THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 1943 A GREAT SPEECH

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24539, 23 March 1943, Page 2

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 1943 A GREAT SPEECH

While the tide of battle swings to and fro in Russia and mankind waits breathlessly on invasion in the west. Mr. Churchill has spoken wisely to the world and in particular to the British people. It is fitting that he should have spoken at the same time as Hitler, so that all may judge of the two—-the one basing his power on lies and fears of defeat, and the other with the. sun of victory before him and plans of an ordered and decent Europe to take the place of Xazi barbarism. Some have criticised Mr. Churchill on the score that he is a magnificent leader in war but has no plans for the peace to come. This latest speech, the result of his mellow wisdom, gives the lie to such criticism. The Prime Minister was once a Liberal who served under Mr. Lloyd George. In his present fight to save the world for the common man he reveals his ever youthful passion to give security for the thrifty, the industrious and the enterprising, for those in short who are the very back-bone-of our race. He is not one who thinks that legislation alone can create prosperity or that a hierarchy of bureaucrats can abolish want. Equally he does not condemn State enterprise, which has its proper place in the community. The world needs a balance between State and private enterprise. The man in (he street is probably equally tired of those who indulge in a tirade against all the activities of the State and those who abuse all the activities and aspirations of private enterprise. Let him look to Mr. Churchill; like his Labour colleague, Mr. Morrison, the Prime Minister affirms that Britain will no longer be Britain without a spirit of effort, initiative and adventure. The State will play its part in that long-range planning which in conjunction with private enterprise must abolish the cycle of boom and slump. A great war leader, Mr. Churchill has been ever an enemy of war. His unheeded warnings to his country to prepare for war only followed devoted service to the League of Nations, an institution whose failure is a warning that something better must" be erected on its ruins. The chief causes for the failure were the defection of the United States, the omission of effective machinery for peaceful change, and the absence of an international force to deter or crush an aggressor. To those who dismiss as Utopian a Council of Europe and a Council of Asia to maintainpeace the alternative is another war more hideous than the present. Mr. Churchill is no visionary: his feet are on the ground. Without the co-operation of the United States and Russia there is no hope of world peace. The British Empire is willing to play its part. Russia, by the very terras of her agreement with Britain, is pledged to unite in common action to preserve peace and resist aggression in the post-war world. The issue therefore depends upon the United States. It is the American nation which must henceforth decide whether a world institution can exist for peace or whether war is to be the inevitable lot of mankind. Mr. Churchill was careful to avoid any suggestion of Federal Union between the three great Allied Powers or even between the United States and Great Britain. But his proposals are dependent upon the close co-opera-tion of all three. They are incompatible with the continuance of unrestricted State sovereignty as it has existed until to-day. He has not taken office to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire; but equally he is determined that the Empire, in common with the other Powers, must determine its world policy in agreement with its international partners. The Prime Minister is anxious to save the small States, from which so much of the traditions and culture of Europe has stemmed. In a world of great Powers the small nations cannot exist alone. Divided, they are an incentive to aggression. When Germany revives after defeat —as revive she will —Holland, Belgium and Switzerland in the west, Finland, Poland, Czechoslovakia and the Balkans in the east, had best look to their armouries. Firmly confederated, these little countries will survive. The interests of Russia will be best served if from Finland to Rumania she is separated from Germany by a barrier of States prepared to pull together and not to wait while the crocodile devours the others. In a speech of many great things, not the least is Mr. Churchill's statesmanlike plan to preserve the peace of Europe by preserving those heroic and smaller countries which have suffered first and so much in the cause of civilisation.