GRAVE WARNING?

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 84, 11 April 1939, Page 9

GRAVE WARNING?

ROOSEVELT REMARK.

Return To Warm Springs "If We

Don't Have War."

SIGNIFICANCE OF STATEMENT.

United Press Association.—Copyright.

XEW YORK, April 10.

"I will be back in the autumn — if we don't have a war," said President Roosevelt, standing on the rear platform of his train, to a crowd gathered at Warm Springs station, Georgia, as the President prepared to return to Washington after his holiday. Mr. Roosevelt did not utter another word. The crowd waited speechless and motionless for a further explanation of what Mr. Roosevelt meant, but he turned, still smiling, and entered his private car, leaving the crowd of journalists to place their own Interpretation on his remarks. There Vas no hint whether Mr. Roosevelt was voicing concern only lest Europe might be involved in war or whether he feared that the United States also was threatened with involvement, but his use of the word "we" seemed to indicate the latter. At any rate there is no doubt of the reality of Mr. Roosevelt's concern about the developments in Europe. The "Xew York Times" Washington correspondent says it is learned from sources close to Mr. Roosevelt that it is the collective judgment of ranking American observers in Europe, as given to Mr. Roosevelt by transatlantic telephone, that war on the Continent is extremely probable within a few weeks. The correspondent of the "Xew York Times" comments: "Accidentally or by design, each elucidation recently of the President's attitude on the struggle between the European democracies and the dictatorships has followed immediately upon some overt move by ov against the Rome-Berlin axis: so much so that observers are forced to conclude Mr. Roosevelt is determined to lend whatever support he can—short of outright reprisals—to the 'Stop Hitler' movement."