Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1941. “YOU SHALL GO NO FURTHER!”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 September 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1941. “YOU SHALL GO NO FURTHER!”

JN outlining the measures he has ordered to be taken against piratical attacks by German submarines and surface raiders on American and other ships, President Roosevelt did not use the phrase “shoot at sight.” That phrase appears, however, to sum up accurately the tactics now to be adopted by the American naval and air forces. Having indicted the Nazi dictatorship for its deliberate violation of international law and of international agreements which nearly all governments, including the German Government, have signed, Mr Roosevelt declared that the time had come to say to the international outlaws who sank American ships and killed American sailors: “You shall go no further.” The United States, he said, would defend its lines of supply of material to the enemies of Hitler and its naval and air patrols would protect not only American ships, but ships of all nations » engaged in world commerce. To this statement lie appended a grim warning that there will be no question of waiting for German submarines io strike their deadly blow first before dealing with them, and that henceforth German or Italian vessels of war entering the zones deemed necessary for American defence will do so at their own peril. In estimating the significance and scope of the policy thus laid down account has to be taken of President Roosevelt’s emphatic declaration that the successful and unsuccessful attacks made by German submarines on American ships are a calculated and deliberate part of Nazi schemes aiming at world domination, including the conquest of the Western Hemisphere. The action now taken is not merely a reply to individual and abominable outrages, but one that, in the President’s words, “cannot be avoided” in the protection of the American nation. Air Roosevelt’s broadcast is momentous on account of the final emphasis with which he invites his countrymen to abandon “the romantic notion that. America, can go on happily and peacefully in. a Nazi-dominated ’world.” In whatever manner it is destined to work out —in that matter there are as some open possibilities—the decision now taken by the President involves from the broadest standpoint a bold and uncompromising defiance of the Axis Powers and a corresponding accession of strength io the belligerent democracies. Mr Roosevelt’s declaration has its bearing on the position in the Pacific, particularly where the supply line ip Russia by way of Vladivostok is concerned, and in the Indian Ocean, as well as in the Atlantic. It is now fertile Axis Powers to decide ■whether they will restrict and limit their piratical policy or accept the addition of the American Navy and American air patrols to the rank's of their active enemies. Whatever the outcome may be in these particulars, the nations fighting the Axis will be reinforced and strengthened. As President Roosevelt has said, there will be no shooting by the American Navy unless Germany continues 1o seek it, but the manner in which this choice is presented puts Hitler and his accomplices on the horns of a dilemma. Whatever they may say and pretend to think, it is not in doubt that the decision now taken by the Uniled States will be a crushing disappointment to these gangster criminals. Some American newspapers are reported Io have interpreted the President’s announcement as a declaration of war. That this is an exaggeration is made plain, however, in the terms of the announcement itself. What Mr Roosevelt has done —- in accordance, as he shows, with excellent historical precedent —is to order warlike action in defence of vita] American interests. This action gives every promise of meeting the case most effectively. At the same time the onus remains on the Axis Powers of determining whether the existing stale of affairs is or is not to develop into a full state of war with the United States.