LINDBERGH LEADS ANTI-WAR RALLY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 184, 5 August 1940, Page 7

LINDBERGH LEADS ANTI-WAR RALLY.

VIOLENT REACTION. Official Counter-Blast For Conscription. DANGER TO THE WEST. United Prees Association.—Copyright. (Received 10 a.ar.) CHICAGO, August 4. Colonel Charles Lindbergh attended a veterans' anti-war rally in Chicago and gave a radio address from a mass meeting organised by the "Citizens to Keep America Out of the War Committee." Meanwhile a radio counter-blast in favour of conscription was launched by the Secretary of the Navy, Colonel Frank Knox, who said that conscription was essential for defence of th» western hemisphere. "If Britain's seapower is broken or seized, the Atlantic ceases to be a barrier and becomes an express highway for hostilities." He asserted that an Axis victory would inevitably result in a Hitler bid to obtain the wealth of raw materials of the Americas.

Mr. R. Porter Patterson, Assistant Secretary, also made a radio appeal. "We are committed to defend the hemisphere from Point Barrow, north of Alaska, to Tierra del Fuego, on the southern tip of South America," he said. "The only way is compulsory military training.". Bulwark of the British Fleets. Colonel Adler, who is civilian aide to the Secretary of War, Mr. H. L. Stimson, said in a broadcast: "If the British Fleets are scattered and seized what is to stop Hitler bringing his armies of tanke and guns to the western hemisphere T "Even with Europe in his grip he will need the raw materials of the Americas. He will try to obtain them by economic and political penetration, and if he fails he will try force." The Chicago "Daily News" bitterly attacks the Lindbergh rally as defeatist and disloyal. "Headliners" _ (meaning Lindbergh) "are only a m'inor part of the real show which is surreptitiously encouraged by the 'counterfeit' 'German-Ameri-can National Alliance' and similar organisations," says the paper. "We may be sure that Goebbels is interested."

It states that pro-Nazi organisations were urged to attend the meeting.

OFFER TO EUROPE AMERICA AND PEACE. Lindbergh Admits His View Of War Is " Different." ADDRESS TO HUGE RALLY. (Received 1.30 p.m.) CHICAGO, August 4. Colonel Lindbergh, addressing the peace rally of 50,000 people, asserted that foreign and domestic interests were endeavouring to draw the United States into the European war. He urged that the United States "rearm fully for defence," and also take the leadership in a move for peace. "Let us offer Europe a plan for progress and the protection of western civilisation, of which they and we each form a part," he said. Colonel Lindbergh asserted that United States opinion was now definitely and overwhelmingly against involvement in war. He said the time had arrived for the United States to consider its relationship with post-war Europe. He advocated non-interference in European internal affairs, but was of the opinion that it was of the utmost importance for the United States to co-operate with Europe. Colonel Lindbergh said a war between the two hemispheres could easily last for generations and bring all civilisation tumbling down. Co-operatioß and Treaties. "We are often told," he said, "that if Germany wins the war co-operation will be impossible and treaties mere scraps of paper. I reply that co-opera-tion ie never impossible when there is sufficient gain on both sides, and 'treaties are seldom torn apart when they do not cover a weak nation.

"I believe we should rearm fully for the defence of America, and never make the type of treaty which would lay us open to invasion if it were broken, l>ut if we refuse to consider treaties with the dominant nation of Europe, rejrardless of wbo that may be, we remove all possibility of peace.. "I have a different outlook toward ! Europe- than most people in America," he continued. "I am told T must not stand too strongly njrninst the trend of the times, and that to be effective what , one says must meet with general an- ! proval. I prefer to say what I believe !or not speak at all. I do not offer my J opinion as an expert, but rather as a I citizen who is alarmed at the position j our country has reached ia this era of ' expert*, ,, i