PACIFIC PROBLEMS FOCAL POINT OF WAR

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 28 November 1945, Page 5

PACIFIC PROBLEMS FOCAL POINT OF WAR

Mr Bevin Gives His Views

London, Nov. 26. ‘‘The focal point of the world in the next 100 years, I respectfully suggest, will be in the Pacific. It will be there that the great militarisms meet. On the one hand you have the great rising nations of Asia and on the other the forcible drive of the three great Powers that emerged from this war. 1 sometimes ask myself ‘Will they clash?* 99 This statement was made by the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Bevin, speaking at a farewell party in London for the New Zealand Minister of Labour, Mr Webb. Mr Bevin had opened his speech with a reminder that this war had been much wider than the last. *Then it was a question of dealing with a peace treaty for Germany and it was virtually a European problem. “Now I do not know whether the East isn’t more difficult than Europe. “Whether these forces will clash,” said Mr Bevin, “all depends on what we do in the next two years. If we do right they won’t. If we do wrong they will, and all I can say is I pray God we do right.”

“I do feel, however, that we must meet Asia without colour prejudice and without the old superior attitude to the Asiatic. I believe Asia can be guided along the path of self-govern-ment and progress if she is met, helped and understood; and if instead of having in the background the divisions and boundaries that threaten the world we can give the lie to the old adage that east and west can never meet we establish our policy that east and west can contribute to the peace of the whole planet. That will be my aim and I shall value the opinions of New Zealand and Australia looking at the same things that are near to them and at other things that are far off.” BRITISH COMMONWEALTH’S EXAMPLE “We have lived in the middle of a whirligig of world events and statesmen sometimes could not see the wood for the trees.” But. he cdded, the British Commonwealth had a great ad- : vantage. It was world-wide and he very much appreciated the opinions of its j Ministers of External Affairs. He did | not want the Commonwealth to be a ; bloc which was hostile to any other block or association of nations of the ■ world. On the other hand, he could not I help thinking that the Commonwealth had found a secret of democracy and ! liberty that no other group of nations had discovered. It had developed kindred laws with no power at the centre,; yet with a great heart of responsibility. I The British association of peoples ! had found a basis which he thought could make a contribution to a wider world association if other nations would adopt it. It was a difficult row to hoe. Remarking that no laws were really accepted by a people unless they voted for them, Mr Bevin said one of the troubles of the League of Nations and one that would confront the United Nations was agreements. Its agreements would be of Governments, not ratified by the individual action of citizens. Agreements had to be brought down to the citizen himself to get moral sanction behind world law. EVE OF GREAT CHANGES The discoveries of science and the very force of events would make nations in the next five years settle down carefully to consider the right way to: control them. They would never be controlled by mere agreements between! Governments, but by the actions of. citizens voting and in their assemblies: determining to what use such discover-! . ies should be put. “We are living on the eve of great events, of great changes in the whole world, and a complete change in our concepts.” he said. He was convinced that if the Commonwealth idea could be introduced into Europe—in which he could not see a single frontier that was economically sound —it would save her. Europe was still the cradle of civilisation and culture, and he believed there was a great renaissance coming if political and economic arrangements could be made to allow the people to live as free as in the British Commonwealth and yet remain associated together in. the great task that statesmen had got to face in the next two years. NO T3SPONDENCY “We are not downhearted and we have no intention of be : -~ '’~wnhearted,” said the Dominions Secretary, Lord Addison. “We face the future with the kind of courage which was displayed by Mr Bevin in the TT duse of Commons the + other day. It gives a good guide to our attitude to what we recognise we are confronted with. For our part I do not think we have any real doubt that we shall —to use a very incorrect term—muddle through. As a matter of fact, the British method isn’t muddling. It is one of compromise and adjustment to • meet the difficulties of the times, and we do it more successfully than anyone else. The British method is exceedingly efficient, and by British I include the Dominions.” As Dominions Secretary he could say that whatever advice was received from New Zealand, “we know we are getting advice from people who are 100 per cent, with us. We always find we are thoroughly well backed up and we never have any misgivings, though we get plenty of good frank advice.” Lord Addison believed that Mr Webb, on returning to New Zealand, would be able to report that people in the Old Country “are sticking it all right.” Mr Webb, in his reply, said he wished the whole of New Zealand could be transplanted to England just to see what Londoners had put up with, a thing which could not be fully appreciated by anyone living in isolated conditions.