“WON’T EAT US”

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 66, Issue 5595, 22 March 1943, Page 4

“WON’T EAT US”

WENDEL-WILKIE ON RUSSIA CANADAIAN RALLY At a great gathering of the Canadian Aid to Russia, held recently in Toronto, Wendel-Wilkie made significant statements from which we quote the following:—

“We have gathered here to honoui our Russian Allies. Their successes in battle against the Nazis have proven that their system of Government, wether we like it or not, has a vitality which cannot be derived from the leadership but from the people themselves. “This meeting is symbolical of the

nature of this war. Either it is a war of a “great alliance of peoples,’ who are fighting unitedly for freedom, or it is nothing. The war can be fought either by a great concentration of all our energies, inspired by one strategy on a globial scale—or it can be lost.

“We should speak about this, war as a war of the United Nations, we should talk about its result; we should work out a united programme for all to follow; or we may come to a danger that we have worked and sacrificed to win a war without a goal.

“I tell you. people of Canada, that this war is either all or nothing. There are no half-measures to win freedom and co-operation between ourselves. “We are fighting to survive in the

United States, in Canada, in Australia, in China, in Africa and in New Zealand. And we have to win this survival. SHOULD FORMULATE AIMS “I say as I was speaking to the whole world, that people should formulate their aims even during the war. I am endeavouring to persuade that talks about these aims should be inaugurated among dierent countries of the world—now, I am living in a constant fear that this war may end before the nations of the world reach a united understanding about what they are fighting for and what they expect after the war.

“The people of the world must win the war. They must win also the peace. And for this reason # I come to you to-night—not to plead for help to Mr Stalin or to the union of the Soviet Socialistic Republic. lam asking you, as people, men and women, to help the men and women of Russia. We have gathered here to honour and to help our brave nation which is our ally. • Although there are some people who do not agree with the Russian political economy, they must admit that the Russians are fighting for their Fatherland wholeheartedly. THEY WERE AFRAID

“Many in the democratic countries were afraid of Soviet Russia and did not trust her. They were afraid of her economic order which would be destructive to their own order. This fear is a sign of weakness. Russia does not want to eat us nor to lead us. That will not happen if—and it is necessary that we should think it over—our own democratic constitutions and our free economies are not misused in such a way which would soften and weaken us. THE BEST ANSWER

“The best answer to communism is a living and bold democracy—economic, co-operative and political. We must persist in all we do—to fulfil our duties to live the ideas we profess. Only then those ideas will be unconquerable. “There is no need to be afraid of Russia- But it is imperative to learn to work with her against Hitler, our common enemy. W’e must learn to work with her in the post-war because Russia is a dynamic country, a society brimming with life, a people with whom the future world must count.”