“DIVIDED NATION”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27307, 6 February 1950, Page 6

“DIVIDED NATION”

Class Warfare And Party Politics MR CHURCHILL SURVEYS SCENE New Zealand Press Association—Copyright Rec. 9.20 p.m. LONDON, Feb. 4. Britain is facing her hardest peace-time task as a deeply divided nation, said the leader of the Conservative Party, Mr Winston Churchill, to an election meeting tonight at Leeds. He said American subsidies would end at the latest in 1952, while German and Japanese competition in all the export markets, upon which Britain depended, had already begun and would grow more severe. “Even if all our strength were united, we should be confronted with the hardest task we have ever faced in time of peace, but we are deeply divided,” he said. “ Class warfare has rent the unities and comradeship which brought us through the war, and party politics dominate the scene.”

Mr Churchill sharply accused the official Liberal Party, led by Mr Clement Davies, of having openly avowed its desire to cause a deadlock so that the handful of members who followed his guidance might hold the balance and dominate the scene. Mr Churchill said it was undemocratic to work for the return of minority candidates and thus frustrate the expression of the nation’s will. He did not believe such tactics would succeed.

In another sally against the Liberals, Mr Churchill said that, like Labour, the Conservatives supported compulsory training as necessary for peace. “ If Britain repudiated national service at this election as the Liberals ask it would mean the downfall of the whole great structure embodied in the Brussels Treaty, the Atlantic Pact, and the Western Union, in the whole idea of the English-speaking World, and, of course, of a United British Empire and Commonwealth of Nations. Once again we would be in danger of the most horrible of all fates—a third world war.”

Mr Churchill said the Conservatives did not intend to seek’ compulsory powers to lengthen the term of national service. He said: “ Having handled these things before, I fee! that unless the foreign situation gets worse, which I don’t think it will, although I may be wrong, a considerable reduction in the burden of defence expense might be combined with stronger fighting power and better conditions for the troops.” ""Referring to Western Europe, Mr Churchill said the Germans had rapidly built themselves up with Allied aid, rightly given, from almost nothing to an active community, “ working like demons and eating well amid the ruins.” Germany’s recovery, he added, should not be undpr-rated. “ I am glad of it; I want to work with them and the French. We three, together with Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg and several other countries outside the iron curtain, all constitute a vast, solid organisation of free civilised democratic peoples which, once forged and riveted together, is not likely to be molested.” Mr Churchill, saying that he had worked in peace and war on the side of France for more than 40 years, warned that the kind of “ political whirligig under- which France lives, which is such fun for its politicians and all the little ardent parties into which they are divided, would be fatal to Britain.” French politics did not accord with the British character, nor with the grim facts' of British life. France was a self-supporting country. Mr Churchill said he was sure that a coalition between men and parties as a result of petty bargains, deals, and compromises would be of no use. There must be a common bond of union, as in 1940, to “lead to that melting of hearts where sacrifice seems to be an indulgence and pain becomes a joy, and when life rises to its highest level because death has no terrors.” •

If it could achieve that state of mind again, Britain .would once more rise in l her unconquerable strength. Mr Churchill said the election was being held at a date chosen by the Prime Minister, Mr Attlee, in the hope of -obtaining a new .lease of office before another inevitable rise in living costs arrived. Mr Attlee had not dared to produce his Budget, which, if it had been honest, would certainly have been unpopular. Supplementary estimates, even above the immense expenditure of the £3,300,000,000 budgeted for last year, had been kept in the background. Mr Churchill said the main cause of Britain’s plight had been the' waste, disorder and uncertainty arising from nationalisation. All nationalised industries either showed actual losses in their accounts; which fall upon the Exchequer, or increased prices and reduced services ,to the public. This had done great harm to the trade unions concerned, who had ceased to be able to give wholehearted service to their members because they owed policy and party allegiance to the executive Government. Mr Churchill said that on election eve the Socialists had second thoughts about their threat to nationalise industrial life insurance. They feared they might lose votes by offending numerous. agents who have done so much to popularise thrift. “ The commercial and industrious greatness of this island at the beginning of my life was unrivalled in the world; all its businesses and firms and small employers and careful, obliging shopkeepers were the result of much wisdom and virtue. All this was not built up, as the Socialists believe, by exploiting the masses,” he concluded.