The Evening Star SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1938. WISE WORDS.

Evening Star, Issue 23101, 29 October 1938, Page 16

The Evening Star SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1938. WISE WORDS.

If wise words could cure tlie world’s ills there would be • better hope than exists of a speedy end to dangers that assail it. President Roosevelt has been speaking words of wisdom that are a direct rebuke to certain Fascist principles. Lord Halifax, the Foreign Minister of Great'Britain, was doing so the other day, and attention has been drawn to striking similarities between the two speeches. Mr Roosevelt defined democratic ideals as those have been described in British statements a thousand times. Lord Halifax did the same when he said that “the world Britain desired to sec was one in which all nations could exist side by side, their just rights respected by all and their differences resolved by free discussion—a world in which men, women, and children could live decent lives, no longer haunted by the dread spectre of war.” For the rest, Mr Roosevelt laid more stress on those principles of the Fascist Powers that are anathema to democracy, but he did not suggest, any more than the Foreign Minister, that such principles should be made a cause of quarrel by others so long as they were confined to the Fascist rulers’ own countries. A distinction was made by him which was implicit also in Lord Halifax’s address—else why the insistence upon interim rearmament which made part of it?—when be said: “ We in the United States do not seek to impose oil any other people either our way of life or our internal form of government, but we are determined to maintain and protect that way of fife and form of government for ourselves.” And he might have been echoing the British Minister, solicitous for an understanding even with Nazidom, when he concluded with an appeal for greater unity among the nations, for peace and restraint, and for negotiation and community effort. Unfortunately, for wise words to have effect it is necessary that they should be heard by unbelievers whom it is essential to convert as well as by believers. That will not happen to the President’s speech. Fascist principles stand in the way. The address, we are told, has been forbidden publication in Germany. For Italian consumption it has tjeen abbreviated. Because, no doubt, of its different balance of emphasis, Lord Halifax’s speech was welcomed in Berlin. Two other speeches of Americans made in the last few weeks are not likely to have been read there—except by censors. Mr Bullitt, the United States Ambassador to France, in the course'of an address to Parisians, said; 44 We know that, when all nations begin to use every available dollar of national income for the production of weapons of war, it is impossible to raise general standards of living that exist, and that it is difficult to preserve either economic equilibrium or financial stability.” Mr Kennedy, Ambassador to Britain, said: “ We must give our young men and women who are just coming of age something else to hope for than a short life carrying a gun.” The similarity of British and American reactions to startling events enforces the conclusion drawn by a British journal; 14 No matter what theorists, politicians, or agitators may contend, the drive and weight of world events are irresistible. Almost against their will the peoples who intend the same things are being lined up on the same side.” There are, of course, exceptions to the rule. President Roosevelt has said too much for many Americans, and thousands of British pacifists are shocked profoundly by the action of Mr Chamberlain which averted a -world war. /There are other persons, even in democratic countries, who find it hard to imagine why political opinions that differ from their own should be allowed any sort of publicity. But most British folk and most Americans are alike in tin's respect, that they detest Fascism and detest war, and would not make their hatred of one a cause for rushing into the other if that can be' avoided.