ARBITRATION URGED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 September 1938, Page 7

ARBITRATION URGED

MOVE MADE BY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT PERSONAL APPEAL TO HITLER & BENES. FEELING AGAINST NAZIS IN U.S.A. WASHINGTON, September 26. President Roosevelt today made a direct personal appeal to Herr Hitler and President Benes to settle their controversies by negotiation and to preserve the peace of the world. A. message was also sent to Mr Chamberlain and to M. Daladier, Premier of France, voicing the hope of 130,000,000 Americans that the controversy would be settled without resort to arms. President Roosevelt called the nations’ attention to their obligations under the Kellogg-Briand Pact, reminding them that, even should these avenues of settlement be obstructed, there were other methods of arbitration available. “The sole desire of Americans is peace,” said the President, “but they are mindful of the fact that the United States could not escape some of the consequences of war for the sake of all humanity.” He appealed to the statesmen not to break off negotiations. Meanwhile the rising tide of antiGerman feeling in America is indicated by attacks from the pulpit and the militant demonstrations. A gathering of 20,000 at Madison Square Garden. New York, called on the United States, in the event of war, to prohibit all traffic with Germany. Those present contributed 25,000 dollars to the Czechoslovakian Red Cross. The National Convention of the Workers’ Alliance, meeting at Cleveland yesterday, passed a resolution demanding that President' Roosevelt immediately declare that the United States favours full support for Czechoslovakia. The convention also demanded the prohibition of arms shipments to Germany, Italy and Japan. A resolution claimed that the United States’s failure to take sides was “playing into the hands of the Fascist war-makers.” FEARS OF CATASTROPHE MADNESS OF NEW RESORT ’ TO WAR. TEXT OF MR ROOSEVELT’S MESSAGE. (Recd This Day, 9.20 a.m.) WASHINGTON, September 26. President Roosevelt’s dramatic plea to avert a war into which he obviously fears the United States may be drawn, was made without any previous indication that such a step was contemplated. He cancelled a weekend yachting trip owing to the crisis, but attended the President’s Cup regatta for a few hours. Returning he learned the latest developments from Mr Cordell Hull (Secretary of State). Apparently the Czechoslovakian rejection of Herr Hitler’s. latest demand, combined with news of the Fuhrer’s speech tomorrow, determined the President to appeal directly to the statesmen concerned. He sat down, drafted his statement and signed it at 0.30 a.m., timing it to reach Berlin, Prague, Paris and London as the sun rose on what may be the last day of peace in Europe. Journalists, roused from bed, were summoned to the White House. The message was cabled direct to Herr Hitler and President Benes and transmitted to Mr Chamberlain and Mr Daladier through Mr Hull. The text is as follows: “The fabric of peace on the Continent of Europe is in immediate danger. The consequences of its rupture will be incalculable. Should hostilities break out the lives of millions of men, women and children in every country involved certainly will be lost under circumstances of unspeakable horror. The economic system of every country involved is certain to be shattered and their social structure may well be completely wrecked. The United States has no political entanglements. It is not caught in the mess of hatred. Elements of all Europe have formed its civilisation. The supreme desire of the American people is to live in peace, but in the event of a general war they face the fact that no nation can escape some measure of the consequences of such a world catastrophe. The United States traditional policy has been the furtherance of the settlement of international disputes by pacific means. “It is my conviction that all the people under a war threat .today pray that oeace may be made before rather than after war’ It is imperative that peoples everywhere recall that every civilised nation has voluntarily assumed some of the obligations of the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928 to solve controversies only by pacific methods. In addition, most nations are parties to other binding .reaties placing them under an obligation to preserve peace. All countries today have available for the peaceful solution 6f difficulties which may arise treaties of arbitration and conciliation to which they are parties. “Whatever may be the differences in the controversies at issue, however difficult of pacific settlement they may be, ( am persuaded there is no problem so difficult or so pressing that it cannot be justly solved by resort to reason rather than resort to force. During the present crisis, the people of the United States and their Government earnestly roped that negotiations for an adjustment of the controversy in Europe night reach a successful conclusion. So long will remain the hope that reason, that the spirit of equity, may prevail and that the world may thereby escape the madness of a new resort to war. “On behalf of 130 millions of people of the United States and for the sake of humanity everywhere, I most earnestly appeal that you do not break off negotiations looking to a peace, fair and constructive settlement of the questions at issue. I earnestly repeat that so long as negotiations continue, differences may be reconciled. Once they are broken off, reason is banished, force asserts itself and force produces no solution for the future good of humanity.” AMERICAN CABINET EXTRAORDINARY SESSION SUMMONED. (Recd This Day, 9.25 a.m.) WASHINGTON, September 26. President Roosevelt has summoned

an extraordinary session of Cabinet for tomorrow, when it is expected he will make a thorough exploration of the European situation.