PEACE NOT ASSURED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 January 1939, Page 5

PEACE NOT ASSURED

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S \ WARNING ACTION NEEDED TO SAVE DEMOCRACY. NEUTRALITY LAW QUESTIONED. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received This Day. 9.10 a.m.) NEW YORK. January 4. A warning that a war which threatened to envelop the world in flames had been averted, but that it had become increasingly clear that peace is not assured, was given by President Roosevelt today. He continued that undeclared wars of armament building and threats of new aggression, which was both military and economic, were going on on all sides. “Storms from abroad directly challenge three institutions indispensable to America,” said the President. "The first, is religion. It is the source of the other two—democracy and international good faith.”

Making the charge that good faith and reason in international affairs nave given way to strident ambition and brute force, the President declared: "The defence of religion, democracy and good faith between nations is all the same fight. To save one we must now make up minds to save all. . . . We, no more than other nations, can afford to be surrounded by enemies of our faith and our humanity.”

Insisting that the American republics did not dissociate themselves from other nations and other continents, the President added: “We, as one of the republics, reiterate our willingness to help the cause of world peace. . . .

But the world has grown so small and weapons of attack so swift that no nation can be safe in its will to peace as long as any other single powerful nation refuses to settle its grievances at the council table. The democracies cannot forever let pass without effective protest's acts of aggression against sister nations —acts which automatically undermine all of us. . . .

There are many methods short of war, but stronger and more effective than mere words, of bringing home to aggressor governments the aggregate sentiment of our own people. Our neutrality laws may actually give aid to an aggressor and deny it to a victim. The instinct of self-preservation should warn us that we ought not to let that happen any more.” The President asked for adequate defence —armed forces and defences strong enough to ward off any sudden attack —key facilities that may be immediately utilised and rapidly expanded.

Dictatorship, he continued, may command the full strength of a regimented nation, but the united strength of a democratic nation can be mustered only when its people, educated by modern standards, know what is going on and where they are going, and have a conviction that they are receiving as large a share of material success and human dignity as they have a right to receive.