DETERMINED PEOPLE

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21039, 15 February 1940, Page 7

DETERMINED PEOPLE

WILL END AGGRESSION STRUGGLE FOR CIVILISATION SPEECH BY LABOUR LEADER (Official Wireless) (Received Feb. 15, 1.15 p.m.) RUGBY, Feb. 14 Speaking in London Mr C. R. Attlee, Leader of the Labour Party in the House of Commons, said he found neither a spirit of lighthearted adventure nor false glamour of glory among the British people, but rather a mood or endurance and fixed determination of a people who felt themselves to be engaged in a struggle for the survival of European civilisation. “If we cannot say what civilisation is,” he said, “we know well what it is not, and a country which denies all rights to the individual, a country which murders people for no other reason than that they belong to a particular race, and a country which hates mercy, truth and freedom is no civilised country. “The present German rulers,” he continued, “have deliberately chosen to say “Evil, be thou my god!”

Mr Attlee warned his hearers against undue optimism, and said that though all hoped that there would be no tremendous slaughter from air attacks it was necessary to be amply prepared. Peace must be followed by the building of a world free from aggression and constraint.

Although a difficult time would undoubtedly follow the war Mr Attlee said he saw no reason for an era of great distress.