PEACE OFFENSIVE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 28 October 1941, Page 4

PEACE OFFENSIVE

INITIATIVE WRESTED FROM HITLER MEANING OF ATLANTIC CHARTER Dunedin, Oct. 2 > “The Atlantic declaration of Me , Churchill and President Roosevelt has ■■ ;<• ted the initiative from llitk i it making a peace offensive .and puts an end to any hopes he may have enter- ! tained of making it a .success." said Dr W. A. Riddell. High Commissioner for Canada in New Zealand, in an address on the “Atlantic Charter" to the University Club. Dr Riddell said that the declaration announced to the world British and American solidarity and gave the democracies an appeal i to make and a pledge to offer to the i peoples of the world. “For one like myself who has spent the best part of his v life working out and carrying out principles intended to further the development of world society,'’ Dr Riddell said, “it has natui ally been of very great interest to see what is new in the Atlantic Charter, One thing that is new is the declaration of 15 Governments, including i vours and mine, that they will endeavour to afford free access to raw . materials for all on equal terms, that they pledge themselves to economic collaboration for improved labour and standards, economic advancement and social security for all, and to a peace that will afford an assurance of freedom from fear and want. I do not mean to say that these ideas have not been advocated before, but they have never been accepted as national policy by 15 Governments.” TWO SECRETS REVEALED The conference between the two , leaders had lasted only three days, Dr Riddell said, but during that time the world had reason to believe that they discussed not only how to conquer the j Nazi war machine; but also how to repel the Nazi peace offensive. Many of the decisions arrived at would remain secret till the end of the war, but two had already been made pubi c —that relating to the conference which had already been held between M. Stalin and representatives of Great Britain and the United States, and the other regarding peace aims. “Since the beginning of the war we have read much advocating the uri gency of a clear statement of Allied war aims,” Dr Riddell said. “Many j have told us that Germany’s 'New Order’ and Japan's ‘prosperity in I Asia,’ though only vaguely defined, have had a propaganda value that we , were failing either to appreciate or 1o ' counteract. Our emphasis on demoj cracy, freedom, and liberty, while j valuable for our own people, left much ! to be desired when it came to enlisting the support of peoples to whom these words have little or no content. It has been urged that an adequate statement of aims would be democracy’s strongest weapon, that it would raise a tide of hope in the hearts of conquered peoples, and would counter the flood of propaganda on the totalitarian new orders in Europe and Asia.” WRESTING THE INITIATIVE The “Atlantic Charter,” besides announcing British and American solidarity and wresting the initiative of a peace offensive from Hitler, put the j United States back into its former position of leadership in the world, which it once held under President Wilson. In undertaking to respect the right of all people to choose their own form of government, it made it clear to the German people that once Hitler was removed and sufficient safeguards i had been obtained against renewed j German aggression the German people | would be assured of a fair deal. The eight nts also turned the British peopl« m thinking of revenge and punisl nt to the practical problems lof reorganising the world after the ! war.—P.A.