NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23770, 25 September 1940, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

not walls. BUT MEN "It is not walls," said the King in his broadcast from Buckingham Palace yesterday morning, "which make a city, but the men and women within them " He was quoting the Greek general Nicias, writes a correspondent. It was 413 8.C., and disaster was over the host in Sicily. Nicias, soon to" die. stood before his troops, ready for the <n-eat retreat, and gave last words of exhortation. "Men make the city, ' he concluded by the blue waters of Syracuse. "and not walls or ships without men in them." Tinder happier'auspices, under no shadow of defeat, but with victory dawning. His Majesty has quoted the Athenian's last noble word. THE PEACE WE FIGHT FOR Defining British war aims in a recent speech, the Secretary of State for India, Mr. L. S. Amery, said we were fighting for peace; not the ignominious peace which allowed the aggressor to have his way unhindered till he was ready for his next attack, but a true and lasting pence based on justice and fair dealing between nations. That had been the aim from first to last. We were fighting to secure true peace for Europe as wel! a* for ourselves. The peace that Hitler would give Europe was the peace of the desert. W here the Nazis ruled there all the luxuriant growth of free political and religious activity was ruthlessly cut down; the living springs of free human thought were choked. The pence we sought for Europe was the peace, not of the desert and of death, but the pence of life with its rich and infinite diversity. To make detailed plans to-day for the future of Europe was waste of time. Victory must come first. But we could at any rate keep in our own hands, and convey to the world outside, the spirit that sustained us in the fight, the watchwords that embodied our purpose.