LATE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 172, 18 April 1939, Page 6

LATE NEWS

POWERFUL ACT OF POLICY Dictators Put “On The Spot” ROOSEVELT’S PEACE PLEA Outbreak Of War Made Less Likely By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. ( Received April IS, 1.10 a.m.) WASHINGTON, April 17. The South American republics and Canada tonight endorsed President Roosevelt’s appeal. It is also learned authoritatively that the independent European countries which are more or less threatened by aggression informed the President of their support. The messages, however, have not been made public in order not to embarrass them. The widespread impression here that the plea has put the dictators “on the spot” is reflected in a declaration by President Arosamena. of Panama that “only minds set against the interests of world peace can formulate objections against the message.” The “New York Times,” anticipating the rejection of the appeal by Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini, comments: “President Roosevelt’s initiative can not properly be regarded as having failed if it has merely failed to achieve something unachieveable. The dictators’ record is too full of broken promises for a pledge to keep the peace by either of them to alter the fundamentals of the present position. “There are more realistic standards by which to judge the results of the President’s initiative. He sought to identify unmistakably the aggressors in advance of a war and to rally world opinion on the side of. the victims of aggression. He has accomplished both purposes. Moreover, he may have made the outbreak of war less likely through his warning to the dictators that the risks involved are greater than they may assume they are —the greater because the victims of German and Italian aggression can count on at least immense moral support everywhere throughout the world.” Powerful Indictment. The “New York Herald Tribune” comments: “It is not an accident that the President’s message was so worded that, if it is not accepted at its face value by the dictators, it will stand as an indictment of their policy, as a powerful act of diplomatic policy (backup by the fleet’s recall) in cementing the Anglo-French coalition as a warning to the axis Powers and so as a practical contribution to the prolongation of peace by the only method (power politics) which the axis Powers have admitted to have validity.

“It may not succeed. It involves a certain, though small, risk of a further American entanglement, hut the maintenance of peace today is a matter of such importance to the United States, as also to the rest of the world, that some risks seem plainly justified.”

The President was at his desk in the White House throughout .Sunday. The Secretary of State, Mr. Cordell Hull, wois consulting with departmental officials all day, and is reported to have discussed the possibility of a Japanese move coinciding with European developments. High naval officers conferred at the Navy Department, where it4s semiofficially confirmed that the fleet movement was a precautionary measure in the light of the Far Eastern situation.