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'SHOOTING HAS STARTED '

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S NAVY DAY SPEECH Spirit of American People Aroused ADMIRATION EXPRESSED FOR RUSSIA DETERMINATION TO DEFEAT HITLER WASHINGTON, October 27. “Five months ago I proclaimed the existence of a state of unlimited emergency,” said President Roosevelt in a Navy Day broadcast. “Since then much has happened. Our Army and Navy are temporarily in Iceland in defence of the Western Hemisphere. Hitler has attacked shipping in areas close to the Americas. “Throughout the Atlantic, many American-owned merchant ships have been sunk on the high seas. One American destroyer was attacked on September 4. Another was attacked and hit on October 17. Eleven brave, loyal men of our Navy were killed by the Nazis. “We have wished to.avoid shooting, but the shooting has started and history has recorded who fired the first shot. In the long-run, however, all that will matter is who fired the last shot. “America has been attacked. The Kearny is not just the Navy. She belongs to every man, woman and child in this nation. Hitler’s torpedo was directed at every American, whether he lives on our sea coast or in the innermost part of the nation, far from the seas and far from the guns and the tanks of the marching hordes of the would-be conquerors of the world. “The purpose of Hitler’s attack was to frighten the American people off the high seas, to force us to make a trembling retreat. This is not the first time he has misjudged the American spirit. That spirit is now aroused.

NAZI DESIGNS EXPOSED “If our national policy were to be dominated by the fear of shooting, then all our ships and those of our sister republics would have to be tied up in their home harbours. Our Navy would have to remain respectfully and abjectly behind any line that Hitler might decree. “Naturally, we reject that absurd and insulting suggestion. We reject it because of our own self-interest, our own self-respect and our own good faith. The freedom of the seas is now, as it always has been, the fundamental policy of this Government. “Hitler has often protested that his plans for conquest do not extend across the Atlantic, but I have in my possession a secret map made in Germany by Hitler’s Government, by the planners of a new world order. It is a map of South America and part of Central America as Hitler proposes to reorganise it. “Today in this area there are 14 separate countries. The geographical experts in Berlin, however, have ruthlessly obliterated all existing boundaries and have divided South America into five vassal States, bringing the whole continent under their domination, and they also so arranged it that the territory of one of these new puppet States includes the Republic of Panama and our great lifeline—the Panama Canal. “This map makes it clear that the Nazi design is not only against South America, but against the United States itself. ATTACK ON RELIGION “Your Government has in its possession another document made by Hitler’s Government. It is a detailed plan which for obvious reasons the Nazis do not wish to publicise just yet, but which they are ready to impose on a dominated world —if Hitler wins. It is a plan to abolish all existing religions. Protestant, Catholic, Mohammedan, Hindu, Buddhist and Jewish alike. The property of all the churches will be seized by the Reich. The Cross and all other symbols are to be forbidden. The clergy are to be forever silenced under penalty of the concentration camps, where now so many fearless men are being tortured because they placed God above Hitler. “In place of the churches in our civilisation there is to be set up an international Nazi church, a' church which will be served by orators sent out by the Nazi Government. In place of the Bible, the words of “Mein Kampf ’ will be imposed and enforced as holy writ, and in place of the Cross of Christ will be put two symbols, the swastika and a naked sword. “These grim truths of the present and future plans of Hitlerism will, of course, be hotly denied tomorrow in the controlled press and radio of the Axis Powers and some Americans will continue to insist that Hitler’s plans need not worry us and that we should not concern ourselves with anything that goes on beyond rifle shot of our shores. The protestations of these American citizens —few in number will as usual be paraded with applause through the Axis Press and radio during the next few days in an effort ,to convince the world that the majority of Americans are opposed to their duly chosen Government and in reality are only waiting to jump on Hitler’s band wagon when it comes this way. “The motive of such Americans is not the point at issue. The fact is that Nazi propaganda continues in desperation to seize upon such isolated statements as proof of American disunity. CHOICE FOR AMERICA “Americans of all opinions are faced with the choice between the kind of world we want to live in and the kind of world Hitler and his hordes would impose upon us. None of us wants .to, burrow underground and live in total darkness like a comfortable mole. “Tho forward march of Hitlerism can be stopped and will ; be stopped. Very simply and very bluntly, we are pledged to pull our* own oar jn the destruction of Hitlerism, and when we have helped to end the curse of Hitlerism we shall help to establish a ,new peace which will give to decent people everywhere a better chance to live and prosper in security, in freedom and in faith. 1 ' “Each day that passes we are producing and providing more and more arms for the men who are fighting on the actual battlefronts. That is our primary task, and it is the nation s will that these vital arms and supplies cf all kinds shall neither be locked up in American harbours nor sent to the bottom of the sea.

