MUST AID CZECHS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 221, 19 September 1938, Page 10

MUST AID CZECHS.

RO.LE OF DEMOCRACY.

View of Leading American Politician. ALTERNATIVE TO SUBMISSION. United Press Association.—Copyright. WASHINGTON", September IS. In a broadcast address at Los Angeles to the nation, Mr. Key i'lttman, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate, said th;it the (Jovernments which were responsible tor creating Czechoslovakia and pledged their protection to her were morally obliged to aid her. Stilting Unit lie was expressing his |'it.--iiiuil view*. Mr. I'ittiinin added that I Kwert'nl democracies, time and again, had abandoned small democracies*. If Czechoslovakia were ahandoned the small democracies would have one alternative--to retreat and surrender a* it h the Mift democracies, or to accept [careful slavery under military dictators. Since she was earved out of Kurope l.v the Allies (V.eHioslovakia had canied out the principles of democracy, winning democratic peoples' acclaim. Although the United States had no military pacts with Czechoslovakia, continued Mr. Pitt man. she was one of that Republic's principal creators. No saying had been subjected to greater misrepresentation and ridicule than Mr. Woodrow Wilson's, to the effect that the Crcat War was fought to make the

world safe for democracy. Even those with little vision realised that there was an imminent and crucial threat to democracy to-day. Democracies' Continuous Retreat. That threat existed in 1017 when the United States entered the war. By the victory it was postponed. Through the totalitarian governments' steady advance and the democracies' equally continuous retreat and surrender of democratic principles the world had again reached | a crucial issue. Mr. Pittman reminded his listeners that the United States failed—yes, refused—after the Great War to take any part in the advancement and maintenance of peaceful policies based upon the principles of democracy. In a Constitution Day address Mr. Gerald Nye, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of*the Senate, said he learned from good authority that the liner Queen Mary's recent, record run was really a test for war emergency, when the ship would be converted into a transport for American troops. Mr. Nye urged a referendum before America would be able to declare war. America in Event of War. Other Constitution Day addresses were characterised by warnings against the menace of dictatorships both from influences abroad and developments within America. President Roosevelt was attacked by those who fear departures from the Constitution. Mr. Roosevelt, in a speech, said America's greatest leaders had been those who were able to apply the Constitution to changing conditions. He confined his discussion to constitutional problems, his only reference to Europe being! "It is with deep personal disappointment that I find the affairs of the world such that I cannot be *jth my neighbours at Poughkeepsie to-day."

The Governor of New York, Mr. H. H. Lehmann, speaking in the same prozramme, caused great surprise when he launched a bitter attack on dictatorships.