FORTHRIGHT SPEECH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 198, 22 August 1945, Page 5

FORTHRIGHT SPEECH

MR. BEVIN CONGRATULATED BY MR. EDEN

HOUSE BEHIND NEW MINISTER

Mr. Anthony Eden, the former Foreign Secretary, in the House of Commons congratulated Mr. Bevin on the forthrightness of his speech. He added that during the four and a-half years they had served together in the War Cabinet he did not remember a single difference between himself ana Mr. Bevin on an important issue of foreign policy. “He helped me in that critical period, and I in the same spirit would like to tryc to help him now,” said Mr. Eden.

It was not the duty of the Opposi- • ion to emphasise divergences, but to state them frankly in order to try to reach an agreement so that Parliament might in these difficult years function as a council of State. The greater the agreement at home, the greater would be Mr. Bevin's authority abroad. Mr. Eden said he agreed entirely with Mr. Bevin regarding Greece. The charge that Greece had aggressive intentions against her northern neighbours would not bear a moment’s examination, especially in view of Greece’s present military capacity, because the Greek army had been destroyed in 1941 and had never been reconstructed.

“If there is one country about whose radio propaganda and criticism of Greece I feel badly, it. is Bulgaria,” r,aid Mr. Eden. “Bulgaria’s treatment of our prisoners u'as bad, anfl generally she is not a country for wnich we have any cause to be tender. “I think Poland’s western frontier has been moved too far westward, just as after the last war the eastern frontier was moved too far eastward. We have to make every contribution possible to alleviate Europe’s economic position, not merely because we want to be generous, but. Isoeause it is in our own interests that Europe’s economy should not collapse. But we know how straitened are our circumstances and how small our contribution can with the best intention in the world.”

•'1 repeat my good wishes to him, and every section of the House will endorse those wishes,” said Mr. Eden. • Victory this time has come with its stark, unparalleled warning. I said at San Francisco that it is the world’s last chance: we pray that the world will seize its last chance, and any efforts Mr. Bevin makes wisely to guide and encourage it we shall support to Hie utmost of our strength.” (Cheers.)