Oct. 1.
Mr. Sumner Welles, US. Under-Secretary of State, hit the nail on the head on Saturday in his speech at Cleveland, when he said what humanity is witnessing today is not another Great War. but a world revolution, the struggle of what is lowest in human nature against what is finest, of barbarism against civilization, of darkness against light. IE it is necessary to define which countries are playing the various roles it is sufficient to remember that the Government of the United States with the approval of Congress, and it is believed the majority of the American people, is committed to a policy of giving Great Britain all material support and assistance, through the furnishing of supplies and munitions to the British Empire. And why? Because as Mr, Welles says "Alone the British people, with heroism worthy of the tradition of that brave people, are defending successfully their homes and liberties.—the same liber ties which free men cherish everywhere.' The war aims of the enemy have been freely stated. They amount to the division of the world along lines best suited to serve their own interests after the dismemberment of the British Empire.
There has been an agitation for some time in favour of Britain declaring what aims she has in view after this war has been brought to a successful conclusion. There is no reason why she should do so, and many why she should not at the present juncture. Obviously the first and immediate aim of the British Empire is to destroy the menace to civilization which Hitler has forged during his seven years of office. When that has been achieved the time will come to take stock of a sadly battered world, and to endeavour to build a new international structure which will ensure peace for a considerable time to come, That will not be by th ion of war aims in an atmosphere of universal hostility, ug which can only be possible when the heat of battle has subsided. What Hitler would clamp about the necks of humanity were he ever to succeed in his infamous schemes can readily be understood from all that has happened in Germany since he obtained power.
The German has been reduced to a state of helotry, deprived of all the liberties for which mankind has struggled for centuries, terrorized, and robbed of individuality and reduced to the status of the ant in the: heap. Nations which have been overrun are being treated in the same manner, brutal persecution being the means whereby Hitler hopes to attain his end. The same is planned for the rest of the free peoples of the world, and there need be no doubt about it that, if that evil man were to prevail, civilization, which has been slowly and arduously built by mankind, would disappear and the clock put back centuries. It would mean. that the doctrine that man was created for the State would supersede that which holds: that the Slate was created for man, and: it short what the leaders of the aggressor States contemplate is the subjection of the world to the condition to which they have reduced their own people. 'The attempt has already' led to the almost complete destruction of the rule of law throughout the world, and an attempt to institute in its place the rule of] force. What the democracies who resisted Hitler entered the struggle for was to prevent that coming about. Why Britain continues the struggle is not only in self-defence, though that is a paramount consideration, but to ensure that the. world shall again be
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.