EFFECT OF VOTE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 July 1939, Page 5

EFFECT OF VOTE

INFLUENCE OF DOMESTIC FACTORS AMERICAN NEWSPAPER COMMENTS. ROME AND BERLIN LIABLE TO ERR. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. NEW YORK, July 1. The “New York Times" in an editorial on the neutrality position says: “Rome and Berlin will make a mistake if they drawn too confident a conclusion from the failure to abolish' the arms embargo. Several special circumstances must be kept in mind in considering the House’s action. “First the vote against the repeal of the embargo provision was largely the result of purely domestic factors and merely on phase in a general revolt against the Administration. “Secondly, it must be noted that even though the House has voted against the repeal of this particular embargo, it remains entirely legal under the terms of the Bill passed to export to those nations which control the seas in time of war those materials which enter into the making of arms and ammunition. "Thirdly, the narrow margin by which the repeal clause was defeated (a shift of three votes would have changed the results) shows how greatly opinion in the House has changed since the original embargo was adopted by an overwhelming vote in 1937. That change of sentiment carries its own warning to potential aggressors.” The New York "Wold-Telegram,'’ in an editorial says: “The House has served notice on England and France that they need not look this way if a test comes and their defences are found wanting. The tragedy is that this assurance to Herr Hitler is no real indication of what Congress would say when the drums began to beat.” The New York “Herald-Tribune" blames the refusal to repeal the embargo largely on Mr Roosevelt’s “stiffneckedness." "The President's insistence upon the continuance of all his emergency monetary powers made it impossible to hope that reason would prevail with respect to the unwise restraint on his control of foreign affairs," it states. “In the fight against stubbornness and wilfulness, tine distinctions can hardly be expected.”