MORE HELP FOR BRITAIN

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 December 1940, Page 7

MORE HELP FOR BRITAIN

APPEAL TO MR. ROOSEVELT

MAKE AXIS DEFEAT CERTAIN

[by. CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.]

LONDON, December 26.

Mr. Roosevelt is expected to make an important statement on American aid to Britain in a nation-wide broadcast on Sunday. The President’s secretary, Me. Stephen Early, told reporters that he thought the President would, in Sunday’s speech, be very specific on the subject of aid to Britain, and would probably deal completely with efforts to speed up the production of war material.

Although he declined to quote figures, Mr. Early said that American production would reach a peak in the spring of 1942, but if Britain held out until 1941, what America could produce was the best possible assurance .of her victory. The first orders placed by Brita ; > in America were, he said, now beginning to arrive, r - More than 150 prominent people have jointly telegraphed their complete approval of Mr. Roosevelt’s plan to lend or lease armament t<> Britain. They have asked Mr. Roosevelt to inform' the nation “clearly and boldly of the possibilities of English failure, and the consequences for us, our children, and our children’s children should Britain fail. We ask you to make it the settled policy of the United States to do everything necessary to ensure the defeat of the Axis, and thus encourage here and everywhere resistance against the plausible but fatal arguments for appeasement. We ask you to tell us, what we believe to be the truth, that the war materials and the military and naval strength we now have, and the material we can produce, are enough to make defeat of the Axis certain while Britain is on her feet fighting, but that with Britain down they would not be enough, and may not in future be increased enough, to hold the whole world at bay.” The signatories of the appeal comprised editors, lawyers, authors, actors, and educational, religious, and Labour leaders. They include the president of Columbia University (Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler), Dorothy Thompson, the famous columnist, a former president of Yale University, and Mrs. Dwight Morrow, moth-er-in-law of Colonel Charles Lindbergh, America’s foremost advocate of appeasement.

The Washington correspondent of the “New York Times” says official sources said it was possible that the seizure of foreign ships in American ports, including Danish, German, and Italian vessels, had cleared the legal and financial hurdles. Only a policy statement by Mr. Roosevelt and the State Department was necessary. Whether Mr. Roosevelt would announce the decision by radio was a matter of conjecture, but informed quarters were of the opinion that a policy decision would be delayed. SENATORS’ PEACE MOVE. NEW BRUNSWICK, December 26. Mr. Roosevelt, in a message to the International Student Service Conference, declared: “The prolonged conflict between two ideologies of life is becoming a struggle to the death between power and might on the one hand and the freedom of man on the other. The outcome cannot be doubted if youth put their minds and hearts to the task. Victory calls for every bit of courage and self-sacrifice this generation possesses.”

Senator A. H. Vandenberg, in predicting an ultimate negotiated peace, urged America to address inquiries to all concerned, which would be “particularly effective if the obvious price of refusal was a just and realistic formula of our own powerfully enlarged activity.” Senator Rush Holt, in a broadcast, asked Mr. Roosevelt to bring Britain and Germany to a peace table, “Some may call this appeasement. I call it common sense.” MR. HULL QUESTIONED. (Recd. December 28, 11 a.m.) WASHINGTON, December 27. Mr. Hull, asked about the possibility of American mediation for a negotiated peace, for which the isolationists, at present are plugging, replied that he would make no comment for the present. Previously, Mr. Roosevelt had replied similarly to an identical question. It is expected that Mr. Roosevelt may answer this mediation talk during his broadcast on Sunday. • PURSUIT PLANES. (Recd. December 28, 11 a.m.) WASHINGTON, December 27. Mr. Roosevelt told the Press Conference Committee for Industrial Or ■ ganisation, that a proposal designed eventually to produce 500 pursuit planes daily, is being seriously studied. LINCOLN PICTURES. RUGBY, December 26. The First Lord of the Admiralty received from Colonel Frank Knox, United States Navy Secretary, two pictures of Abraham Lincoln, one to be hung in the ward room of H.M.S. “Lincoln,” one of the destroyers recently transferred to the Royal Navy from the United States Navy, and the other in the First Lord’s room in the Admiralty.- With the pictures, the First Lord received the following letter from Colonel ‘ Knox: “I have learned with great satisfaction that you have named one of the former American destroyers, and now part of the British Navy, ‘Lincoln.’ Surely in a war being fought for preservation of human liberty, no more significantly appropriate name could have been chosen. I am sending you by the hand of the first Naval Officer who may be assigned to London as observer, two pictures of Lincoln, one of which I hope may be hung on the walls of the ward room, and the other for yourself. With sincere, heartfelt wishes, I am, yours cordially, Frank Knox.” The First Lord, in reply, wrote:. “It gave me great pleasure to receive from the hand of Commander Hitchcock your-kind gift of pictures. I shall treasure mine most deeply, and I know that the officers and men of H.M.S. ‘Lincoln’ will give their's pride of place on the walls of the ward room. No gift from you could have been more happily chosen, expressing as it does, your sympathy in the struggle for the preservation oi human liberty, a cause to which Lincoln devoted his life. I hope you wil

do me the honour of accepting an old, rare, coloured naval print, which I forward under separate cover by the bearer of this letter. With my best thanks and cordial greetings, yours sincerely, A. V. Alexander.”