British eyes. The five dominion Ministers left Paris early in the morning, driving through the heaviest rain since the British expeditionary force arrived in France, for a tour across the old British battlefields. Their sleep was interrupted in the early hours of the morning by the wailing of an air raid warning. The dominion Ministers decided that the chances of the Hotel Crillon being hit were remote, nevertheless they went to shelter The convoy cars proceeding to British headquarters did not stop during the air raid alarm. Viscount Gort was waiting on the steps. Mr Eden introduced the visitors. It cannot be disclosed what the dominion Ministers revealed to Viscount Gort, The Duke of Gloucester, and members of the stafF during an informal armchair talk. Mr Fraser spoke of the importance of Singapore in the defence of the Pacific. Major-General Pownall lucidly explained the possibilities of an attack on the allied line, leaving no doubt that the allies were well able to deal with it. The dominion delegates to-day will visit the first and second Army Corps in tho front line. Mr Fraser on Friday had a long conversation with M. Joujoux, the leader of the French Labour movement, also M. Blum. "We decided that tho trade union movement must stand behind the Allied cause. Trade unions are always ready to declare for peace at any suitable time, but Hitlerism stands in the way " said Mr Fraser.