“AN IF QUESTION”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 February 1939, Page 7

“AN IF QUESTION”

MR ROOSEVELT ON SALES TO DICTATORS STATEMENTS BY MINISTERS. NO DANGER OF WAR SEEN BY MR ICKES. WASHINGTON, February 2. The controversy over President Roosevelt’s pledge of American aid to the democracies continued to rage unabated today, and a conference between the President and another Congressional committee, this time the Appropriations Sub-committee of the House of Representatives, provided further interesting features in the dispute.

Members of the committee said that Mr Roosevelt turned aside the direct question whether the United States of America would permit .aeroplane purchases by Germany and Italy on the same babis as those to France. Mr Roosevelt is alleged to have said: “That is an ‘if’ question.” The President reiterated his belief that the French purchases would be beneficial to the American aeroplane industry, making it ready for the first American orders under the appropriation of 50,000,000 dollars, which is expected from Congress shortly under the President’s larger 300,000,000-dollar programme for the building of military planes. , The Secretary of the Treasury, Mr Morgenthau, replying to statements by Senator Lodge concerning the restabilisation fund, denied that any of its two billion dollars would be used “directly, indirectly, or in an way whatsoever,” to help any country -to make any purchases of merchandise. The Secretary of the Interior, Mr H. L, Ickes, entered the controversy with a statement that there was no danger of the United States becoming involved in war under President Roosevelt’s administration, and strongly attacked Mr Hoover’s statements on February 1. “I think he owes it to the American people,” he said, “not to misrepresent things and become an alarmist when there is no provocation."

Replying to a question concerning charges by Herr Hitler that he (Mr Ickes) is a warmonger, the Secretary of the Interior replied: “I do not think any man in America more sincerely wants peace than I do.”