AID FOR BRITAIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 December 1940, Page 5

AID FOR BRITAIN

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT TO BROADCAST PROMISE OF VERY SPECIFIC STATEMENT. EFFORTS TO EXPEDITE PRODUCTION. President Roosevelt is expected to speak on United States assistance to Britain and an increase in the United States output of war material when he speaks in a nationwide broadcast on Sunday night, the 8.8. C. reports. A general indication of what the President may say was given by his secretary, Mr Stephen Early, who stated that the President would be very specific in what he says regarding aid for Britain, though precise figures could not be expected. He would also speak on the efforts of the United States to speed up production.-

NAZI ATTITUDE

THREAT OF POSSIBLE WAR. IF AID GOES FAR ENOUGH. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, December 26. In a careful analysis of Germany’s reaction to American aid for Britain, the Berlin correspondent of the “Christian Science Monitor” says that Germany apparently has “set a-limit” to such aid and if it is exceeded she will embroil America in the war. The American formula of all aid short of war is elastic and can be stretched a long way, says the correspondent. Berlin realises that American sentiment probably will approve of any action which does not actually amount to war, or as long as the public sees no danger of war resulting. German official sources feel that unless some limit is set to the extension of this formula it may soon reach a point where American aid will be extremely dangerous to Germany.

Berlin for the moment has chosen to fix the limit at the confiscation of German ships in American waters, but more important than the naming of a specific limit is the act of telling Congress and the American people that Germany does not intend to permit the United States to wage war against Germany beyond a certain point with : out the penalties of war. KEYNOTE TO VICTORY INCREASING PRODUCTION OF WEAPONS. STATEMENT BY MR. PURVIS. WASHINGTON, December 25. The head of the British Purchasing Mission, Mr Arthur Purvis, after reporting to the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr H. Morgenthau, on conditions in Britain, said to the Press that the next two or three months would be crucial for Britain, but she would not collapse, even though the United States should fail to meet the increased demands for war materials. “I know no way of ending this war except through a realisation by Germany of increased production both in England and in North America,” said Mr Purvis. “The rapidly-increasing production of weapons in the United States is the keynote of stopping this war.”