THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, APRIL 17, 1943 BRITAIN'S MORAL LEADERSHIP

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24561, 17 April 1943, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, APRIL 17, 1943 BRITAIN'S MORAL LEADERSHIP

The Belgian Minister of Finance has recently revealed that in March, 1941, Belgium lent the British Government 3,000.0000z. of gold. The loan was spent in America. The transaction passed in silence, and the reminder is like a story from another world. It was, indeed, another world, and a world too readily forgotten, together with the part in it Great Britain played. Good Friday this year is Saint George's Day, and Shakespeare's birthday, too. Perhaps the double event is excuse enough for the novel luxury of self-appraisement. Honest history will tell how, ill-armed and full of loathing for the task, Britain prepared for war, because every man and woman knew that life would lose its savour if another people went the Munich way. A great conscience led, of which Poland was only the symbol and the test. The story will follow of swift months of disillusionment and disaster, of Dunkirk, and the lonely battle of the summer skies. America had not yet realised that her own future was being written in the vapour trails over Kent and Surrey fields. It was her battle which continued through i|je autumn and through the winter, and another spring was dawning when Britain, stripped at last of her wealth, borrowed the Belgian gold to buy yet more planes for the world's freedom. If Russia realised that the endurance of London was saving Moscow and Stalingrad, the Kremlin kept its counsel, for, during that summer, whilo the Spitfire pilots ran wearily to their machines again, Molotov was saying, "Developments in Europe, far from reducing the strength of the SovietGerman pact of non-aggression, on the contrary emphasise the importance of its existence and further development." The Volga and the Coral Sea have washed such things away. But next Friday is Saint George's Day. Kipling has a vigorous word for the breed of cynics who see no glory in the flag. There are those who are glad enough to salute its triple cross. Poles, French, Dutch, Greeks and Yugoslavs, Belgians, Danes, Norwegians and Czechs find under it the only freedom they know. They will not forget in happier years that 12 months of British sacrifice made those years possible. They will remember that Britain and her free Dominions, alone of all the world, except for reluctant France, declared war on the evil powers before they attacked her. That moral lead must be added to the long account of the world's debt to Britain. The| list includes a colonial policy which j has preserved untold lives. Egypt j has coine back to nationhood under j it, after just 25 centuries of slavery. India is free to march by the same road. The world should be reminded that Macaulay laid down the principle, and not Sir Stafford Cripps, that the purpose of British rule in India was to train the Indian peoples ; to govern themselves. The last half-1 century is full of attempts to im-| plement that policy, frustrated by; Indian helplessness. As Sir Stafford Cripps told India on the day of final failure, "Such an effort, inspired by goodwill and sincerity, will leave its mark upon the history of our relations, and cast its beneficent light into the future." There is nothing to be ashamed of in the scheme of empire as Britain has known it. Only the odd twist of sickened minds would have it otherwise. They will continue to remember the opium war, and forget that the British Commonwealth, the League of Nations which succeeded, gave the world, from 1815 to 1914, the first century without a major war since the collapse of Rome. The years of war have given back to the British people the cubit of moral stature which the years of j appeasement took away. Peace will j come again with all its temptations, j Can the same people retain the moral leadership its suffering has earned? In his book, "Saint George or the Dragon," Lord Elton stresses again the truth that the world's failure is spiritual. The most hardened materialist must grant the fact. The blue prints for new orders must not be simple recipes for a good time for all. Plans for abundant medicine, week-end hikes for boys and girls, cheaper washing machines and better, pensions, are irrelevant. Spiritual quality is not won that way. "Men make nations," said a Greek general once on a day of disaster, "not walls and ships." The walls of London will rise again, and the Liberty Ships sail free seas, but the future will depend upon whether the men and women who have led the world in brave sacrifice can use with wisdom the peace that they will win. Values have been created. Self-seeking politics rekindling old jealousies, the impatience of reformers taking faction's easy way, the corruption of minorities, these are faults which can destroy them, and along with them an example to the world.