STRONG AND UNITED

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 264, 5 October 1940, Page 8

STRONG AND UNITED

BRITISH EMPIRE’S ROUE

TELLING THE PEOPLE.. (United Press Association—Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) (Rec. 12.30 p.m.) RUGBY, Oct, 4. The Minister of Information (Mr A. Duff Cooper), referring to t'ae inauguration of a special Empire campaign on the home front, said there might he suggestions that now, at one of the most intense phases of the war, such a campaign should be postponed. “I am convinced that this view is o mistake and that this is precisely the time to bring home to our people that England does not stand alone, and that she possesses immense, reserves of men, material, and goodwill,” declared the Minister.

Mr Duff Cooper pointed out that the British Commonwealth was not only a European Power, but an American Power, an Asiatic Power, and a Pacific Power as well. All the various parts of the Empire were throwing their whole weight into the scale..

“I don’t think the people of this country appreciate sufficiently the magnitude of the gesture voluntarily made by the Dominions in training men and sending them overseas to fight for the Mother Country,” he added. ; ■

German propaganda, said Mr Duff Cooper,' had been both active and successful in many parts of the world, and he instanced America, where, during the recent series of lectures lie delivered, he almost always found the Indian situation to be misunderstood. This was because the true point of view had not been fairly presented in the. United States. The Ministry of Information since the outbreak of tlie war had been engaged in long-teim publicity about the Empire, both at home and abroad. This was part °l the Ministry’s general aim of telling the world the facts about the Empire s •war effort and the cause for winch the Commonwealth was fighting. Ilns publicitv would be intensified in a special ten week -Empire campaign on the home front. After a year of steadily-growing war effort, the Empire’s vast, reserves ot man power, industrial equipment, raw materials, and foodstuffs had been mobilised to the point at which tney must soon' become a vital factor in winning the war. The countries of the Commonwealth had rallied because thev were free and had learned how to defend freedom hv joint action when it was threatened.

HOPE EOIt WORLD. The Minister said the second purpose of the campaign wan to remind the public that it was the British Commonwealth, with the principle or free partnership, that could offer the world a new hope for the future, and lie contrasted this with the Nazis’ “new world order,” which merely was a resurrection of the old vicious idea of a slave empire in which subjugated races were held down by force and exploited for the benefit of the “master folk.

Speaking of the Empire a growth, the Minister said it had been gradually transformed from a centrally-controlled organisation into a commonwealth o equal partners. It was Britain s hope that India would soon take her place in this tree and equal partnership. ’Che colonies were not regarded as possessions to be exploited, but ,asi communities of people for whom Britai i was carrying out a trust as a gu does for a ward. Speaking to journalists in. Dpnclon,. the High Commissioner for India said lndia’s S complaint was that Britain Lad not made sufficient use ot India s willingness to help in this war. jherens not,” Sir Firoz Khannoon said, a. man in India who does not want Britain to win.” POPULAR APPOINTMENT. . MR MORRISON’S PART. (British Official Wireless.) (Rec. 12.35 p.m.) RUGBY, Oct 4 The appointment of Mr Herbert Morrison as Home Secretary and Minister of Home Security finds favour in his “home town.” Air Morrison is a Cockney born and bred. His great organising abilities were revealed as the Labour Leader of the London County Council, and the pcoplo ot London trust him and think of him as one of themselves in this crisis in their history. Ho is the man to understand their needs. . Hardly less important in the long view are the implications of the appointment in other aspects of security against Fifth Column activities,. Mr Morrison’s appointment is a guarantee that no security measures, will lie allowed to endanger basic civil and political liberties, the preservation of •which is one of the chief issues of the war. Any suspicion which may have existed iii certain quarters in the past that the Government, in its search for enemies of the State, might discriminate unjustly against the Left while turning a blind eye to prominent Nazi sympathisers on the Right can now be completely dismissed.