CHURCHILL WARNS OF CATASTROPHE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 55, 7 March 1946, Page 5

CHURCHILL WARNS OF CATASTROPHE

PLEA FOR BRITISH U.S. UNITY

SOLEMN MOMENT FOR AMERICA Reed. 7.30 p.m. New York, March 5. “If the Western democracies stand together in strict adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter, their influence will be immense and no one is likely to molest them. If they become divided or falter in their duty, and if these all-impprtant years are allowed to slip away, then indeed catastrophe may overwhelm us all. The last time I saw it coming- 1 cried aloud, but no one paid any attention.”

This warning was given by M at Westminster College, Fulton, M to an academic audience by Presi honorary degree.

r. Winston Churchill in a speech [issouri, where he was introduced ident Truman and was given an

“I have no official mission or status. I speak only for myself, ” said Mr. Churchill in acknowledging what he described as a unique honour for a private visitor. “Therefore I can allow my mind to play over the problems which beset us, and try to make sure that what has been gained with so much sacrifice and. suffering shall be preserved for the future glory and safety of mankind.

"The United States stands at this time at the pinnacle o£ world power. It is a solemn moment for American democracy. Opportunity is here, now, clear and shining, for both our countries. To reject it. to ignore it or fritter it away will bring upon us all the long reproaches of after-time. Our supreme task and duty is to guard the homes of the common people from the horrors and miseries of another war. We are all agreed on that. “A world organisation has already been erected for the prime purpose of preventing war. ThA United Nations, successor to the League of Nations, with the decisive addition of the United States, is already at work. We must make sure that its work is fruitful reality and not a sham, that it is a force for action, not merely a frothing of words, that it is a true Temple of Peace wherein the shields of many nations can some day be hung, and not merely a cockpit in a Tower of Babel.

“I have definite, practical proposal for action. The United Nations must immediately be equipped with an international armed force. Therein we can go only step by step, but we roust begin now. "I propose that each of the Power States should be invited to dedicate a certain number of air squadrons to the service of a world organisation. These should be trained in their own countries, but would move around in rotation from one country to another. They would not be required to act against their own nation, but in other respects they would be directed by the United Nation*.

“It would, nevertheless, be wrong and imprudent to entrust the secret knowledge or experience of the atomic bomb which Britain, America and Canada now share, to the world organisation while it is in its infancy. It would be criminal madness to cast it adrift in an agitated, ununiteu worlj. DANGERS OF TYRANNY “The second danger which threatens cottagers and the ordinary people is tyranny. We ca.-not be blind to the lact ihat the liberties enjoyed by individual citizens throughout the British Empire are not valid in a considerable number of countries, some of which are very powerful. In them cont; ol is enforced by various kinds of pc.'re a.:d Governments, contrary to every democratic principle. "People everywhere should have power by constitutional action, and free, unfe tered elections by secret ballot to choose or change the character or form of Government. "1 now come to the c-ux of what 1 travelled here to say. Neither sure prevention of war nor a continuous rise of the world organisation will be gained without the fra ernai association of tlie English-, peaking peoples. This mean a special relationship between the British Commonwealth a. -1 the United States. Fraternal association requires not only giowing friendship and mutual unders anding between cur two vast but kindred systems, but also a continuance of i. timate relationship between our military advisers, leading to a common study of potential dangers, similarly of weapons and manuals of instruction, and an interchange of officers and cadets at colleges. It should carry a co.-tinuance of the present facilities Io mutual security by a joint use of naval and air force ba es in the possession of either country throughout the world. This would double the mobili y of the American Navy and Air Force, and it would greatly expand that of the British Empire forces.

