The Gisborne Herald. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED “THE TIMES.” TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 1940. A CALL TO NEUTRALS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20152, 23 January 1940, Page 6

The Gisborne Herald. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED “THE TIMES.” TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 1940. A CALL TO NEUTRALS

Once again it has been left to Mr. Churchill to provide whatever antidote might be needed to the more serious and more dignified, addresses of his colleagues in the Cabinet. In his broadcast talk on Saturday night he mixed a judicious blend of optimism, sarcasm and invective, providing at one and tbe same time an entertaining speech and much food for serious thought. Without in any way under-estimating the strength of the enemy, he set against its numerical superiority, the “will power, sea power, financial and natural resources, and a cause which rouses the spirit in millions of hearts.” With these things behind the Allies, he said, we need not doubt the outcome and we would not be found wanting. He rightly emphasises, as others have done before him, the importance of the cause for which the Allies have taken up the sword and has pointed out that were it not for such motives mankind would have made little progress. Of his own particular department, Mr. Churchill had little to say. “Things are not going so badly,” he said, in reference to the war at sea. “Indeed, they have never gone so well in any naval war.” In the midst of further reports of losses at sea, this point is worth remembering, for although the navy has borne the brunt of the war so far, it is true, as Mr. Churchill says, that things are not going so badly.

i Of the other spheres of war there j was little that he could say, for the | position there is relatively static. E What he did say that was new, how- * ever, was to taunt the neutral States on their passivity under German threats, and it is this part of the speech that rightly commands the most attention. In telling phases, the First Lord reminded the neutrals of what their position would have been had it not been for the stand taken by Britain and France and what their fate still would be were the Allies to make a shameful peace. The point is worth consideration, for its applies, to some extent at least, even to parts of the British Empire itself. “Each one of them is wondering to-night who will be the next victim,” said Mr. Churchill, and every listener in every neutral country in Europe must have hung on those words, for in each of them is the constant fear of invasion. Austria has gone, Czechoslovakia has gone, Poland has gone, Memel has gone, Danzig has gone. To all intents and purposes the independence of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania has gone, and to-day Finland is making a magnificent and heroic fight for the freedom she holds so dear. Who will be the next victim? This is the question which Mr. Churchill raises and underlines, and he is able to show, without drawing on the imagination, that had it not been for the intervention of the Allies it might have been any one of them. In this way the war has been shown in its correct perspective. The Allies are not fighting with any ulterior motive or for their own direct gains, but, to quote the words used by Mr. Chamberlain on the outbreak of war. to remove the constant and recurring fear of aggression in Europe. That fear is felt less by Britain and France than by any other Power, because, since they are capable of defending themselves and bullies always prefer weaker victims, they would be the last to be attacked. The potential victims were, and still are, the small defenceless neutral States who, as Mr. Churchill says, “bow to German threats, hoping that Britain and France will win and each thinking that if he feeds the. crocodile enough the crocodile will cat him last.” These are bitter words, perhaps, but they are true. The Allies are essentially fighting the battle of the weak, fighting to prevent the division of the smaller States between the “barbarians of Nazidom and bolshevism,” and it is not too much to expect '•these same States, even though they might not feel disposed to fight with the Allies, should not give assistance to the aggressors. It is too much to hope that the storm will pass, as Mr. Churchill reminds them, for in the absence of united action to check it, it will spread to the north and to the south.

Mr. Churchill has not merely twitted the neutrals with their neutrality, but he has shown them the clanger of it. Had it not been for Allied intervention some of them would already have lost their freedom and were the Allies to-day to leave them to pick their own chestnuts out of the fire the ultimate result would be the

same. On the other hand, if all these Powers would realise that the present war is, indeed, a fight for civilisation and would throw their weight into the scale then there would be some hope of a speedy end to hostilities and with ii the removal of that fear which has for years continued to disturb Europe and has caused small nations to echo Mr. Churchill’s words, “Who will be the next victim?’’ The only real hope for these smaller States, and, indeed, for the world, lies in an Allied victory, and the conduct of Germany and Russia during the war has made it clear, if it was not clear before, how little consideration they would have reason to expect were the forces of aggression to remain unchecked. That they will be checked there is no room to doubt and the only question is how long the task will take. And the answer to that, in turn, depends on how much support is given to the Allied cause and how much surreptitious aid is given to Germany. With a fuller realisation by the neutrals of how much they have at stake the period of the war can be immeasurably shortened and the world can look forward to a long period of peace and reconstruction.