CO129-581-16 British propaganda in Hong Kong 18-4-1939 - 29-10-1939 — Page 38

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3.

and newspapers have expressed similar sentiments.

1r. Lyons

successor, Mr. Menzies, recently affiried the belief of Australians

in British policy, and added that, "if pursuit of that policy means

troubles or even war for Britain, there need be no doubt that the

trouble or endurance of the trials of war will be shared by the

people of Australia."

Mr. Mackenzie King, the Prime Minister of Canada, said that an

attack on Britain would be regarded as an attack on all parts of the

Commonwealth. M. Lapointe, the Canadian Minister of Justice, was

equally outspoken. If Britain went to war with the declared dictators,

he said, Canada's position would not be much influenced by constitut-

ional niceties. "If any dictator had made up his mind that the

British Commonwealth was going to be disrupted he was basing his

projects on a fallacy. A canvass of Canadian members of Parliament

revealed that the great majority were determined in the event of war

instantly to support Britain.

Mr. Savage, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, said "New

Zealand will be found wherever Britain is, if Britain is in trouble.

There has never been any doubt about New Zealand's loyalty. General Hertzog, the Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, was equally emphatic. "Britain is rearming," he said in a recent speech It was at Capetown, "with no other purpose than to preserve peace.

#1 To to let people who wanted war know that they would be stopped. help to stop such people South Africa would be ready to play her part.

In India many of those who have protested against certain aspects of British rule have declared for Britain against any threat of aggression from the totalitarian states. One pro-Congress paper asked whether there was one democnatically-minded Indian whose sympathies were not with Britain and France rather than with Germany

and Italy.

There is thus overwhelming evidence that, should war come, those who have believed in the lack of unity among the British peoples in various parts of the world will be astonished at the complete and intense loyalty inspiring every part of the British Commonwealth.