POST-WAR EUROPE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25090, 4 December 1942, Page 3

POST-WAR EUROPE

THE BRITISH POLICY MEASURES FOR RELIEF RUGBY, Dec. 2. In the House of Commons, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Mr Anthony Eden, gave a complete denial of the statements which had been made alleging that Mr Churchill was standing firm against the introduction of legislation to deal with reconstruction. Mr Eden also said that Britain, in spite of its difficulties and reduced resources, was determined to do whatever was possible for the relief of postwar Europe. The measure in which we had succeeded in co-operating with our Allies now would very largely determine post-war foreign policy. Whether or not we would be able to maintain peace after achieving it depended on whether we could carry through the co-operation we had established with the United States. China, and Russia. He did not visualise a world in which these four Powers would try clamping down by some form of dictatorship over everybody else, but when the fighting ended these Powers would have a virtual monopoly of armed strength which must be used in the name of the United Nations to prevent the repetition of aggression. Britain could not abdicate from her responsibilities to Europe after the war without writing a charter for future German aggression. Mr Eden expressed the conviction that there was no need for a conflict of interests between Russia and ourselves. He had long held this view, which was firmly based on history. He did not agree with those who thought Russia’s Communist faith made AngloRussian co-operation and friendship impossible, any more than he agreed with those who thought it necessary to hold the Communist faith. Whatever political philosophy would be practised in Britain, it would be practised free from the nightmare of recurrent aggression. After victory the first imperative duty of the United Nations would be to elaborate a settlement making it impossible for Germany again to dominate her neighbours by force of arms. AMERICAN COMMENT NEW YORK. Dec. 2. Commenting on Mr Churchill’s remarks on post-war settlement, the Herald-Tribune, in a leader, says: “ It is impossible not to detect in this passage Mr Churchill’s polite reply to the enthusiastic Americans who are writing idealistic open letters to the people of Britain advising them how they should reform the wicked conduct of their own affairs. Britain entertains an hereditary distrust for crossing bridges before they are reached, while America has a passion for large visions and systematic schemes for a better woi'ld. and does not always realise how irritating these can be to the British. Mr Churchill’s reminder that once before America was full of idealistic programmes, which it promptly abandoned in 1920. leaving Europe to struggle with the consequences while America retreated into splendid isolation, offers some food for thought to those interested in international unity. It is true that some of Mr Churchill’s more brusque remarks about Britain holding on to her own evoke unpleasant memories in America of past sins of British Imperialism, but it is also true that our own starry-eyed exhortations evoke equally unpleasant memories in Britain of the past sins of American sentimentality.”