EFFECTS ABROAD

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 2, 3 July 1939, Page 9

EFFECTS ABROAD

ROME AND BERLIN

NEW YORK PRESS COMMENT

NEW YORK, July 1. The "New York Times" in an editorial on the neutrality position says:— "Rome and Berlin will make a mistake if they draw too confident a conclusion from the failure to abolish the arms embargo. Several special circumstances .must be kept in mind in considering the House's action. First, the vote against the repeal of the embargo provision, was largely the result of purely domestic factors and merely one phase in a general revolt against the Administration, Secondly, it must be noted that even though the House voted against the repeal of this particular embargo, it remains entirely legal under the terms of the Bill passed to export to those nations which control the seas in time of war those materials which enter into the making .of arms and ammunition. Thirdly, the narrow margin by which the repeal clause was defeated (a shift of thi-ee votes would have changed the result) shows how greatly opinion in the House has changed since the original embargo was adopted by an overwhelming vote in 1937. That change of sentiment carries its own warning to potential aggressors." ASSURANCES TO HITLER. The New York "World-Telegram," in an editorial, says:—"The House has served notice on England and France that they need not look this way if a test comes and their defences are found wanting. The tragedy is that this assurance to Herr Hitler is no real indication of what Congress would say when the drums began to beat." The New York "Herald-Tribune" blames the refusal to repeal the embargo largely on Mr. Roosevelt's "stiffneckedness." '"The President's insistence upon the continuance of all his emergency monetary powers," it states, "made it impossible to hope that reason would prevail with respect to I the unwise restraint on his control of foreign affairs. In the fight against stubbornness and wilfulness fine distinctions can hardly be expected."