BRITAIN GOING DOWN UNDER SOCIALISM

Wanganui Chronicle, 7 October 1946, Page 5

BRITAIN GOING DOWN UNDER SOCIALISM

BELIEF OF MR. CHURCHILL

ISSUE IS BETWEEN “RED FLAG” AND “LAND OF HOPE AND GLORY”

R«cd. 5.30 p.m. London, Oct. 5. “The Socialists have broken up national unity for the sake of their political interests and have brought into office a party Government which has shown itself markedly unequal to holding Britain’s place in the world,” said Mr. Churchill in a speech to a Conservative Party mass meeting at Blackpool. An audience of 6500 gave him an enthusiastic reception.

Mr. Churchill added that even allowing for the aftermath of the war, which would tax to the utmost the resources of the United Nations if guided by a National Government of Socialists, in a little over a year, had paralysed revival at home and diminished British influence abroad. They had failed to reduce taxation and curb unbridled expenditure, which is leading to inflation. Ever-growing bureaucracy was restricting and repressing •very possible form of enterprise and recovery.

“Even the U-boats did not necessitate bread rationing in the last two wars, but the Socialist planners fastened it on to the people during peace.” he said. “At no time in the two wars have our people had so little food."

Before the war 25,000 permanent houses were erected in Britain monthly. The best Mr. Bevan could boast was 4566 for August.

“There is poetic justice in the fact that the most mischievous mourn in wartime also became in peace the most remarkable administrative failure," Mr. Churchill said. The coal output was falling, despite nationalisation and the position was grimmer than it had ever been, even during the war. The Government’s agricultural policy and myopic attempts to nationalise the steel industry were the most foolish of all Socialist experiments. The wanton destruction of the Liverpool Cotton Exchange inflicted a lasting injury upon thy Lancashire cotton trade. Britain was suffering a needless decline and contraction at a time when she should be enjoying brighter days. He had vtoited many smaller countries on the Continent, none of which knew the drab disheartenment and frustration which the Socialist Party had fastened on Britain.

Mr. Churchill criticised the Government “for thrusting the government of India into the hands of men who had good reason to be hostile to Britain.'' There was hardly any choice for the Indians, but separation from the British Crown under a Government which in no way represented them. He feared calamity impended in India, which shortly would become a separate, foreign, and none too friendly country towards the British Commonwealth. Indian unity created by British rule would Swiftly perish. "None can measure the misery and bloodshed which will overtake these humble, helpless milHlons,” he said. “It may well be that Burma soon will suffer the same fate. I pray I may he wrong! On the morrow of our victory we are divesting ourselves of

a mighty and wonderful Empire, which has been built up in Inlia by 200 years of effort and sacrifice. Yet. at this moment, in the presence of this unparalleled act of voluntary a l, dication, we are still ceaselessly abused by the Russian radio and by certain unfriendly elements In the United States. While Russia already has brought many more millions under the rigours of the Communist discipline, and we. who are reducing ourselves to a fraction of our size, are successfully held up to world censure, it is astonishing that no effective reply should be made by the Government.”

Mr. Churchill criticised the Governments’ handling of Palestine and said the promises to the Zionists had been discarded. The Government was now vacillating without a plan and without a policy. “I consider my own duty in these circumstances is to go on carrying the flag as long as I have the necessarv strength,” Mr. Churchill said. He proposed that the Conservatives prepare for the moment when the tide of national sentiment turns. He recommended a membership drive and proposed that the party’s finance should be derived from many millions of small subscribers.

Discussing policy, Mr. Churchill said it would be an error to plunge into a programme of promises and bribes in the hope of winning public favour. He went on to discuss the oarty's name and recommended “the Union Party,’’ as standing for union in the United Kingdom and Empire, a union of men of goodwill of all classes against "tyrannical and subversive elements.”

Mr. Churchill emphasised that the party must not adopt some rigid and symmetrical form of doctrine. He proposed that the following points be embodied as desirable features of a policy.

To uphold religion and resist all attacks against it.

To defend the monarchical Parliamentary constitution.

To provide adequate security against external aggression, and safety for seaborne trade. ' To uphold law and order and impartial justice. To regain sound finance. To defend and develop Empire trade.

To promote all measures to improve the health and social conditions of the people. To support, as a general rule, free enterprise against State trading and nationalisation.

Mr. Churchill concluded: "Our aim is to build a property-owning democracy. The division next election will be between those who sirfg the 'Red Flag' and those who sing 'Land of Hope and Glory.' ”