"The United States already has a permanent defence agreement with Canada, which is so devotediv a tached to the British Commonwealth. Thi . agreement is more effective than many mode under formal alliances. This principle should be extended to all the British Commonwealth, with full reciprocity. “Eve tualiy, there may coine common citizenship, bat that we may be content to leave to Destiny, whose outstretched arm many of us clearly see. "A shadow has fallen upon the acenes so lately lightened by the Allied victory. Nobody knows what Russia intends to do in the immediate, future, or what are the limits, if any, to her expansive proselytis ng tendencies. I have a strong admiration and regard for the valiant Russian people and my wartime comrade, Stalin. "There is sympathy and goodwill in Britain and doubtless here also towards Russia, and a resolve to persevere through many differences and rebuffs in establishing lasting friendships. "I repulse the idea that a new war is inevitable, still more that it is imminent. It is because I am so sure that our fortunes are in our own hands and that we hold the power to safe future that I feel it my duty to speak out now. "I don’t believe that the Soviet desires war. What it desires is the fruits of war, and indefinite expansion of its power and doctr nes, but what we have to consider while the time remains is permanent prevention of war and the establishment of conditions of freedom to a trial of strength. If the western demoracles stand together in strict adherence to principles of the United Nations Charter, their influence will be immense and no one is likely to molest them. If they become divided or falter in their duty, and i* these all important years are allowed to slip away, then indeed catastrophe mav overwhelm us all. The last time I saw it. coming I cried aloud, but no one paid any attention.

“I am convinced there is nothing the Russians admire so much as strength. There is nothing they have less respect for than military weakness. For that reason the old doctrine of the balance of power Is unsound. We cannot afford to work on narrow margins.

"This can be achieved only by reach.ng a good understanding now on all po.nts with Russia, under the general authority of the United Nations, and the maintenance thereof through many peaceful years. “Let no man under-rate the abiding power of the British Empire and Commonwealth because you see 46,000,000 in our island harassed about the food supply or the difficulty of restarting industries and the export trade after six years of passionate war effort. Don’t suppose we shan’t come through these dark years of privation as we have come through glorious years of agony, or that half a century hence you won't see 70,000,000 or 80,000,000 of Britons spread about the world united in defence of our traditions and way of life and the world causes we and you espouse. . "If the population of the Englishspeaking Commonwealth be added to the United States, with all that such co-operation implies in sea, air, science and industry, there will be no quivering, precarious balance of power to offer its temptation to ambition or adventure. On the contrary there will be an overwhelming assurance of security if we adhere faithfully to the Charter of the United Nations and walk forward in sedate, sober strength, seeking no one’s land or treasure, or arbitrary control of men's thoughts. If all the British moral and mater.al for&s and convictions are joined with your own in a fraternal association, the high roads of the future will be clear not only for us, but for all, not only for our time, but for a century to come.’’

AMERICAN REACTIONS

CONGRESS FEARS RUSSIAN SUSPICIONS Recd. 8.15 p.m. New York, March 5. Mr. Churchill’s proposal for a virtual British-American military alliance provoked generally unfavourable reaction in Congress, says the Associated Press. Mr. Churchill’s call for sharing bases and some military preparations found some support, but most Senators said they did not want a formal alliance because it might , arouse Russa’s suspicions and because lit would link the United States too closely with British foreign nolicies. Although Mr. Churchill claimed to speak for himself only, members of his party told correspondents that Mr. Churchill discussed his speech in advance with Lord Halifax and added that it was unlikely Mr. Churchill would discuss such an important subject if he thought it might prove irritant to Mr. Bevin. The “New York Pest” says: “It is an open secret that Mr. Truman read his sneech before its delivery, and that Mr. Bevin had a general understanding of its contents.” The “New York Herald Tribune,” in an editorial, said: ' “If the sneech means anything, it means that Russia to-dav is a shadow and a menace to the Western world comparable with the menace of Nazism a decade ago, that it can be met onlv by such a show of strength as Mr. Churchill once called for vainly against Germarv (and which most now believe would have been the only way of the vast ensuing traged’es). and that this strength which must be exerted iw can bo provided nnlv by what would amount io a BritishAmeric.nn military alliance. One must hor>'» the explosive with which Mr. Chwcbfll stated it w : ll form all sides, ifi Moscow. London and Washington. to taco som° )f fh« real implications of what is, after all. their common problem.” T’to ‘New Vopb Times” in a loader, s-ys: “Whether or not all Mr. ChuvchiH’s are acceptable, to the TTnited states is no 4 the point now. The American neople havo long since realised that Britain and the United States are governed bv a common destiny which brought them together in two world wars and would inevi ably do so in anv future war. Sharing Mr. Churchill’s anxieties about the future, thev will give symnathofic hearing to his proposals for averting r* new cotnstmnhe.”

