The Wanganui Chronicle THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1939. PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S SECOND OUTBURST

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 45, 23 February 1939, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1939. PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S SECOND OUTBURST

piiESIDENT ROOSEVELT surprised the world when lie went out deliberately to attack the Dictator States because his statement was made at a time of eomparattive quiet in Europe. President Roosevelt's statement, however, did not proceed from a consideration of world conditions, but from more local promptings and the President, before leaving on the cruiser Florida at Key West, said that “the Americas were uniting in the common aspiration to defend and maintain their self-govern-ing way of life.” He also called upon the countries of tlfc western hemisphere “Io lift democracy high above the ugly truculence of autocracy.” The. vision of Roosevelt at the moment is limited to the Americas. The limited nature of the viewpoint may, at first, appear to be disappointing, but a closer inspection of the American scene reveals that this limitation is not only understandable but is also, from a tactical point of view, desirable, for Roosevelt must ever be on guard against raising up against himself those who are forever, and under all circumstances, prepared to proclaim: “Keep clear of European entanglements.” Roosevelt is credited with the desire to run for a third term of the Presidency. He is also believed to be the most acute observer of public opinion in America. It would, perhaps, be unfair to attribute his most recent pronouncement wholly to his desire to enlist the patriotic fervour in support, of himeelf, but, it is one of those personal equations which should not be left out. of acco tint. That Fascism, or Nazism, whichever name is preferred, is a very real menace to the liberties of the American people there is no little room for doubt, seeing that the totalitarians have staged a demonstration in Madison Square. Garden. The gathering has undoubtedly done good in that it has brought within American doors a demonstration similar to that which Americans witnessed in the distance when the Lima Conference was held a few months since. Did Roosevelt speak with the. then forthcoming Madison Square Garden demonstration in mind? It is, indeed, possible. There is. however, yet another probable explanation and that is American and English oil interests in Mexico have, been virtually taken over by German interests without a shot being tired on either side. That such a development was possible was foreseen by competent American observers years ago. Car] Ackerman, now dean of Columbia University’s School of Journalism, wrote thus in the Saturday Evening Post in 191'7: “The Germans to-day are working quietly with but one object: They know that after the war, when the real fight for raw materials and commercial supremacy will begin, the greatest possibilities for Germany lie in Mexico.” In October, 193.5, the New York Times published an interview with Mexico’s President Cardenas by R. L. Martin, wherein Cardenas stated th. t “foreign interests holding concessions for Mexican mines, oil fields, and so on, by agreement with administrations prior to mine, will not be molested, but rather will be allowed to continue the exploitation of these properties unchallenged and to expand their interests if they so desire .... My last word to foreigners contemplating investment in Mexico is: Do not be afraid. There is nothing to fear and much to be gained.”

Mr. Martin, the interviewer, writes more recently: “Leftwing voices in the Palace corridors already were mrfch subdued by October, 1935, and it is wholly probable that the pressure for confiscation came from new and unheralded friends, somehow calculated to profit by it. ... . The Radical-Labour groups, led by Lombardo Toledano, have, perhaps, been only too eager tools in

its application. ” President Cardenas has been inviting American politicians and their wives to visit Mexico as his guests and an effort is being made to enlist an American Party in support of Mexico’s confiscatory policy, which cuts across Cardena’s previous protestations. So, through Mexico, America is first robbed and then ideologically attacked. The Madison Square Garden demonstration can, therefore, be regarded as the latest phase of the attack. The attack which has long been planned, and which was advanced by those highly-placed personages who were allowed to return to America before the American administration Hared to initiate its spy drive, is coming more into the open to-day. It is already open in its intervention in Mexico and South America, and President Roosevelt realised that it will not for long remain outside the borders of the United States of Amerie»-