Yesterday seven hundred and twenty-six years ago King John gave one of his usual displays of temper. He had just signed Magna Carta, and the first towards British freedom had thus been made. Then through the centuries the struggle for liberty of the individual was continued with varying results, until the ideals of democracy were attained, and the British form of Government established for other nations to copy. It has been rightly said that the story of the British has been one of slow, continual revolution, and that while other nations were shaken periodically by terrific convulsions the British were able to reach their objectives with far less blood-letting. For that probably the national genius for compromise was largely responsible, the Civil War being the only principal exception to the rule. Today Britain, her Empire and her Allies are struggle ing in+a worldwide revolution which has been forced upon them. Their conflict is with forces which would reduce the world to a state much worse than when Magna Carta formed the first success in the fight upwards from the misery and degradation of the Dark Ages. Hitler it is reported has his fits of temper,—not the only similarity between the two men, for John was also a cunning schemer and a man of dishonour,—and the forces arrayed against.him are preparing for the day when he will have to admit defeat, as John eventually had. As Magna Carta opened the way for a better world, so will Allied victory in this war. There can be no going back to the old ways, but the establishment of a new moral order, in which the rule of law will be revived. and security amongst nations which will permit them to work out their destinies unmenaced by the threats of-evil men. The way may be long and hard but the benefits to be won are well worth the sacrifices. That the people of the Empire fully realize as do those other nationals, whose governments though for the moment dispossessed are continuing the fight, and when it ends new Magna Carta will be written, not for Britons alone, but for the whole world.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.