WAR NOT INEVITABLE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 28 January 1939, Page 9

WAR NOT INEVITABLE

INVINCIBILITY OF THE EMPIRE REBL'KE TO TANIC-MONGERS SPEECHES BY BRITISH MINISTERS fU.P.A.— By tleutric Telegraph—Copy right! (Received 28th January, 9 a.m.) LONDON, 27th January. “When I say that this great country and Empire can never be defeated, 1 am slating a fact,” declared Sir Samuel Hoare, Home Secretary, speaking in i Swansea to-day. He added that Britain’s preparations j jon land and sea and in the air were ! formidable, and that the financial and economic system was the most stable in the world. “Let those who say we have grown weary and feeble ponder over that,” he added. They had a rude awakening in 1914. “Let those also ponder who go about with white faces and trembling lips, asking each other when the world war is going to begin. These timid panicmongers are doing the greatest harm because they are undermining public confidence and creating a fatal feeling of the inevitability of war, when there is no such inevitability at all. "Worst of all. they are showing cowardice in the face of a potential enemy. These men, whether they are stock exchange gamblers or simply folish, nerveless, backboneless people, are a public nuisance.” INACCURATE STATEMENT f Speaking on the same subject in Worthing, Earl Winterton, President of the Board of Education, said that people who said that war was inevitable and would come within a few' weeks or months were doing no good to their country, as well as making a wholly inaccurate statement. On the other hand, those who con -1 fidently asserted that they knew there j would be no major war in 1939 were | being equally inaccurate for the simple j reason that no one could know in the present unsettled state of the world what would happen. Britain and the British Empire were most likely to avoid war by seeking peace and appeasement, and at the same time being prepared for any eventuality.

NEW POTENT FACTOR , “The Times,” in a leader commendf I ing Sir Samuel Hoare's speech, says: ’ j “Such a tone might more often be adopted these days by British Ministers. Admittedly Europe is passing . through a time of stress, but the , prophets of disaster who see the nations . arraying themselves in rival camps as [ in 1914 have ignored at least one new , potent factor —the passionate desire of , the peoples of Europe for peace, which Sir Samuel Hoare was entitled to claim as one of the two incontrovertible facts standing out from the obscure background of fears and guesses. “The other fact is the invincibility of j the British Empire, which is not the j same thing as invulnerability. War i might bring unparalleled havoc and loss before final victory can be achieved, but it is certain there exists no potentially hostile Power capable of conquering the British Empire.”