CHURCHILL FEARS THAT ATTLEE HAS LEFT ACTION TOO LATE

Wanganui Chronicle, 6 August 1947, Page 5

CHURCHILL FEARS THAT ATTLEE HAS LEFT ACTION TOO LATE

IN.Z.P.A. iicaier—Copyright.) London, Aug. -1. In a speech made beiore Bv.OOO persons at a Conservative tete at Dienheim Palace, his birthplace, near Woodstoca, Mr. churchm said the country had tauen into an evil plignt.

"We, proud Britain, who stood alone against > mignty tyrant ana who kept the Mag o. ireeaom flying lor more than a whole year, are now forced to live on foreign aid and subject ourselves to privations worse than those ot the war.'

He feared that Mr. Attlee had left action so late that tne Government measures to be announced on Wednesday would not be equal to tne emergency. The Conservatives would support all proposals truly in the national interest, but would oppose proposals deemed otherwise unnecessary, or which pandered to class jealousy and party strUe. He relied on the wisdom ot fair-minded American people to make the necessary easements in the American loan clauses which hampered purchases in sterling from the • Dominions and Colonies, or enabled foreign creditors to exact payments rrom Britain’s limited supply ot dollars. Mr. Churchill criticised the Government for frittering away the American loan on films, tobacco and imports which were not indispensable. It had choked tne House ot Commons witn partisan legislation and had wasted time which could have been gained by the American loan. Mr. Dalton had taken from the people £3,000,000,000 to cover administration in the current year; that was thrice the cost of the administration of the State in pre-war years. COST IN PALESTINE.

Mr. Churchill continued. “While they blithely cast away mighty India and Burma, the Socialists have clung to tiny little Palestine, where £40,000,000 of our hard earned money annually has been cast away.’’ The Socialists believed - that nothing mattered so long as miseries were equally shared. "There will be no recovery until the guilty men whose crazy theories and personal incompetence have .brought us down have been driven from power,” he said. Mr. Churchill appealed for a close association with the United States within the fraternal association ol the whole English-speaking world. He .said the Conservatives' industrial charter showed the broad lines of the party’s economic policy, but it was foolish to commit the Conservatives to an elaborate programme which would be attacked by its opponents, if only to distract from their own failures. Mr. Churchill,denying the possibility of a coalition, said the Conservatives could not share responsibilities of men “who have led us into so much needless misfortune.” Mr. Churchill was cheered for five minutes at the end of his first big political speech since his operation.