MUST NOT BE IN VAIN

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 22934, 3 July 1944, Page 4

MUST NOT BE IN VAIN

Sacrifices Of Fighting Services Mr Fraser Emphatic Official News Service OTTAWA, July 1. The principles for which the men of the United Nations have fought and died and the debt owed them by the living were expounded by the Prime Minister of New Zealand (the Kt. Hon. P. Fraser) in the Canadian House of Parliament today with an air of sincerity and depth of feeling that brought his audience to their feet with loud applause. Mr Fraser spoke before the Joint Assembly of the Senate and the Commons and crowded public galleries and told them of his satisfaction with the progress of the war, his confidence m the future and his serious and earnest insistence that the sacrifices which were making victory possible must not be in vain. Mr Fraser reiterated what he has said often in London—that it is the declared policy of the United Kingdom and the Dominions that they were not out for aggrandisement nor to conquer or dominate anybody. They were out to free mankind. The nations that had been overcme by the enemy must be fully restored, and so must their territories be restored in whatever sea they might be. Otherwise the very foundations of truth would be shaken and would fall, and there would be no resting place for honour in the world. “The principles of the Atlantic Charter are not platitudes. They are principles that must be honoured because thousands have died for them. I heard it said once that there are two

kinds of enemies of progress—one who stood still and looked backward and the other who looked forward and stood still. After the last war promises were made in good faith, but as the years came and went, instead of those promises being fulfilled, there grew up an overwhelming sense of impossibility, an overpowering feeling that it could not be done, and so instead of enthusiasm on the part of the people, especially the young people who had fought the war, we had cynicism and disappointment and despair. We must give faith this time to our young people. We must tell them that as they have fought and as they will win the war, so Win they help to garner the fruits of victory. If that is not done there can be no doubt that the forces of despair will develop into reaction, and once more the ground will be rioe for- the seeds of Nazism and Fascism and democracy’s chance will be finally gone. There are conferences being held to help the world toward a better day, conferences on commercial questions, monetary and financial matters, food production, conferences that do much credit to the good heart of the Democracies. There would be a black outlook for the world unless the mass of the people feel that, in return for their efforts on the land, on the sea, in the air, in the workshops, on the farms, in the mines, and in the factories, the new world is to be made a reality, and the leaders of the nations were in earnest when they preached fundamental democracy not only political democracy, but educational, economic and social democracy.”

Thirty young New Zealand air trainees were among Mr Fraser's listeners in the gallery of the House. The Prime Minister and Mrs Fraser met them later when they attended a reception given by the Acting High Commissioner, Mr R. M. Firth, and Mrs Firth. During their two days’ stay in Ottawa Mr and Mrs Fraser are the guests of the Governor-General and Princess Alice at Government House.