Stcyan Gavrilovitch. Yugoslav Foreign Under-Secretary, commentod lhat the . r neech was a blow for the United Nations. “What is imnortant is not to lose faith desnite all blunders,” he said “What would havn hannened if Mr. Churchill had lost faith in 1940? The United Nations faces a crisis since certain forces of on-nosi ion are beinn- stimulated bv an anna-ent lack of international harmony.”

TRUMAN AS LEADER “PERILOUS TIMES AHEAD” Recd. 8.15 p.m. New York, March 5. President Truman, accepting an honorary degree, urged the implementation of the United Nations’ Charter as “the law of the. land and the law of the world.” “There are perilous times ahead,” added Mr. Truman. “The world is headed either for destruction or for lhe greatest age of progress in history. It is up to vou to decide which nath we follow. It is up to me to attempt to see that we follow the path toward that great age, not towards destruction, and it is to that end that I dedicate my life.” Mr. Truman said he met Mr. Churchill and Marshal Stalin for th* first time at Potsdam. “I became very fond of them. They are men. They aie leaders in this world to-dav when we need leadership,” he added.

CO-ORDINATION IN CANADA

Rpcd. 10 p.m. Ottawa, March 5. Mr. Churchill’s speech is interpreted by defence and external affairs officials as calling for an extension of the

“PLAY CRICKET”

CHURCHILLTO RUSSIA BRITISH PRESS COMMENT Recd. 8.50 p.m. London, March 6. “Mr. Churchill’s purpose clearly was not to divide the world, into two opposing camps, but to see whether frankness could not unite the two camps into which the world is already tending to divide itself,” says the “Daily Telegraph” in a leader. • “In effect, Mr. Churchill says to Russia: ‘We want to play cricket with you, but in any case we shall see that you cannot play fast and loose with us.’ At least we will have set many people thinking whether that is, or is not, the best way of dealing with Russia.”

“The Times,” in a leader, says: “British and Russian relations require to be based, as Mr. Churchill said, not on appeasement, but on settlement, and that settlement must take account both of the effective interests and the effective power of both parties. As far as Britain is concerned, favourable results will not be achieved. by a policy of words unaccompanied by action, and still less by reliance on American support as a substitute for a balance and carefullyweighed British policy. Nothing Mr. Churchill said was incompatible with full recognit : on of these underlying realities.” The “Daiv Mail,” in a leader, says: “Russia’s disastrous course can. and must be, arrested. Whc can doubt that the way to do it is the one proposed by Mr. Chvrchill? Namely, for Britain and the United States to get together in ‘fraternal association’ and say to Russia: 'Thus lar and no farther.’ ” The “Manchester Guardian,” commenting on Mr. Churchill’s sneech. regrets that Britain and America since the war have not marched consistently in step. It argues that the unhannf fact is that fho Anglo-Saxon countries must now stick together “because the libera] civilisation for which thev stand is threatened by new forces, in some ways as evil as Nazism. There is no apnarent limit to the Russian desire to exnand its nnwe r and doctrine. Everv step from Manchuria to Bombav, in Germany and in France, is evidence enough. Mr. Churchill is surely rieht when he savs the Russians admire strength above all things. It is for the Western Democracies that at present lhe Romans desnise to show that

The “Daily Worker” said: “Mr. Churchill has returned to his antiCommunist vomit. There spoke the man who organised intervention against the young Soviet Republic. This new attempt to unite world reaction under the banner of anti-Com-niunism will fail as others failed. The new Europe cannot be turned upside down by strident phrases.”