TRIBUTES PAID TO ROOSEVELT

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24545, 19 April 1945, Page 5

TRIBUTES PAID TO ROOSEVELT

“Great Champion Of Freedom"

MR CHURCHILL’S EULOGY

(8.0. W.) RUGBY, April 17. A tribute to Mr Roosevelt was paid in the House of Commons to-day by Mr Churchill, who moved to pray the King that in communicating his own sentiments of grief to the United States Government, he would also graciously be pleased to express on the part of the House the House’s sense of loss which the British Commonwealth and Empire, and the cause of the Allied Nations had sustained, and their profound sympathy with Mrs Roosevelt and the late President’s family and with the Government and people of the United States. The Prime Minister said that since th« war began he and the late President had exchanged more than 1700 messages. “The majority dealt with those more difficult points which had to be discussed between the heads of the Governments only after Anal solutions had not been reached at other places,” continued Mr Churchill. “To this correspondence must be added our nine meetings, comprising in all about 120 days of close personal contact. I felt the utmost confidence in his upright, inspiring character and outlook, and my personal regard and affection are beyond my power to express to-day. “His love of his own country, his respect for its constitutions, his power of gauging the tides and currents of its mobile public oninion. all this was evidenced. But added to this were the bearings of that generous heart, vjhich was always stirred to anger and action by spectacles of aggression and oppression by the strong against the weak. It is a bitter loss, indeed, for humanity that these heartbeats are still for ever. Physical Affliction Overcome

"Mr Roosevelt’s physical affliction lay heavily upon him. It is a marvel that he bore up against it in all the many years of his tumultuous life. Not one man in 10,000,000, stricken and crippled as be was, would have attempted to plunge into a life of ex* ercise and bard, ceaseless political controversy. Not one in 10,000,000 would have tried, and not one in a generation would have succeeded. Not only in entering this sphere, not only in acting vehemently in it, he became indisputably master of the scene. ‘Tn this extraordinary triumph of spirit over flesh and will power over physical Infirmity, he was inspired and sustained by that noble woman, his devoted wife, whose high ideals marched with his own. and to whom the deep, respectful sympathy of the House of Commons to-dav flows out in all fullness. "There is no doubt that Mr Roosevelt foresaw the great danger closing in upon the pre-war world with far more prescience than most well-in-formed people on the other side of the Atlantic, and he urged with all bis power military preparation before peace-time activities could be brought to expansion. There was never a moment’s doubt, as the quarrel opened, on which side his sympathies lay. The fall of France, and what seemed to most oeople outside. of these islands, the impending destruction of Great Britain, were to him agony. “Although he never lost faith there was also great anxiety because of the serious perils to which the United States herself would have been exposed had we been overwhelmed or the survivors cast down under the German yoke. The bearing of -the British nation in that time of stress, when we were all alone, filled him and the members of his war mission with the warmest sentiments towards our people. He and they felt the blitz from 1940 to 1941, when Hitler set himself to rob out the cities of our country, as much as any of us did. and perhaps more, indeed. Invasion Danger

“There was also at that time, In spite of Field-Marshal Wavell’s victories—all the more, indeed, because of the reinforcements which were sent from this country to him—apprehension widespread m the United States that we should be invaded by Germany after the fullest preparations for the invasion of 1941. “About that time he devised an extraordinary measure of assistance called lend-lease, whifh will stand forth as the most unselfish, unsordid financial act of any country in all history. The effect of this was greatly to increase the British fighting power and for all purposes of the war effort, to make us, as it were, a much more numerous community. “In the autumn I met the President for the first time during the war in Newfoundlend, and together we drew up the declaration which has since been called the Atlantic Charter, and which will, I trust, long remain a guide for both our peoples and the other peoples of the world. All this time, in deep, dark, deadly secrecy, the Japanese were preparing their act of treachery and greed. When next we met in Washington, the Japanese had declared war and both our countries were in arms, shoulder to shoulder. Since then we have advanced over land and sea, through many difficulties and disappointments, but always with a broadening measure of success. “At Yalta I noticed that the President was ailing. His captivating smile and his gay, charming manner had not deserted him, but his face had. a transparency, an air of purification, and often there was a far away look in his eye*. When I took my leave ol him at Alexandria I must confess that I had an undefinable sense of fear that his health and strength were on the ebb. "Inflexible Sense of Duty" “Nothing altered his inflexible sense of duty. To the very end he faced his tasks unflinchingly. As the saying goes, he died in harness, and, I may well say, in battle harness like his soldiers, sailors, and airmen, who. side by side with ourselves, are carrying out our tasks to the end in all parts of the world. * ~ _ “What an enviable death was his. He had brought his country through the worst of its perils. Victory had cast its shining beam upon him. He had broadened and stabilised In the days of peace the foundations of American life and union. In war he had raised the strength, mind, and glory of the great Republic to a height never attained by any nation in hi-tory, With her left hand she was leading the advance of our conquering Allied armies into the heart of Germany. With her rignt, at the other side of the globe, she was Irresistibly and swiftly breaking the power of Japan, and all the time chips, munitions, and food supplies of every kind were aiding, on a gigantic scale, all her Allies, great and small, in the course of the struggle. “He has left behind him a band of resolute, able men handling numerous inter-related parts of the vast American war machine. He has left a successor who comes forward with a firm step and sure conviction to carry on the task to its appointed end. For us it. remains only to say that in Franklin Roosevelt there died the greatest American friend we have ever known, and the greatest champion of freedom who ever brought help and comfort from the New World to the Old,’

SPANISH CENSORSHIP BAN LIFTED

LONDON, April 17. The Spanish Foreign Minister (Senor Lequerica) announced in Madrid that Spain, lor the first tune since 1936, has abolished all censorship ol news leaving Spain. He told a meeting of foreign correspondents, who were obviously staggered, that they would henceforth be able to send from Spam whatever they pleased about Spain and Spanish affairs. Messages could be lodged direct with the cable companies. Censorship would,, for the time being, remain for tile domestic newspapers, radio, and films. ,