THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1950. SALUTE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27569, 11 December 1950, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1950. SALUTE

A few days ago reference was made in the cable news to the seventysixth birthday of Mr Winston Churchill. This must have served to recall to many, with a shock of surprise, that the author of the memoirs which we have been privileged to present to our readers during the past weeks is by ordinary standards a very old man. In the marshalling of facts, the facility of expression and the zest of description of those chapters there were no signs of flagging energies in the man who as the Empire’s war leader a decade ago took upon his shoulders a burden which would have crushed most men. Mr Churchill seems to have thrived on the task which was his for six long years. It was fortunate for the freedom-loving world that he did, and it is fortunate again in these later days, since it has meant the production of a series of volumes which are, it can be plainly stated, unique. Never before has there been a man who played so great a role in history who has had in himself also the greatness as a man of literature to describe in a fitting grand manner the drama of his times.

Four volumes of these memoirs have now been completed. Their titles are resoundihg—“ The Gathering Storm,” “ Their Finest Hour,” “ The Grand Alliance,” and “ The Hinge of Fate.” The last-named covers the period from the New Year of 1942 to mid-summer in 1943 and tells, as the title indicates, a climactic story. The climax is the Battle of Alamein of which the author wrote: “ Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat.” But for readers in Australia and New Zealand this volume describes matters which were of much more intimate concern at the time they occurred, the reverberations of which will be heard throughout the future history of the Pacific peoples. It was in this time that Japan made her great effort for victory. The peak of success came with the fall of Singapore—“ the greatest reverse ever suffered by-British arms”—yet only a\ few months later Japanese bombers were checked at Colombo, the Japanese Navy was checked at Midway,, and the Rising Sun commenced to sink from its zenith. The chapters referring to these events are, from the point of view of readers in this part of the world, a valuable contribution to a story which has.yet to be fully told and fully studied. Mr Curtin was not wrong in saying “Australia must look to America,” though he was ill-advised to say it at a time when enemies could profit by it. His statement must be one of the bases of future policy—strength and security through alliance with Great Britain and with the United States, on terms of mutual respect and mutual effort. This much, indeed, is implicit in Mr Churchill’s story. If he had criticism to offer, it was tempered with understanding. His was the truer perspective. He saw the war as a world war and he measured continent against continent. His task was to defeat the forces of evil and he knew that, with the Grand Alliance, whatever defeats might come, ultimate victory was certain.

•ELEVENTH HOUR

The joint statement by President Truman and Mr Attlee provides, in its careful but emphatic consideration of the questions threatening world peace today, all the reassurance that can be expected. It does not, and cannot, guarantee peace, for forces have been let loose which may' lead the nations of the West into warfare. That is the grim fact which the leaders of the two great democracies, have had to recognise. The best they can do, after surveying the inflammable situation realistically, is to renew the appeal for a peaceful settlement; but at the same time make it clear that there will be no appeasement of aggressors, and the defences of the Western nations will be strengthened to resist aggressors. It would be a mistake to interpret this programme as being a result of the intervention in Korea of the Chinese People’s Republic. The grave developments in Korea have precipitated the meeting of the heads of the two States, but their affirmation of the unity of their peoples covers a wider area in time and space than this embattled peninsula. From Korea, Indo-China and Tibet to the European Continent, the frontiers of the free peoples are under menace. In Korea the United Nations forces, called into action to redress a -palpable case of unprovoked aggression, have been confronted with a more serious aggressive act. Their armies are being sadly mauled, and the outcome from the present clash is unpredictable. But Korea is only one danger point.

Whether the United Nations can re-establish a line in Korea, or are forced from the peninsula, the measure of the conflict extends beyond the scene of this clash of arms. This the free world knows, and this the free world now accepts as the basis of its political and defensive strategy. If China persists in the invasion of Korea, and can maintain the momentum of the drive south, the action now will be taken with no possibility of the implications of this ill-judged offensive being misunderstood. The Chinese Government —and its sinister and powerful Communist backer, the Soviet Union —must from now realise the consequences of the aggression in Korea. In their hands lies the choice of preventing a more general conflict, or of precipitating it.