Churchill Speaks Out— Atom Bombs Are Defence Against Communism

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 October 1948, Page 6

Churchill Speaks Out— Atom Bombs Are Defence Against Communism

LONDON, Oct. 9.

If it were not for the .stocks of atomic bombs now in the trusteeship of the United States there would be no means of stopping the subjugation of Western Europe by “Communist machinations backed by Russian armies and enforced by political police,” said Mr Churchill in his address to the Conservative Party conference at Llandudno. He said that the state of the world and the position cf Britain in it had sunk to levels which no one could have predicted. “Our minds are oppressed by accounts of our relations with Russia,” he said. “We are confronted with the deadly enmity and continued aggression of the Russian Communist Government, and its imprisoned' satellites. No wcrds which I could use could surpass the declarations of Mr Ernest Bevin or- Mr Hector McNeil. Their words are only on a par with what is said by the leading responsible statesmen of America and France our Dominions, and all the States of Europe outside the Iron Curtain. “The United Nations has been reduced to a mere cockpit in which mighty nations and ancient States hurl reproaches, taunts, and insults at one another, so as to marshal public opinion and inflame the passions of their peoples in order to arouse and prepare them for what seems to be the remorselessly approaching third world war. Bolshevik Russia is already heavily armed, and her forces in Europe far exceed those of all the Western countries put together.”

Dispersal Of Western Armies Mr Churchill accused the British and American Governments of failing to recognise “the growing aggressiveness and malignity of the Soviet Government and its complete breaches of good faith.” Even before the defeat of Hitler, he said, this should have made them refrain from the dispersal of their armies so completely. He said he did not, however, reproach the British Socialist Government with having created the abyss which now yawned across Europe and the world, whatever he might think of the unskilful manner in which British foreign affairs were being conducted. He only wondered that it had taken the British and American peoples so long to realise Russia’s fearful challenge.

“It may be. that some formula will be found or some artificial compromise effected which will be hailed as a solution and deliverance,” he said. “But the 14 men in the Kremlin who are now holding down nearly half Europe by Communist methods dread the friendship of the free civilised world as much as they would its hostility. If the Iron Curtain were lifted the power of this wicket oligarchy would soon be undermined and the spell of their Communist doctrines broken.”

“Deadly Trap” Mr Churchill said that under Communist rule all men, whatever their occupation, were to be reduced to a mediocre level so as to make it easy to govern them by commissars and masses of officials and police, all dependent for their very existence upon the satisfaction they gave their superiors in the party hierarchy. “This is all set forth ' before our eyes as plainly as Hitler told us about his' plans in ‘Mein Kampf,’ ” he said. “I hope that the Western nations, particularly Britain and the United States, won’t fall into the same deadly trap twice. “It is my belief that the only sure foundation of peace and of the prevention of actual war rests upon Mr Churchill said that if the United States consented to destroy their stocks of atomic bombs they would be guilty of murdering human freedom and committing suicide themselves. Nothing stood between Europe today and complete subjugation to Communist tyranny but the atomic bomb in American possession.

“Release Grip On Satellites”

“If the Soviet Government wish to see atomic energy internationalised and its military use outlawed, let them release their grip upon their satellite States,” he said. “Let them retire to their own country. Let them liberate by their departure the 11 ancient capitals of Eastern Europe which they now hold in their claws. Let them go back to the Curzon Line, as was agreed upon when we were

fighting as comrades together. Let them set free the million or more German and Japanese prisoners they hold as slaves. Let them, cease to oppress, torment, and exploit the immense parts of Germany and Austria which are in their hands.

. “The lifting of the blockade at Berlin would be merely the stopping of blackmail,” said Mr Churchill. “There should be no reward for that. Let them throw open their vast regions on equal terms to the ordinary travel 1 and traffic of mankind. Let them give others a chance to breathe freely themselves. “No one wants to take anything that belongs to them away from them. Britain, indeed, has gone to the opposite extreme and cast away her Empire in the East. Let the Russians be content to live on their own, and cease to darken the world and prevent its recovery by their ceaseless threats, intrigues, and propaganda. When they have given up what they have no right to take, then it will be time to raise the question of putting away the one vast and, I believe, sure and overwhelming means of security which remains for protection and guards the progress of mankind.” Tumultuous Reception

Mr Churchill said he had hoped Russia would have access to every ocean, guaranteed by a world organisation of which she would be a leading member, that she would have the freest access to raw materials of every kind, and that Russians would everywhere be received as brothers in the human family. That still remained the aim and ideal of the Western nations.

As he entered the hall before giving his speech Mr Churchill had one of the biggest ovations of his life. After his speech he was given a tumultuous reception. He then made a triumphal tour over the two miles long Promenade at Llandudno. He stood in an open car and waved to thousands who lined the route and had listened to loudspeakers broadcasting the speech.