FIGHT FOR LIBERTY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 261, 2 October 1940, Page 8

FIGHT FOR LIBERTY.

PREMIER’S MESSAGE TO CZECHS

WILL TO SURVIVE

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Sept. 30. In a message to . the Czechoslovak people broadcast today, the 7 Prime Minister (Mr Churchill) said: “To-day is the second anniversary of the Munich Agreement, a date which the world will always remember for the tragic sacrifice made by the Czechoslovak people in the interest of European peace. “The hopes that this agreement stirred in the heart of civilised mankind have been frustrated. Within six months the solemn pledge given by the unscrupulous men who control the destiny of Germany was broken and the agreement destroyed with a rutliJessness which unmasked the true .nature of their reckless ambitions to the whole world.

“The protection which Hitler forced upon you has been a sham and a cloak for the incorporation of your once flourishing country in the so-called greater Reich. Instead of protection he has brought you nothing but, moral and materiel devastation, and to-day. the followers of that great, tolerant, and humanitarian President Masaryk, are being persecuted with a deliberate cruelty which has few parallels in modern history. BATTLE OF CIVILISATION.

“In this hour of your martyrdom I send you this message: The battle which *we in Britain are fighting today is not only our battle. It is also your battle, indeed-'"the battle of all nations who prefer liberty to soulless serfdom. It is a struggle by civilised nations ior the right to live their own lives in the manner of their own c'hoosing. It represents man’s instinctive defiance of tyranny. “Throughout history" no European nation has shown greater will to survive than yours, and again to day your people have given countless proofs of their courage in adversity. Here in Britain we have welcomed with pride and gratitude your soldiers and airmen who 'have come, by* daring escapes, to take part with ever-increasing success in that battle for freedom which is also the battle of Czechoslovakia. “No less sincere is our admiration of those Czechs who on the home front are risking death and worse than death in order to foster resistance against the cruel and heartless oppressor. It is because we are both fig'htiim for the tundamental decencies of human life that we are determined that neither our struggle nor your struggle shall be in vain. “It is for this reason that we have refused to recognise any of the brutal conquests of Germany in Central Europe and elsewhere, that we have welcomed the Czechoslovak provisional Government in this country, and that fine restoration of Czechoslovak liberties is one of our principal war aims. With firmness and resolution, two qualities which our nations share in equal measure, these aims will be achieved. Be of good cheer. The hour of your deliverance will come, ior the soul of freedom is deathless. It cannot and will not perish.”