ROOSEVELT CALL

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 170, 17 April 1939, Page 3

ROOSEVELT CALL

PEOPLE’S POWER BREAKING BONDS ; TREND TO CONFLICT FREEDOM WHEN WANTED ECONO AIIO BRIN CIPLES NEW- YORK, April 14. Speaking on the occasion of the Washington - sequi-centenary celebration, President Roosevelt pledged the economic support of the United States and! readiness to match “force to fo-reo” if necessary in defending ti.o nations of the western hemisphere against foreign aggression. The President took the role, ot spokesman for the west in a bold veto against the dictatorial organisation of the world. His words, apparently inviting plain people of the totalitarian States to “break their bonds.” were translated for short-wave deliverv #;u six languages to every corner of the globe. President Roosevelt reminded all men that “they have within themselves the power to become free any t ine.’ Carrying the thought Partner he said: “The truest defence' of tne peace 0i: our hemisphere must always lie in the hope that our sister nations beyond the seas will break the beiu.'s of ideas which constrain them toward pc rp ot ua 1 warfare. “By example, we can at least shew them the possibility, that we too, have a stake in world affairs.” Air. Roosevelt opened with a review or American achievements. “I he American family of nations pay honour to-day to the oldest and most successful association of sovereign Governments in the whole world,” he said. “Few of us realise that- the pan-American organisation has at present attained a longer history and a greater catalogue of achievements than any similar group known to modern history. “Justly we can be proud of it and even more rightly can wo look to it as a symbol of great hope at a time when much of the world finds hope dim and difficult. Never was it more fitting to salute a. pan-American day than in the stormy present. “For upwards of half a. century tne republics of the western world have been working together promoting a common cnilisaticn under a. system ot peace. That venture, launched So hopefully 50 years ago, has sueecded:. “The American family is to-day a great co-operative group facing a troubled world in serenity and calm. This success sometimes is attributed to good fortune. Ido not share that view. “There are, not wanting here all the usual rivalries, all the normal human desires for power and expansion and all the commercial problems. “The Americas are sufficiently rich to be an object of desire on the part of overseas Governments. Our traditions and history are as deeply rooted in the Old) World as Europe’s. “It was not an accident that prevented South America and our own west from sharing the fate of other great areas of the world in the nineteenth century. Wo have here diversities of race, language, customs ana natural resources and intellectual forces at least as great as those which prevailed in Europe. “ Wlnit has protected us from the tragic involvements which at present are making Hie Old "World a new cockpit of old struggles P The answer is easily found. A new powerful idea 1-—that of a community of nations sprung up at the same time as the Americas became free and indcpendi-

‘•We hold conference## not as a- result ol wars, but as a result of the uill to peace. Elsewhere in the world, to hold conferences similar to ours, it is necessary to fight a’“major war until exhaustion and defeat at length brings the Governments together to reconstruct the shattered fabrics. “Greeting the conference in IJuciios Aires in 19V3G, I said: “The madness of a great war in another part of .the world would affect us and threaten our good in a hundred ways. 'The economic collapse of any nation, or nations, must necessarily harm our prosperity. lam coufidlent that no can help the Old World avert the catastrophe which impends.’ “I still have that confidence. There is no fatality which forces Europe to-

wards a. new catastrophe. Men are not prisoners of fate, but prisoners of their own minds. They have within themselves the power to become free at- any moment. “As an instance last summer I stated that the United States would join in defending Canada- if she ncre attacked from overseas. At Buenos Aires in 1936 all of us agreed that in the event of war or a threat of war oil the Continent wo would eousult to remove that threat. Let- no American nation regarded! these understandings as threats. “American peace has no. quality ol weakness. We are prepared to .maintain and defend it to the fullest extent of our strength, matching force to force if an attempt is made to subvert our institutions or impair the independence cl any of our group. “Should the method of attack he economic pressure, I pledge the United States also to give economic support. So no American nation need .surrender any fraction of its sovereign freedom. “America may rightly claim now to speak to the rest- of the worldl. We have an interest wider than the more defence of our sea-ringed continent and know now that developments in the next generation will so narrow the oceans that our customs actions necessarily will bo involved with those of Europe. “The economic functioning of the world becomes increasingly a unit and no interruption anywhere can fail in future! to disrupt economic life everywhere. “Tlio truest delenco peace- of our hemisphere must a ways lie in the hope that our sister nations beyond the seas will break the bonds of ideas which constrain them toward perpetual warfare.”