DEFENCE NEEDS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21195, 19 August 1940, Page 9

DEFENCE NEEDS

AMERICA’S PRESIDENCY

REPUBLICAN NOMINATION MR W. WILLKIE'S VIEWS (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) NEW YORK, August IT In a speech at Elwood, Indiana, accepting the Republican nomination for the Presidency, Mr Wendell Willkie stated that no man could guarantee to maintain peace. It was neither practical nor desirable to adopt a foreign programme committing the United States to future action under unknown circumstances. “We must not shirk the necessity of preparing our sons to take care of themselves in case the defence of America leads to war,” Mr Willkie said. "I cannot ask the American people to put their faith m me without recording my conviction that some form of selective service is the only democratic way to secure trained manpower for national defence. “We must honestly face our relationship with Britain and must admit that the loss of the British Fleet would greatly weaken our defence, leaving the Atlantic dominated by Germany—a Power hostile to our way of life—and controlling, in that event, most of the ships and shipbuilding facilities of Europe. Viewed With Consternation "If we had to trade with a Europe dominated by present German trade policies, we might have to change our methods to some totalitarian form. This prospect any lover of democracy must view with consternation.” Mr Willkie agreed with President Roosevelt’s policy of extending the material resources of the nation to the opponents of force, but did not understand this as applying military involvement in the present hostilities. “I do not follow the President’s conduct of affairs in this critical time,” Mr Willkie continued. “There have been occasions when many wondered if he was deliberately inciting us to war. In defence of America and of our liberties, I would not hesitate to stand for war, but, like a great many other Americans, I saw what war was like at firsthand in 1917. I know what war can do to demoralise the civil liberties of the home. “I believe it is the first duty of the President to try to maintain peace, but Mr Roosevelt has not done this. Mr Roosevelt has dabbled in inflamatory statements and manufactured panics. The President’s attacks on foreign Powers have been useless and dangerous. They have courted a war, for which the country is hopelessly unprepared, and which it does not want. “Mr Roosevelt has secretly interfered in the affairs of Europe and has even unscrupulously encouraged other countries to hope for more help than we are able to give. He has been slow to take the American people into his confidence.

“As President, I would plan to reverse both these policies. I should threaten foreign Governments only when our country is threatened by them and when I am ready to act, and I should consider our diplomacy as part of the people’s business, concerning which they are entitled to prompt and frank reports to the limit of practicability.

“The first task of our country internationally is to become strong at home. Our way of life is in competition with Hitler’s. I promise, by returning to those sane American principles that overcame German autocracy once before, both in business and war, to out-distance Hitler in any contest he chooses, in 1940 or after.”

Mr Willkie attacked at length the New Deal, which he said had divided the nation. He declared: “I stand for a new companionship in industrial society.”