“It is the nation’s will that America shall deliver the goods. In open defiance of that will our ships have been sunk and our sailors have been killed. We do not propose to take this lying down. Our determination not to take it lying down has been expressed in orders to the American Navy to shoot on sight. “Furthermore, the House of Representatives has already voted to amend part of the Neutrality. Act of 1937, today outmoded by the force of violent circumstances. The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has also recommended the elimination of other hamstringing provisions in that Act. That is the course of honesty and realism. SHIPS MUST BE ARMED “American merchant ships must be armed to defend themselves against the rattlesnakes of the sea. Our merchant ships must be free to carry our American goods into the harbours of our friends. Our merchant ships must be protected by the American Navy. It can never be doubted that the goods will be delivered. Our Navy believes in the tradition ‘Dam the torpedoes. Full speed ahead.’ “Our national will must speak from every assembly line in our vast induSf; trial machine. Our factories and shipyards are constantly expanding. Our output must be multiplied. It cannot be hampered by the selfish obstruction of a small but dangerous minority of industrial managers who hold out for extra profits or for business as usual. It cannot be hampered by the obstruction of a small but dangerous minority of labour leaders who are a menace to the true cause of labour itself, as well as the nation. “Our essential defence lines,” continued Mr Roosevelt, “now cover all seas and to meet the extraordinary demands of today and tomorrow our Navy grows to unprecedented size. Our Navy is ready for action; indeed units of the Atlantic patrol are in action. , ~, “Our soldiers, too, are worthy of the proudest traditions of the United States army, but traditions cannot shoot down dive-bombers or destroy tanks. That is why we must and shall provide for our soldiers equipment and weapons not merely as good as, but better than those of any other army on earth. TOTAL NATIONAL DEFENCE “For this is what we mean by total national defence. The first objective of that defence is to stop Hitler. He can be stopped and be compelled to dig in and that will be the beginning of his downfall, because a dictatorship of tho Hitler type can live only through continuing victories. The facts of 1918 are proof that the German army and tired German people can crumble and go to pieces rapidly when faced with successful resistance. “Nobody who admires the qualities cf courage and endurance can fail to be stirred by the fully-fledged lesistance of the Russian people. Russia needs all kinds of help, planes, tanks, guns, medical supplies and other aids. From the United States and Britain she is getting great quantities of those essential supplies, but our help and British help will have to continue. “Upon American production falls the colossal task of equipping our’ armed forces ana helping to supply the British, Russians and Chinese in the performance of defeating Hitler. We will not fail. A . “It has not been easy for Americans to adjust themselves to the shocking realities of a world in which the principles of common humanity and common decency are being mowed down by the firing squads of the Gestapo. There are those who say our great good fortune has betrayed us, that we have grown fat, flabby and lazy and are doomed, but those who say that know nothing of America or of American life. , , “Our country was first populated and has been steadily developed by men and women in whom there burned the spirit of adventure and restlessness and individual independence which will not tolerate oppression. Ours has been . the story of vigorous challenges which have been accepted and overcome. “Today, in the face of this newest and greatest challenge, we Americans stand ready in the defence of our nation and the faith of our nation and. the faith of our fathers to do what God has given us the power to see as our full duty.” .

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAITA19411029.2.48

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 October 1941, Page 5

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,710

'SHOOTING HAS STARTED' Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 October 1941, Page 5

'SHOOTING HAS STARTED' Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 October 1941, Page 5

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