ILLUSION GONE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 May 1940, Page 5

ILLUSION GONE

AMERICAN ISOLATIONIST HOPES . PRESIDENT’S FIRESIDE TALK. ACTION NEEDED TO DEFEND DEMOCRACY. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. WASHINGTON, May 26. President Roosevelt, in a fireside chat, called on the people of the United States not to be “calamity howlers” but to consider calmly the means of building up the national defence to 'safeguard democracy from the attacks of aggressors. He said that America need not abandon her democratic principles to enable her to match the strength of the aggressor. “Some have been persuaded by minorities,” he said, “that we could maintain our physical safety by retiring within our continental boundaries —the Atlantic to the east, the Pacific to the west, Canada to the north, and Mexico to. thq south. I illustrated the futility and impossibility of this in my message to Congress last week. Obviously a defence policy based on those boundaries would merely be an invitation to future attack.

“The past fortnight has shattered the illusion that the United States is remote, isolated, and secure against the dangers from which no other country is free. This rude awakening has brought for some a fear bordering on panic. It is said that we are defenceless and that adequate defences can be built and the aggressor’s strength can be matched only by abandoning our freedom, our ideals, and our way of life. I did not share the illusions; I do not share the fears.”

Noting the co-operation of Congress in voting additional defence expenditures, Mr Roosevelt gave an assurance that he would not hesitate to ask for more if, and when, required. He added that private industry would continue to be the source of most materials, but it must be speeded up to produce at the rate and in the efficiency that the needs of the times demanded.

“The Government is ready to advance funds for the expansion of factories. The defence programme must not be allowed to break down social gains, lengthen working hours, or lower the standards of employment.”

He gave an assurance that -labour would be adequately represented in Washington, and asked for a minimum of labour disturbances.

He added that Americans did not relish any citizen being enriched as a result of the emergency or through blood and slaughter and human suffering. “The nation must and will deal vigorously with ‘fifth columns’ such as Germany has used to undermine Norway and other countries,” he said. “Fortunately, Americans are not easy dupes. Hatred has never made any headway in the United States, but new forces are being unleashed, and there is deliberately planned propaganda to divide and weaken us in the face of danger. "These forces of undiluted poison must not be allowed to spread in the New World as in the Old. Our moral and mental defences must be raised as never before against those who would cast a smoke screen across our vision. The defences of the Western Hemisphere will be built to whatever heights the future may require. , “For more than three centuries, said Mr Roosevelt, “we have been building in this continent a free society in which the' promise of the human spirit may find fulfilment. Commingled here are the blood and genius of all peoples who have sought this promise. It is this that we must continue to build, not only for oui generation. Wc will defend the foundations our fathers have laid, build for the generations unborn, and defend and build our way of life, not only for America, but for all mankind.