MR. ROOSVELT'S FAITH IN BRITAIN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 309, 30 December 1940, Page 8

MR. ROOSVELT'S FAITH IN BRITAIN

BASIS FOR VIEW.

Peace Proposals Flatly Rejected. United Press Association. —Copr " -. (Reed. 3 p.m.) WASHINGTON. Dec. 29. President Roosevelt told the nation that if Britain was defeated the United States would be living: at the point of the pun. He added that the United States nn'.it be the great arsenal of democracy.

He expressed tlie bc-iief that the "Axis Powers are not going to win this war." He declared that this assertion was based 011 tlie latest and best information.

The President said the United States has "110 riplit or reason to encourage talk of peace until the day shall come when there is a clear intention on the part of the aggressor nations to abandon all thought of dominating or conquering the world." " " Living At Point of ?6un." "Tf Britain goes down the Axis Powers will control t.he Continents of Europe. Asia. Africa. Australasia and the high seas, and will be in a position to bring enormous military and naval resources against this hemisphere. "It is no exaggeration to say that all of us in the Americas will be living at the point of a gun loaded with explosive bullets, economic as well as lnilita rv. Saying that a British defeat would bring a new and terrible era for the whole world. Mr. Roosevelt added that to survive in such a world of brute force tlie United States would have to become a permanently militaristic Power. •"Frankly and definitely there is a danger ahead against which we must pre]tare. We well know we can't escape danger by crawling into bed and pulling up the covers over our heads." Asserting that pome European countries which had non-intervention pacts with Germany had been attacked and overrun and thrown into a modern form of slavery, he added: "The fate of these tells us what it means to live at the point of a Nazi gun. The Nazis have justified these actions bv various pious frauds. One is the occupying of a nation for the purpose of restoring order; another is protecting against aggression by somebody else. Would Germany hesitate to* act similarly towards any South American countrv: