VALUE OF ENTERPRISE

Waikato Times, Volume 195, Issue 22513, 23 November 1944, Page 7

VALUE OF ENTERPRISE

REBUILDING OF BRITAIN MR ANTHONY EDEN’S ADVICE Mr Anthony Eden, British Foreign Secretary, told the Bristol Conservative Association that the issue which would confront Britain when Germany and Japan were laid low was whether British industry would be able not only to re-establish itself at its pre-war level, but markedly to raise those levels. i It was in relation to this main issue that the questions of State control or private enterprise must be examined. There was scope and opportunity for both, but that fact made it all the more necessary in their view that private enterprise should not be stifled. In industries which by their variety and diversity of character called in a special degree for the qualities of initiative, individuality and imagination it was clearly to the public interest that full play should be given to individual enterprise and leadership. “To defeat the totalitarian States our people have accepted regimentation and controls to an extent never before known in our history, but though we use these weapons we do not love them,” he said. “Though we employ them for a specific purpose to defeat our enemy in war we have no intention to perpetuate them for their own sake in peace.” * “Ordered Reduction” Any attempt to abolish all controls the moment the was was won would land them in chaos; ordered reduction must be the object. In international affairs the capital lesson today was that of the interdependence of nations. “Nations can no longer go their own way and seek to be masters of their own destiny regardless of their neighbours’ fortune,” he said. “Neutrality has become a delusion and immediate frontiers offer no defence.” None would dispute the need of some international authority which must command sufficient armed strength to enable it to enforce its decree in a world not yet ready to accept control by international law. If the new international order was to have a fair chance of success it must be based upon the closest understanding between the three great Powers—the U.S., the Soviet Union and the British Commonwealth of Nations. The British Commonwealth and Empire could make an ever-growing contribution to its record of service to mankind. “I am no pessimist about the future,” Mr Eden said. “I have faith in our people. I have confidence in their destiny. In the last four years we have played no mean part. We have led the world at its darkest hour. We can lead it, too, into the sun-splashed periods that break beyond.”