AMERICA WILL FIGHT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 November 1941, Page 6

AMERICA WILL FIGHT

IN DEFENCE OF LIBERTY DECLARATION BY (PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT. AT TOMB OF UNKNOWN SOLDIER. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.55 a.m.) WASHINGTON, November 11. President Roosevelt, speaking at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, at the Arlington Cemetery, on Armistice Day, said: “The people of America 'believe ithat liberty is worth fighting for and if they are obliged to fight, they will fight eternally to hold it. This is a duty we owe, not to ourselves alone but to make the world a place where freedom can live and grow into the ages. I “Cur observance of this anniversary,” he added, “is of particular significance in the year 1941, for we are able today, as we have not always been able in the past, to measure our indebtedness to those who died in 1917 and. 1918. A few years ago, even a few months ago, we questioned—some of us —the sacrifice they made. All of us who search our hearts in honesty and candour know that these men died to save their country from the terrible danger of that day. If our armies of 1017 and 1918 had lost, there would not have been a man or women in America who would have wondered why the war was fought. The reasons would have faced use everywhere. We know now that the danger of brutality, tyranny and slavery to freedom-loving peoples can be real and terrible. We know why these men fought to keep our freedom and why wars that save peoples’ liberties are wars worth fighting and worth winning at any price. We took up arms in 1917 to make the world safe for democracy. We took up arms to make it habitable for self-; respecting men and women. Our men did not die to make the world safe or decent for five years, or ten or maybe twenty. They died to make it safe for all time. It is our charge now, as it was America’s charge after the Civil War, to see that these dead shall not have died in vain.”