“Key To Lasting Peace”— Bevin Speaks Of Great 'Indian Ocean Problem’

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 October 1948, Page 5

“Key To Lasting Peace”— Bevin Speaks Of Great 'Indian Ocean Problem’

(Recd. 10.20 a.m.) LONDON, October 14. “The key to whether we shall have peace for 100 years is. in the great problem of the Indian Ocean—ihe Middle East, Pakistan, India, and Ceylon/’ said the Foreign Secretary, Mr Ernest Beyin, speaking in London today. - - Mr Bevin said that in the past 30 -years on one day out of every three all the capacity of Britain had had to be devoted to. preventing defeat in war. After the last war there was the assumption that Britain was finished, that she was a third-class Power.

“I don’t accept that position,” he said. “We are.a great balancing factor between the East and the West and may provide the correct equilibrium for the maintenance of the world’s peace and prosperity.

Mr Bevin said the Russians wore expansionists. They were the last of the imperial race—as imperialist as the Czar ever was.

“If we cannot fix an agreement with our neighbours, at least let. them keep over their side of the wall,” he said. Speaking of Russia's aggressive attitude, which “has become more pronounced,” Mr Bevin said: “Aggression has continued. We have had to arrest it in our own defence.” He said he was grateful to both management and workers for the response during the country’s crisis. He thought it would prove to be one of the most remarkable periods in British history. The women of Britain had made a magnificent contribution to Britain’s survival.