"A LOVELY HOPE"

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 49, 26 August 1939, Page 9

"A LOVELY HOPE"

PROSPECTS OF PEACE

ROOSEVELT'S IRONY

THE NEUTRALITY LAW

(Received August 26, 9 a.m.)

WASHINGTON, August 25

President Roosevelt said at a Press conference: "There is still hope that war may be averted in Europe, and because hope still exists I cannot make any decision now in connection with the calling of a special session of Congress to consider revising the neutrality law." However, he made it clear that he regards the current situation as one of the utmost gravity.

He said he believed he had made the position clear regarding a special session when he had said at Hyde Park on August 11 that he would not call Congress together until it became clear that war was imminent.

"There seems to be some confusion," he said, "about the word imminent." He said he had always felt that the word carried the connotation of certainty and he would not regard the present situation as being certain to result in war. It seemed to him that there was nothing to be said further than that regarding a special session.

A touch of irony crept into the President's tone as he described the prospects of peace as a "lovely hope." He said he had no information in addition to that possessed by newspapermen in arriving at his feeling that there still existed a lovely hope that there would be no war.

Turning to the effect of a possible European war on the United States, Mr. Roosevelt said that Government Departments and agencies had been at work since September, 1938, establishing machinery to cushion the effect of a foreign conflict.