LABOUR POLICY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21646, 6 May 1940, Page 7

LABOUR POLICY

Collective Security

Causes Of War Must Go

United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph— Copyright

(Received May 5. 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, May 5.

Mr C. R. Attlee, Leader of the Opposition, speaking at Ipswich said that the events of the week in Norway were inevitable and had caused a good deal of anxiety. It must be acknowledged that the Allies at present had been unable to prevent southern Norway from passing into the hands of Hitler. That was the setback they would, in the House of Common next week, discuss fully. It would be the duty of the Government to satisfy the nation that everything possible was done. The fact that the Government must render an account of their actions to the representatives of the people marked the differenc' between democracy and dictatorship. Hitler had lost the greater part of the German fleet and very many German lives in an unprovoked attack on a peaceful neutral country, but there was no one in Germany who could call him to account. The fate of Denmark and Norway ought to bring home to everyone the issues at stake in this contest.

Mr Attlee said that the Allies were fighting to make the world in which small peaceful peoples would be able to live their lives in security, free from the menace of attack from predatory neighbours. They of the Labour Party had always realised that this could not me achieved ni an anarchic world. He claimed that it had been the object of the Labour movement from its inception to build up collective security

. for ordinary men and women. The I Trade Union, the Friendly Society and : the Co-operative Society were all forms ■ of collective defence, designed to bring about greater security. The political Labour movement had . sought by legislative action to protect . those unable to protect themselves, ’ said Mr Attlee. The children, the sick i and the aged had all received some degree of help from society. These . things were good, but they were not ■ enough. The Red Cross was a fine . institution, but it did not relieve the i necessity for abolishing war. The i unemployment benefit was a great , advance, but it did not abolish unem- . ployment. Mr Attlee declared in conclusion that . the Labour Party, in its foreign policy, stood for getting rid of the causes of war, and in its home policy for getting ■ rid of the causes of poverty.