NEW KIND OF WAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 February 1942, Page 3

NEW KIND OF WAR

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S BROADCAST UNITED & UNSPARING EFFORT DEMANDED OF FREE NATIONS. PRODUCTION OF ARMS & SHIPS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, February 23. In his broadcast address on Washington’s birthday, President Roosevelt said in part:— “This new kind of war is different from all other wars in the past, not only in methods and weapons, but in geography. It is warfare in terms of every continent, island, sea and airlane in the world. “The broad oceans which have been heralded in the past as our protection from attack become endless battlefields on which we are constantly being challenged by our enemies. We fight at these vast distances because that is where our enemies are. Until our flow of supplies gives us a clear superiority, we must keep on striking our enemies wherever and whenever we can meet them. Actually, we are taking heavy toll of the enemy every day that goes by. “The Nazis and the Japanese aim to separate the United States from Britain, China and Russia, and to isolate them one from another so that each is surrounded and cut off from supplies and reinforcements.

NEED OF HELPING OTHERS. “There are those who still think in terms of sailing ships. They advise us to pull our warships and planes into home waters and concentrate on lastditch defence. Look at the map of the British Isles, Australia, New Zealand, I the Dutch East Indies, and India, with i their resources of raw materials and their peoples determined to resist Axis domination. If these great reservoirs were cut off we could no longer send thein : aid. “It is essential that we help China in her magnificent defence and her inevitable counter-offensive, for that is one important element in the ultimate defeat of Japan. “If we lost communication with the South-west Pacific, all that area, including Australia and New Zealand, would fall under Japanese domination. Japan could then release great numbers of ships and men and launch attacks on a large scale against the coast of the Western Hemisphere, and at the same time extend her conquests to India, Africa and the Near East. “If we stopped sending munitions to the British and the Russians in the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf areas we would help the Nazis to ovenun Turkey. Syria, Iraq. Persia, Egypt, the Suez Canal, and the whole of the coast of North and West Africa, putting Germany within easy striking distance of South America. If by such a fatuous policy we ceased to protect the North Atlantic supply line to Britain and Russia, we would help to cripple the splendid counter-offensive by Russia and we would deprive Britain of essential foodstuffs and munitions. TACTICS OF THE EAGLE. “Those Americans who believed we could live under the illusion of isolationism wanted the American Eagle to imitate the ostrich. Now those same people want our national bird to be turned into a turtle, but we prefer to retain the eagle, flying high and striking hard. “I know I speak for the American people when I say that we reject the turtle policy and will continue increasingly to carry the war to the enemy in distant lands and waters’, as far as possible from our home grounds. “The maintenance of vital lines of communication in the North and South Atlantic, the Indian Ocean, and the South Pacific is a very tough job, requiring tremendous daring and resourcefulness, and ,above all, tremendous production of planes, tanks, and guns, as well as ships to carry them. I speak again for the American people when I say we can, and will, do that job. “Heavy bombers can fly to the South-west Pacific, but smaller planes cannot and must be packed in crates and shipped. Despite the length and difficulties of transportation, we have already a large number of bombers and pursuit planes, manned by American pilots, in daily contact with the enemy in the South-west Pacific, and thousands of American troops are engaged in that area, not only in the air but on the ground. Of the defence of the Philippines, Mr Roosevelt said: “General MacArthur has magnificently exceeded previous estimates, and he and his men are gaining eternal glory. They are making Japan pay an increasingly terrible price for ambitious attempts to control the whole Asiatic world.

GOALS IN PRODUCTION. “All the peoples of the conquered nations and of Asia know that if there is to be an honourable and decent future it depends on victory by the United Nations. If a just and durable peace is to be attained, or even to save our own skins, there is one thought to keep uppermost—fulfilment of our special task in production. Germany, Italy and Japan are very close to their maximum output of planes, guns, tanks and ships. The United Nations are not. especially the United States. Our first job is to build up production to enable us to control the seas and the air not merely with slight superiority but overwhelming superiority. “On January 6 ii set certain definite goals in the production of planes, tanks, guns and ships. ,Axis propagandists called them fantastic. Tonight, nearly two months later, after a careful survey, I can tell you that the goals will definitely be attained. “In every part of the country experts and men and women workers in the plants are given loyal service. We are calling for more plants and additions to old plants, and we arc seeking more men and women to run them. We arc working longer hours. We know now that we can lose this war only if we slow our effort or waste ammunition sniping at each other.” CRITICAL VIEWS INERTIA AND COMPLACENCY. ALLEGED AGAINST PRESIDENT. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.15 a.m.) WASHINGTON, February 24. American comment stresses that the most serious lack in President Roosevelt’s speech is that of any examina-

tion of the domestic situation or effort to answer allegations of delay in achieving the internal organisation necessary for victory. Critics say the President has failed to provide a unified command for the military naval forces, to deal with Labour problems, enemy aliens and fifth columnists, efficiently to organise civilian defence, or to call into the inner circles of the Government new and more efficient figures. Mr Walter Lippman, who has been an unwavering friend of the President, says the bottleneck of bottlenecks is in the White House itself, and in the inertia and complacency of Mr Roosevelt himself, when it is a question of divesting himself of authority and detaching hfinself from friends who are unequal to their task.