FEAR NOW FACT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 112, 13 May 1940, Page 8

FEAR NOW FACT

U.S. GUARDIANSHIP

WESTERN CULTURE;

SPACE ELIMINATED

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.)

NEW YORK, May 10.

President Roosevelt j addressing the Pan-American Scientific Congress, said: "All here are heavyhearted at the tragic news that three more independent nations have cruelly been invaded by force of arms.

"The whole world has seen attack follow threat on so many occasions in the last few years that we have come to the reluctant conclusion.

that a conti|taance of these processes of arms presents a definite challenge to the continuation of the type of civilisation to which all of us in the free Americas are accustomed. "The dim, unpleasant possibility that other Continents might become so involved in wars brought on by a school of destruction that the Americas might have to become the guardian of western culture and the protector of Christian civilisation was ' then merely a fear. ' . "Today that fear has become a fact, and the inheritance which, we hoped ito share with the whole world is momentarily left largely in our keeping. It is our compelling duty to guard and enrich that legacy and preserve it for the world which must be reborn from the ashes of the present disaster. "Today we know, that till recent weeks too many citizens of the Americas believed themselves wholly safe from the impact of the attacks against civilisation which were progressing elsewhere; yet, speaking in terms of the moving of men, guns, planes, and bombs, every American acre *is y closer to the homes of modern conquerors' scenes of attacks in Europe than was the case in historic efforts to dominate the world in bygone centuries. DISTANCES COMPARED. "From the viewpoint of conquests it is a shorter distance from Europe to San Francisco than it was for the ships and legions of Caesar to move from Rome to Spain or to Britain. Today it is four or five hours from the continent of Africa to the continent of South, America, where it was four or five weeks for the armies of Napoleon to move from Paris to Rome or to Poland. ■ - "Those who seek to dominate vast, continental areas, if successful, will, we must now admit, enlarge, their wild dream to encompass every human being and every mile of the earth's surface. . , "The most immediate issue that the Americas are facing is, can we continue our peaceful construction if all other continents embrace by preference or by compulsion a wholly different principle of life? "I am a pacifist; you «re pacifists,' but we believe, through. overwhelming majorities, that in the long run, if necessary,'we will act together to protect our culture, freedom, and civilisation." - Ninety per cent, of thousands ol telegrams favour President Roosevelt's speech. MESSAGE TO KING LEOPOLD. The President has sent a message to King Leopold in response to the icing's appeal for moral support. - . "As I stated last night in an address to the representatives of American republics," said Mr. Roosevelt's message, "the cruel invasion by force of arms of the independent nations of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxemburg has shocked and angered the people of the United States,-and, I feel sure, their neighbours in the Western Hemisphere. The people of the United States hope, as I do, that policies which seek to dominate peaceful-and independent peoples by force of military aggression may be arrested, and that the Government and people of Belgium may preserves their integrity and freedom." . ~ The Department of Agriculture said that the invasion of the Low Countries threatens a market which took 10 per cent, of the' United States farm exports last year, valued at 66,000,000 dollars, including 45 per cent, of United States wheat exports. The invasion also threatens to cut off an important source of British food. President Roosevelt has invoked the Neutrality Act against Belgium, the. Netherlands, and Luxemburg.