The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1939-12-01
7. John Wood
Digesting
The News

be branded as pro-Nazis by
the readers of this column.
1t would probably serve us
right for attempting to dis
cuss a subject with which we
are so unfamiliar we actually
labor under the delusion that
there are two sides to the
story. A good newspaper col
umnist is one who can ex-
pound the virtues Of a theory
without ever stumbling into
its vices even though the vi
ces far exceed the virtues.
But then, we are not a good col
umnist, therefore we can afford to
look into Great Britain's theory
of democracy and give our honest
opinion as to the effect the pres
ent war will have on democratic
ideals.
1t is indeed ironical that Prime
Minister Chamberlain's peace talk,
in which he told of England's war
aims and peace aims, should come
less than a week after martial
law was proclaimed in India. We
quote from Mr.. Chamberlain
speech:
Our war aim can be stated very
shortly. 1t is to defeat our en-
envy, and by that do not merely
mean the defeat of the enemy's
military forces; I mean the defeat
of that aggressive, bullying, men
tality which seeks continually to
dominate other peoples by force,
which finds a brutal satisfaction
in the persecution and torture of
inoffensive citizens, and, in the
name of the interests of the state
justifies the reputation of its own
pledged word whenever it finds it
convenient.
THAT is our war aim. And we
shall persevere in this struggle
until we have attained it.
when we come to peace aims,
we are dealing with something to
be achieved in conditions we can
not at present foresee. Our def
milton of them can, therefore,
only be in the most general terms,
but there can be no harm in de-
claring the broad lines on which
we should desire to found them.
"Our desire, then, when we have
achieved our war aims, would be
to establish a new Europe, not new
in the sense of tearing up all the
old frontiers and redrawing it,
maybe, according to the ideas of
the victors, but Europe with a
new spirit in which the nations
which inhabit it will approach
their difficulties with good will
and mutual tolreance.
"In such a Europe, fear of ag-
gression will have ceased to exist,
and such adjustments of boundar-
les as would be necessary would be
threshed out between neighbors
sitting on equal terms around
table, with the help of disinterest-
ed third parties, if it were so de-
sired. In such Europe, it would
be recognized that there can be
no lasting peace unless there is a
full and constant flow of trade
between the nations considered, for
only by increased interchange of
goods and services can the STAN
dards of living be improved.
''In such Europe, each country
would have the unfettered right to
choose it's own form of govern
ment so long as that government
did not pursue an external policy
injurious to its neighbors.
Lastly, in such Europe arma-
ments would gradually be dropped
as a useless expense, except inso-
far as they were needed for the
preservation of internal law and
order"
The irony in the text of the
Prime Minister'S speech is con-
tanned in the first paragraph in
which he expresses Britain's de-
sire to defeat an aggressive, bull
Continued on Page Two)