British Still In Forefront

Northern Advocate, 14 March 1947, Page 5

British Still In Forefront

(Spec. 10 a.m.) LONDON, Mar. 12. “1 have always regretted that I never had Dominion troops under mv command. “

“During the 1914 war I served next to the Anzacs on Gallipoli and I said j to myself then that if we ever had trouble in future I wanted to Be on their side.” said General Sir William Slim, head of the Imperial Defence College. He was addressing the Overseas Empire Correspondents’ Association. He emphatically disagreed with those who were engaged in writing off the British as a second-rate Power. If the British nations were taken individually this was perhaps true, but taken together there was no question whatever that they took their rightful place in the very forefront of the nations of the world. “There is a difference between unity and uniformity,” said Sir William. “Between us we have a fund of unity which is infinitely more powerful than political uniformity. “We have unity of freedom and of our way of life, and if we hold to that, as a commonwealth, we must take our place in the forefront of nations.

“Our resources, and above all our people, and what they have done, assures us of that.

“Moreover, good though we may be —and we are good—in my opinion our children are even better.

“I have been fi'evoting some time to a study of our youth, and that is my conclusion.

"I may say that recently I have visited Eton and Winchester and two borstal schools, so that my studies have been catholic.”