BRITAIN'S FUTURE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21850, 22 October 1945, Page 4

BRITAIN'S FUTURE

ANXIOUS YEARS

CHURCHILL’S SURVEY

CONSERVATIVES POLICY

(10 a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 21. “It was not without a pang that 1 found myself dismissed at the general election from the honourable task of guiding our country,” Mr. Winston Churchill told constituents when he was receiving the honorary freedom of the borough of Wanstead Woodford. “I had hoped the position I had gained in world experience and knowledge which I had acquired and the links which had been forged in the fires of war with other lands and leaders might have been of service in this critical time of transition and in the fateful work of trying to revive the life and glory of Europe within the circle of assured world peace.’’

Mr. Churchill declared he also was disappointed at being unable to throw all his personal strength and that of his colleagues into demobilisation, housing and the switch-over of wartime industries to peace-time production. However, he would not waste time repining. “May Not be Regained”

“I share with many people the deep anxiety about the future,” he said. “It seems to me that the next few years may well decide our place in the world. It is a place, if which once lost, may never be regained.” The break-up of the famous Coalition Government inevitably led to a wider rift between the parties. However, he could not conclude without reaffirming his confidence that the qualities which carried the island race to the vanguard of mankind would not desert them now.

Mr. Churchill, earlier in his speech, expressed appreciation of the action of many famous cities in Britain and abroad in bestowing the freedom of those cities upon him. “I know not whether I shall live long enough to attend all the ceremonies required,” he said. “However, I shall do my best.” Mr. Churchill pointed out that his constituents, who had been loyal to him for nearly 22 years, had sustained him after the Munich crisis and had voted confidence in his attitude and policy. Watchful and Critical Opposition

“I therefore was able to have a seat in Parliament at a time when the fearful storm broke upon us,’’ he said. “But for that, my opportunities of serving the country might well have been severely limited, and for good or ill there would have been a different tale to tell.”

“The importance in these difficult days of a watchful and critical Opposition will be obvious to all,” said Mr. Churchill in a message to Captain Peter Thorneycroft, Conservative candidate in the Monmouth by-election. “The Socialist Government is committed to serious political and social experiments, involving far more drastic departures from our traditional way of life than the nation has yet realised. The Government’s action in obtaining powers from Parliament to prolong the existing war controls for at least five years is an unmistakable warning of the use it intends to make of its majority, and of the dismal prospects which it seems to believe lie ahead of our country. “The Conservative Opposition’s duty Is clearly defined. We shall criticise where criticism is needed, and seek to amend where amendments will improve. We shall strenuously oppose every effort, whether undisguised or camouflaged. to whittle away the individual liberties or impose State domination.”