PREVENTING WAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 March 1939, Page 5

PREVENTING WAR

AMERICA & THE OTHER DEMOCRACIES ADVOCACY OF POSITIVE POLICY. TOTALITARIAN COMPLAINTS DISMISSED. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright WASHINGTON, March G. “It is weakness, not defiance, that is provocative in the world of today,” said ihe Assistant. Secretary of State, Mr A. A. Berle, in a speech today which combined a plea for world disarmament with a warning to the dictators that no nation, except possibly the United States of America, was financially able to continue the present costly armament race beyond a few years. Mr Berle dismissed totalitarian complaints concerning United States’ assistance to European democracies as unworthy of serious consideration, asserting: “Nations which project the doctrine of world subjugation, whether through force or through an attack by propaganda on our social system, compel us toward defensive measures. “If a group of nations chooses to join in such a policy, we are fairly entitled to consider whether the defence of our own institutions may not require that assistance be given in one form or another to those other nations who, like ourselves, desire to keep the peace. “We may dismiss as unworthy of serious consideration comment from overseas that such assistance is provocative.”

Meanwhile, the former Secretary of State, Mr H. L. Stimson, in a letter to the “New YorlTTimes,” sweepingly endorses a foreign policy of “affirmative action” against the Fascist nations as being the best preventive of a general war. Mr Stimson also urges joint naval measures with Britain and France in the event of a concerted attack op the European democracies by the Rome-Berlin-Tokio axis.

Contending that United States foreign policy cannot be safely limited to the western hemisphere or to continental boundaries, Mr Stimson expresses approval of the recent Administration policies as outlined by President Roosevelt in his January address to Congress. The writer calls on all citizens and political parties to back up the Administration.