WOULD DO HARM.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 17, 31 October 1940, Page 5

WOULD DO HARM.

IF. U.S.A. ENTERED THE WAR.

ADVICE OF AMBASSADOR.

MONTREAL, October 29

The United States Ambassador to Britain (Mr Joseph P. Kennedy) wlio is now in the United States* in a broadcast, supported Mr Roosevelt’s re-election. He said that the charge that the President was attempting to involve the United States in war was false. “Criticism of the Munich Pact is. unjustified,” said Mr Kennedy. “Mr Chamberlain and nearly everyone in Britain knew that Munich was but an armistice .... What would have happened to Britain if the blitzkrieg of 1940 had occurred in September 1938?” Mr Kennedy said he was more convinced than ever that America should keep aloof from the war. The American people were overwhelmingly in favour of avoiding war and at the same time giving all aid short of war to Britain.

“No more harmful stop could he taken from the viewpoint of Britain than our declaration of war . . . .

Britain’s valiant fight is giving us time to prepare.. Without assistance from us, Britain would find it much more difficult to carry on.

“I have seen an outnumbered but brave band of Royal Air Force airmen and about 20 miles of water keep back the German invader . . . While the British Navy remains unconquered and the British nation continues ■ to fight a gallant battle for the existence of its ancient democratic way of life, we are giv-cn time, precious time, so that wo can make ourselves strong. The British Fleet, therefore, is highly important to our national existence. “Those of us who know the stuff of which Mr Churchill, and the British leaders are made, those of us who know the courage and the calibre of the officers and men of the Royal Navy, can feel completely assured. The surrendering of the Fleet to Hitler is a thought so fantastic as to be beyond basic belief. “Democracies such as the United States and Britain are difficult to rally when they are neither desperate nor frightened. Even after she learned that Germany was ‘ arming to the teeth ’ Britain proceeded confidently but leisurely to the task of getting prepared.

. . . All elements in Britain were short-sighted in their failure to appreciate the peril and to prepare accordingly.”