TWO GREAT AIMS

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22477, 12 January 1943, Page 3

TWO GREAT AIMS

World Policy After

The War

Universal Security And Prosperity British Official Wireless RUGBY. January 10. “It is a fundamental point that the record of the British people in this war has shown that they still possess in full measure those qualities of tough practical idealism which have been the basis of their contribution to human progress,” said the Home Secretary (Mr Herbert Morrison) in a speech to-day. “I want the British Commonwealth to last not just because it is British, but because it is good and it will be better yet,” he declared. “Without it the world would lose a great factor of stability and progress just when those things will be most needed. That part of the Empire composed of the selfgoverning dominions, a free association of democratic communities, is a model for a world long afflicted by problems arising from the unequal development of different lands and peoples. “It would be a most pernicious fallacy to think that any plans and policies which we have adopted at home could secure the prosperity of our people unless means are found to achieve the two great aims which must govern and dominate world policy after the war—universal security and universal prosperity,” he said. “Worldwide peace and prosperity are elementary British interests. We have great contributions of experience and wisdom of moral and political judgment, as self-governing peoples, to make towards these ends.” Speaking of the trend towards ever greater freedom, Mr Morrison mentioned the case of Eire, which decided to stay out of the war and had been left free to do so. Self-Sufficiency a Myth Dealing with post-war development within the British Empore to-day, Mr Morrison said that there must go with a policy of economic development a policy of labour advancement, enabling undeveloped and partially-developed communities to get practical training in political arts and Governmental capacity. It would be dangerous nonsense to talk about grants of full selfgovernment to many dependent territories for some time to come. It would be like giving a child of 10 a latchkey, a bank account, and a shotgun, but we could combine forward policies of education with opportunities for native peoples to take a developing part in forms of self-government appropriate to their corcumstances. “I hope that after the war we shall find it possible to achieve, without prejudice to our own primary obligation for the and progress of British territories, some wider pooling of tasks and responsibilities with others,” said Mr Morrison. “After the war the whole British Commonwealth, and not the Colonies alone, will need and want to adopt as a condition of its own survival the enlightened policies of international co-operation. The myth of a self-sufficient empire has gone the way of other historical illusions and I hope and believe that British commonsense has said bood-bye to it for ever. After the war no Power, however great, will be able single-handed to ensure its own security. Only in a wider system of political security will the Commonwealth find its own salvation.”