“GROWING THREAT TO FREEDOM”

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25447, 19 March 1948, Page 7

“GROWING THREAT TO FREEDOM”

Mr Truman said: “I am here to-day to report on the critical nature of the Stuation in Europe and to recommend ation. Rapid changes are taking place is Europe which affect our foreign policy and our national security, There U an increasing threat to the nations which are striving to maintain a form « government which grants freedom to Its citizens. "Tne United States is deeply concerned with the survival of freedom in these nations. It is of vital importance that we act now in order to preserve conditions under which we tin achieve lasting peace, based on freedom and justice. The achievement of such a peace has been the great gal of this nation. ‘Almost three years have elapsed lines the end of the greatest of all Wats, but peace and stability have not returned to the world. We were well aware that the end of the fighting would not automatically settle problems arising from the war, but the atuation in the world to-day is not primarily a result of the natural dlffir cdties which follow a great war. It a chiefly due to the tact that one nation has net onlv refused to cooperate in the establishment of a just and honourable peace but—even worse -hss actively sought to ptevent it. "Congress is familiar with the course

of events. You know of the sincere, patient attempts of the democratic nations to find a secure basis for peace through negotiation and agreement. Conference after conference has been held in different parts of the world. We have tried to settle questions arising from the war on a basis which would permit the establishment of a just peace. “You know the obstacles we have encountered. But the record stands as a monument of the good faith and integrity of the democratic nations. “The agreements we did obtain, imperfect though they were, could have furnished the basis for a just peace—if they had been kept. But they were not kept. They have been persistently ignored and violated by one nation. “Congress is also familiar with developments concerning the united Nations. Most of the world countries have joined together in the United Nations in an attempt to build a world order based on law and not on force. Most members support the United Nations earnestly and honestly, and seek to make it stronger and more effective.

“One nation, however, has persistently obstructed the work of the United Nations by a constant abuse of the veto. That nation has vetoed 21 proposals for-action in little over two years.