Serious Drift

Wanganui Chronicle, 26 January 1948, Page 5

Serious Drift

BRITAIN’S ATTITUDE TO SOVIET UNION MR. CHURCHILL’S VIEW London, Jan. 23. There is a real danger of allowing things to drift too long, and the best chance of preventing war is to bring the matter to a head and reach settle ■ ment with the Soviet before it is too late,” said Mr. Winston Churchill, resuming the foreign affairs debate in the House of Commons. This implied the western democracies uniting and taking the initiative in asking the Sovet for a settlement. He said the Opposition welcomed the Foreign Secretary’s plan for more intimate relations with France, the Benelux countries, Italy, and Switzerland if she wished it. "Let us place this question above Party and bring the personalities of anxious

States and nations as a whole into the larger harmony of which their prosperity and life may depend,” he added. It was idle to reason or'argue with the Communists, but it was possible to deal with them on a realistic basis. He appealed for a settlement "by formal diplomatic processes, with' all their privacy and gravity. “There is a very grave danger of letting everything pile up until it has passed out of control," said Mr. Churchill. "A settlement in itself would not be a guarantee against war but if war came it would give us the best chance of coming out of it alive,” He could not think that any serious discussions which it might be necessary to have with the So .net Government would be more likely to succeed if western Powers waited until the Soviet has “got their atomic weapons developed." Mr. Churchill continued “I hope Greece will not be reduced to another Communist-ridden police State such as has been established*against the will of the people behind the iron curtain " . .

Mr. Churchill described the decision to scrap a large part of the reserve of warships as an unwise and improvident step, which would affect British influence and authority in international discussions.