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Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, MAY 29, 1941. AN UNLIMITED EMERGENCY.

jgOIVIE people, having listened to or read President Roosevelt’s latest speech, may wonder why it did not culminate in an intimation that he would invite Congress to declare war on the Axis Powers, instead of announcing the proclamation of a state of unlimited national emergency, in which the people of the United States are called upon to strengthen their defences to the extreme limit of which they are capable. Nothing could have been more finally emphatic and complete than Mr Roosevelt's denunciation of Nazism, summed up in his statement: “We do not accept and will not permit the Nazi shape of things to come.” At the same time the President, made it clear that he and his fellow-countrymen—with the exception of a small minority of isolationists to whom he addressed a few admonitory and scathing sentences —are well aware that. .Hitler and his fellow-criminals are intent on Worlcl domination and undoubtedly aspire Io the conquest of the Americas as well as of Europe. Indeed, as Air Roosevelt pointed out, the Nazis are endeavouring to extend their power to the Americas by way of the Arctic ! Nori It —as the sortie of the battleship Bismarck, now sent, to the bottom by the British Navy, bears witness—and in an approach to the Latin American flank. Since, as Air Roosevelt observed in homely language, it would be suicidal (in dealing with the Nazis) “to wait until •they are in our front yard,” it may again appear to be strange that he did not conclude by calling for a declaration of war on the aggressor dictatorships he denounced as wholly and irreclaimably evil —as intent on reducing the whole world to slavery and to pagan brutality. Instead of calling for a declaration of war, however, the President said that the United Slates would determine for itself how. whether, when and where it would take armed action against the Axis aggressors. If must at once be added that, in saying this, he left these aggressors no shred of hope of any limit being placed on American action directed to their defeat. So uncompromising, indeed, was Air Roosevelt’s call on the American people and denunciation of the Axis Powers that there would be no occasion for surprise should this call prove to be the immediate prelude to war between the United States and‘the Axis. In any case, while he did not propose a declaration of war, the President did call for an unrestricted concentration of American resources on the defeat, of the. Axis. Besides declaring that the United States would resist every attempt by Hitler to extend his domination to the Western Hemisphere, to establish any base for attack on that hemisphere or to gain command of the seas, Afr Roosevelt said that every possible assistance would be given to Britain and to all who resist Hitler. Of the delivery of Avar supplies to Britain Tie said that it “must be done, can be done and will be done.” In the section of his speech here touched upon, the President threw the clearest lighUthal has yet been thrown upon what the Battle of the Atlantic means to Britain and to all who are fighting in the cause of freedom. Ho said he was speaking with the knowledge of the British Government in stating that Nazi sinkings of ships exceeded by more than three times the capacity of British shipyards Io replace, the losses and by more than twice (he combined output of British and American shipyards. He said that the United States would make its contribution to the solution of the problem thus raised by speeding up the output of ships and by keeping down the rale of losses—this last by further strengthening the Atlantic naval patrol, which already had been strengthened greatly.

If there is any incongruity in the fact that President Roosevelt did not conclude his speech by asking Congress to declare war on the Axis, the whole explanation may be that be is leading his nation in the course that will help most speedily to ensure (he defeat and extirpation of the Axis gangsters and that he regards as of secondary importance the question of whether the pursuit of this course entails a formal declaration of war or not. Most certainly the President did not speak as one who feels that war must be avoided. On the contrary he declared emphatically that the people of the United States must be prepared to fight in defence of their democratic way of life and had nothing to fear but. Fear itself.

The key to Mr Roosevelt’s policy possibly may bo contained in his statements that the whole programme of aid for the democracies “is based on lyird-headed concern for our own security and for the kind of safe, civilised world in which we wish to live, and that: “Wo have made no pretence about our self-interest in this aid.” Britain, he said, understood this and so did Germany. At the most direct view, these arc plain statements oil fact, but it has to be considered also that in concentrating on the supply of the tools of war to Britain and her allies and on helping to defeat the Nazi attack on seaborne commerce, the United States may be doing, and may do, more to assist and hasten, the victory of the democracies than if she assumed the full status of a belligerent.

At the same time, the President's speech is far from offering any guarantee that the United States, will not become a more active participant in the war. She is an active participant now as the-arsenal of democracy, and the reference Mr Roosevelt made, for instance, to Dakar can hardly be read in any other sense than as meaning that if the Nazis attempt to seize that port, the United States will take warlike action to prevent their doing so. The specific reference to Dakar was tlioron<>'hlv typical of much besides that the President had to say. '

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAITA19410529.2.12

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 May 1941, Page 4

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,002

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, MAY 29, 1941. AN UNLIMITED EMERGENCY. Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 May 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, MAY 29, 1941. AN UNLIMITED EMERGENCY. Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 May 1941, Page 4

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