WAY TO PEACE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 117, 16 April 1940, Page 7

WAY TO PEACE

FORCE NECESSARY. MR ROOSEVELT’S BELIEF. ILLUSIONS DISCOUNTED. tUnited Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) Received April 16, 9.35 a.in. WASHINGTON, April 15. Iu a tvorld-wide broadcast, President Roosevelt, speaking at a meeting of the governing board of the Pan-American Union on the occasion of the observance of its fiftieth anniversary, said:— “The wars abroad are more horrible and more destructive than ever. The Americas can keep open the way to eventual peace only if they are prepared to meet force with force if the challenge is ever made. “Wo in this hemisphere do not need to seek a new international order,” Mr Boosevelt added. “We have already found it. This was not won by hysterical outcries or the violent movements of troops. We did not stamp out nations, capture governments, or root up innocent people from the homes they had built. We did not invent absurd doctrines of race supremacy or claim dictatorship through universal revolution.” Mr Roosevelt continued : “Co-opera-tive peace in the Western Hemisphere will not be created by wishing, and will require more than words to maintain it. Whoever touches any one of us touches all. We have only asked that the world go with us along the path of peace, but we shall be able to keep that way open only if we are prepared to meet force with force if the challenge is ever made. OLD DREAMS RAMPANT. “To-day we can have no illusions. The old dreams of a universal empire are again rampant. We hear of races which claim the right of mastery and of groups which Insist that they have the right to impose their way of life , on other nations. We encounter eco- : liomic compulsions shrewdly devised to force great areas into political spheres of influence. '

“All this is not of mere academic interest. We know that what happens i.n the Old World directly and powerfully affects the peace and wellbeing of the New World. For this very reason we have adopted procedures to enable us to meet any eventuality. At. Buenos Aires we agreed to consult should peace be threatened; at Lima we agreed to stand together to defend and maintain the integrity of every American nation ; at Panama we worked out ways and means of keeping the war away from the Americas. I pray God we shan’t have to do more, but should it be necessary I am convinced we should be wholly successful. The inner strength of the group of free people is irresistible when they are prepared to act. POSITIVE VALUES. “In my conception, the whole world j is now struggling to find the basis oi its life for the coming centuries. I affirm that life must be based on positive values. The value of love will always be stronger than the value of hate since any nation or group which employs hatred is eventually torn to pieces within itself. The value of belief in humanity and justice is always stronger than the value of belief in force, because force finally turns inward, and each man and group of men is compelled to measure his strength against his own brother. The value of truth and sincerity is always stronger than the value of lies and cynicism. “No process has vet been invented which can permanently separate men from their hearts and consciences. You cannot make men believe a way of life is good when it spreads poverty, misery, disease, and death. Men cannot be everlastingly loyal unless they are free.”