TIME ON SIDE OF ALLIES

Southland Times, Issue 23991, 5 December 1939, Page 8

TIME ON SIDE OF ALLIES

BRITAIN AS MASTER OF THE SEAS REFERENCE TO MAGNITUDE OF TASK (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, December 2. “This war is going to be a grim business, but time is on our side,” said the Secretary for the Colonies, Mr Malcolm MacDonald, speaking at Dingwall tonight. “Every month that passes we grow stronger, whereas the opposite is true of Germany.” Nothing the enemy could do, said Mr MacDonald, could break the spirit of the British sailors and so long as that spirit remained unbroken, Britain remained the master of the seas. Speaking at Warwick tonight, the Secretary for the Dominions, Mr R. A. Eden, said that nothing could be more foolish than to underrate the magnitude of the task upon which this country was engaged. “The German war machine is ruthless. For years it has had the whole resources of a powerful State at its command,” he said. “Germany’s whole economy had been twisted for war purposes. This is not a war in the sense of a clash of rival national ambitions. We have ni such ambitions. We are not out to secure new rights for ourselves. We want neither territory nor privileges, but we do seek—not only for ourselves but also for all nations, small or great, the right to live their own lives in freedom and at peace. This is not a war—it is a crusade for international decency. “For some time past we have been in the presence of a progressive deterioration of international standards. Today the pledged word between nations is openly broken. Good faith is cynically derided. The smaller neighbour is bullied and invaded merely because he is the smaller neighbour. If that process had been allowed to continue it could only have ended in universal anarchy and misery.” ■ The Times says: “For the second time in three months a people seeking only to maintain their own life and liberty in the midst of huge, overbearing neighbours, have been fantastically accused of aggressive designs. For the second time negotiation has been terminated by the stronger party on a trumped-up pretext and replaced by a sudden invasion in irresistible force.”