ONLY CHOICE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 February 1939, Page 5

ONLY CHOICE

UNITED STATES FORCED TO ARM

ASSISTANT WAR SECRETARY’S DECLARATION. SOME DEMOCRATIC DISSENTERS. WASHINGTON, February 2. The Assistant Secretary for War, Mr Johnson, made a significant radio address today, declaring that the United States was forced to arm “against those who were determined to dominate world affairs by means of military power, with one nation after another going down before the deadly onslaught of arms or submitting in face of threat of force. Those who would, survive have no choice other than to prepare to protect themselves. “To postpone the needed increases in our army, specially in our air corps, till those bent on aggression perfect' their long-range engines of battle to assail our shores is to invite disaster.

“To some people an- invasion of America may appear a mad dream, but even they will have to admit that wild fantasies yesterday have become realities today.” Commenting on President Roosevelt’s assurance to the democracies, Senator Clark (Democratic, Missouri) made the charge that the United States' fighting plane requirements were being put aside in order to facilitate arming France.

Senator Walsh (Democrat, Massachusetts) said: “Under downright neutrality we should mind our own business. ■ What assurance has any American that Britain or France will remain democracies or that Germany may not become a democracy? In God's Name who are we to determine where truth and justice exist? When we attempt it, we find ourselves in trouble.” SUPPORT FOR ROOSEVELT. BRITISH PAPER’S ADVICE. LONDON, February 2. The “Manchester Guardian,” in a leader, says if American opinion backs up President Roosevelt in his championship of the European democracies, it will be because the ordinary American believes fundamentally that the cause of the European democracies is his cause also.

"But we cannot expect material help from America,” says the paper, “without deserving it. President Roosevelt has taken political risks and it is for us to support him by convincing the American people that their trust will not be misplaced.”