MODERN CHARTER OF HUMAN LIBERTIES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20635, 15 August 1941, Page 5

MODERN CHARTER OF HUMAN LIBERTIES

WORLD HERITAGE GIFTS OF GOD FOR ALL TRIBUTE BY MR. NASH Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. In issuing last night the statement agreed upon by the President of the United States, Mr. Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the British Prime Minister, Mr. Winston Churchill, following their conference at sea, the actingPrime Minister of New Zealand, the Hon. W. Nash, expressed his belief that no more epoch-making document had- been issued in recent times. “When Mr. Churchill informed me last week/”" said Mr. Nash, “that he was going to visit the American- President, I felt that such a meeting could n6t but be productive of great benefits for the peoples of the world, particularly for those who were Struggling so valiantly to regain their liberties, but I had not dared to hope that a modern charter of human liberties would be devised in such noble terms in so short a period of time. “This historic meeting of leaders of,

the two most powerful and farseeing of the English-speaking peoples has resulted in a declaration more potent for good than any other in the records of human history. I question whether any statement has pointed more clearly the way to a fuller and freer and happier life for the mass of the peoples of the earth. “The principles it enunciates are not new. Indeed they are old and tried and true ones, which have always dignified human relationships in any era of peace and progress. The natural gifts of God are to be available to and to be shared by all of the human race. “Neither of the two countries will seek territorial gain, or other aggrandisement. “Access to trade and the raw materials necessary for economic prosperity is to be available on equal terms for all nations—victorious and vanquished. “All sovereign rights of dominated peoples are to be restored. “The major standards raised—economic advancement, improved labour standards and social security for all nations—will, when the conflict is over, open the way to cultural and spiritual objectives—the striving towards which brings an abundancy of life which is the rightful heritage of all human beings.”