FATE OF MANKIND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24328, 19 June 1940, Page 7

FATE OF MANKIND

RESTING ON BRITAIN CRUCIAL PHASE OF WAR MELBOURNE. June 18. The Prime Minister (Mr R. G. Menzies) said: “ This is not the end of the war. On the contrary, it is the beginning of its bitterest and most crucial phase. So long as Great Britain is unconquered the world can be saved; and that Britain can or will be conquered is unthinkable. We must take up our courage and work like tigers, because the fate of humanity now rests upon us.” Mr Menzies received from the Amal-. gamated Engineering Union a plan for full union co-operation in the war effort. Mr J. Curtin told a Victorian conference of the Labour Party that he did not favour Labour participation in a National Government, but he said that the Federal Parliamentary Party should be given authority to co-oper-ate fully with the Government on war measures. , No Suggestion of Surrender Mr Vernon Bartlett, M.P., broadcasting, said: “At whatever cost, Germany can and will be defeated. There is no suggestion of surrender. We have faced the continent of Europe alone before, and have been victorious. On this occasion we will not lose. Britain ccn and will save herself and Europe." , In over-running France. Hitler had used up vast quantities of precious tanks, aeroplanes and oil reserves, and the German people had suffered enormous casualties, so much so that the greatest efforts were being made m Germany to keep the figures secret. Every country Hitler had conquered had lost trade and prosperity. Those countries, as well as Germany, might be faced this winter with a famine such as Europe had not known for many generations. “After consultation with Mussolini. Hitler must state his terms. Whatever they are, we may be sure they will be harsh; and, if they contain promises, he will break them as soon as it suits him. There is no doubt where we stand. We must become a nation in arms.”