OBJECTIVE TOO NARROW

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 65, Issue 5493, 3 July 1942, Page 2

OBJECTIVE TOO NARROW

ENGLISH-SPEAKING UNION OPINION OF AMERICAN MINISTER “For years I have been a member of the English-speaking Union and have advocated a union of the people of the British Commonwealth of Nations and the United States. In the past two_and a half years we have achieved,-I believe, a very definite understanding and a closer relationship between the British and American people.” This statement was made by his Excellency Brigadier-General Patrick G. Hurley, United States Minister to New Zealand, when speaking at a Wellington reception held in his honour by the English-Speaking Union and the British-American Co-operation Movement. “Those of us who have long advocated an English-Speaking Union have now come to a realisation that our objective was too narrow,” added Brigadier-General Hurley. “If I may use a military expression, our sights have been too low. A purely EnglishSpeaking Union in the light of the events of the past few years is not broad enough. We should use the relationship that now exists between the British and American people as a foundation upon which to build a union of all free peoples. “The English-Speaking Union would not, for example, include our friends and comrades the Mexicans, the Chinese and many of the other free and courageous nations who have associated themselves in this war against totalitarianism. We cannot afford to exclude any people who by their sacrifice and courage are contributing to the defeat of the Axis.

“I hope that what I am' about to say will not detract from thb enthusiasm of those assembled here to-night for the. cause of the union of free people after the war. First things should come first. We should in this hour devote all our minds, all our strength and all our courage to the winning of the war rather than to the details of plans for after the war. If we lose this war, none of these plans can become effective. Organisations such as these which have assembled to-night should now unite all of their efforts for the'accomplishment of one objective, the defeat of our enemies in battle. We are consuming a lot of time in arguments about what we will do with victory after we achieve it. We should devote ourselves first to winning the victory. “We had_better quit debating, and we will have to quit waiting for Chiang Kai-shek and Joe Stalin to win the war. New Zealand will have to wark hard for the survival of her people, her principles, and her way of life. Your principles are our principles, your cause is our cause, and as a token of our faith in it we have pledged the reserves, the lives, the honour and the power of 130,000,000 Americans. New Zealanders and the original Americans come from exactly the same stock of a courageous, lib-erty-loving, generous, fighting race. I believe we still have the qualities that our ancestors possessed. ‘ The after-the-war plans of the United Nations for world prosperity, peace and justice are well advanced. These plans are more comprehensive, more spiritual, more idealistic, more humane and more practical than anything that has been suggested by our enemies. We have as a basis to unite the free people of the world, the Four Freedoms and the Atlantic Charter.”