New Sense Of Urgency

Northern Advocate, 13 March 1948, Page 7

New Sense Of Urgency

The tragic events in Czechoslovakia brought a new sense of urgency to the movement for a Western Union, the Attorney General (Sir Hartley Shawcross) said in a speech today.

“The iron curtain is moved further westwards, the lights of freedom have gone out, and darkness and terror have spread across the land,” he said. “The peoples of Western Europe ask whose turn it will be next.”

Sir Hartley, who said he was violently pro-Russian three years ago, added that the Communists hoped to promote economic chaos and political instability to enable them to seize power and dominate Europe without war. “With my Russian colleagues, I prosecuted Nazis at Nuremberg and condemned Nazi aggression and terror.

“I feel shame and humiliation now to see, under a different name, the same aims pursued and the same technique followed without check. “The European nations must realise

that they can sit on the fence no longer, or, one by one, they will fall off the fence into the pit of totalitarians preparing for democracy.”

Said the New Zealand Minister to the United States (Sir Carl Bercndsen), interviewed at San Francisco en route to Washington after his visit to New Zealand: “The death of Jan Masaryk, my good friend and a great and good man, plus the tragic engulfment of Czechoslovakia, prove that moderation, good faith and rectitude are not enough to preserve liberty in the world today. “Firmness and patience seem to constitute the best available policy for any Government —particularly firmness.” . Sir Carl praised the Marshall Plan and the Western European union, calling them “regional expedients for purposes frustrated by the veto power, which makes international security impossible.”