“MERELY A GESTURE”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 April 1939, Page 5

“MERELY A GESTURE”

OPINION IN THE UNITED STATES SCEPTICISM IN CONGRESS. DICTATORS OFFERED WAY OUT. WASHINGTON. April 16. Presidept Roosevelt’s appeal to the dictators has won wide Congressional approval, but an almost equally general scepticism that it would achieve any success . The majority regard it merely ,as a gesture, which, if the dictators are looking for a way out, could not do any harm. There is a growing feeling in Congress that it is too late for American influence to count abroad. This attitude is joined by the middle-road thinkers who now believe that the United States could have contributed 20 years ago to a more stable and contented world, but that her insistence through the years that she would have no part in European problems has been accepted by the European chancelleries. They believe that the plans of the totalitarian Powers were formulated on the assumption of isolation by lhe United States and that this cannot be changed at this later date by a mere Presidential pronouncement. It is felt in political circles that the President has at least strengthened his own position by demolishing the charges of warmonger being made against him within the United States. It is felt also that the appeal may help in the formation of a “stop Hitler” bloc. It is noted that, in asking for the pledges not to use force, the President specifically listed 31 countries, incidentally omitting Danzig. If the assurances are refused, it is felt that these 31 countries may all feel themselves in the orbit of totalitarian ambition and hasten to line up with the democracies. The “New York Times” interprets lhe message, not as an appeal “to the better nature and sense of responsibility which the dictators do not possess" but as a warning “that if they resort to acts of aggression threatening the peace of the world, they will find the odds overwhelmingly against them.”