GREAT RESPONSE

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 157, 31 December 1940, Page 8

GREAT RESPONSE

PEOPLE OF U.S.A.

TELEGRAMS POUR IN

PRESIDENT PLEASED

LONDON, December 30. President Roosevelt's broadcast last night has brought a greater response from the people of the United States than any speech he has made before. A spokesman at the White House said that telegrams were pouring in to the President. There were about 100 favouring the speech for every one opposed to it.

The President's private secretary, Mr. Stephen Early, said that Mr. Roosevelt was tremendously pleased with the reactions to his address, and especially that it is approved by some of the Republican leaders. He also said that Mr. Roosevelt lunched today with the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Morgenthau, and the head of the British Purchasing Commission. Conferences have also been arranged between the President, the U.S. naval attache, who has just returned to Washington from London, and »Mr. Sumner Welles, United States Assistant Secretary of State.. Reports from Buenos Aires and Mexico City say that the speech is interpreted there as a blunt statement that America stands by democracy. Messages already received show that the United States newspapers have welcomed the speech almost as heartily as it has been received in the British Commonwealth.

A French radio station tonight gave a short summary of the speech, which did not contain Mr, Roosevelt's direct references to the Nazis and their policy. The Germans have allowed the German people to hear very little of the speech at all, and Wilhelmstrasse officials have refused to comment, but the German campaign of threats against the United States has died down.

The junior partners in the Axis have been less cautious. Italy, through Signor Gayda, continues to threaten the United States, and Japan regards the President's statement of policy as permitting the United States to give further assistance to China.

The "New York Times" says that the President has served notice on Germany, Italy, and Japan that he regards them as potential, if not actual, enemies.

A passage in Mr. Roosevelt's broadcast which attracted attention here is that in which he spoke of the position of the smaller States. He made it clear that nothing in the lesson provided by the fate of Austria, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Denmark, Holland, and Belgium has been lost upon the White House.