BRITISH WAR AIMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 November 1939, Page 9

BRITISH WAR AIMS

H. G. WELL’S PLAN.

LONDON, October 25

The best method of answering the demand for a statement of British war aims would be, from the points of view of general principles and of British tradition, a simple “declaration of rights.”

This view is expressed by Mr. H. G. Wells, in a letter published in the “Daily Telegraph.” lie points out that a simple declaration/ such as he proposes, would not involve “map drawings, Constitution mongering, schemes for pledges, guarantees, and sanctions, etcetera.” He refers to the Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights as precedents for the procedure in previous crises. As a preamble to the ten proposed points of the declaration, he suggests: Since man comes into . the world through no fault of his own; since he is a joint inheritor of the accumulations of the past, and since those accumulations are more than sufficient to justify the claims herein made on his behalf, it follows that: — (1) He claims that everyone is entitled to food, shelter, and medical assistance for maintaining health throughout life. (2) Education should be made available.

(3) He and his personal property are entitled to civic protection.

(4) There should he freedom and right to criticise, protection against lying, with the records and registrations applying w to any citizen open for private and'personal inspection, i.e., no secret dosisers. (5) He should have the right to choose his own employment. (6) His home should be his castle, with freedom to roam the common lands and travel throughout the world at his own expense. (7) He should have the right to trade without discriminatory restrictions.

(8) There should be protection against mutilation, sterilisation, and other physical ill-treatment, the most extreme punishment for any offence to be death or 15 years’ imprisonment in a hygienic prison. (10) The declaration, unqualified m any way, should be fully defined in the legal code, and, henceforth, be a fundamental law for mankind throughout the whole world.