BLUNT ANSWER

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20379, 16 October 1940, Page 5

BLUNT ANSWER

AXIS THREATS ROOSEVELT’S SPEECH FULL AID TO BRITAIN POLICY OF DEFENCE EMPIRE PRESS PRAISE (Elec. Tol. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 9 a.m. RUGBY, Oct. 14. President Roosevelt’s broadcast on Saturday, following closely on the recent declarations of the Republican candidate for the Presidency, Mr. Wendel Willkie, has given what the press here feels is authentic notice in unmistakeable terms of where the United States stands on the great moral issues which took Britain into the war against Hitlerism, and where the American people will continue to stand until all danger to the ideals of freedom, justice and neighbourliness among nations is overthrown.

The Daily Telegraph hails the speech as the most forthright answer yet given to the Axis-Japanese pact. “The President has restated the country’s intentions with new emphasis,” the paper says. “He placed the widest possible interpretation upon its policy of defending the western hemisphere against acts of aggression, reminding all whom it may concern that not merely the territories of the American continents and its adjacent islands are guaranteed by that policy, but also the ‘peaceful use of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans’ —a traditional prin ciple of American diplomacy which has been ignored-before with disastrous results to the challenger.

Perfectly Clear Assurance

“With this President Roosevelt combines a perfectly clear assurance upon a matter which more nearly' concerris Britain and those peoples who in any way are able to act with' her as combatants.

“ ‘No combination of dictator countries of Europe and Asia,’ said President Roosevelt, ‘will prevent the help we are giving to the almost last free people fighting to hold them at bay.’ That is as plain as words can make it.” The Times says: “If the pact with Japan was designed to intimidate America, its failure has been disastrous,. President Roosevelt’s broadcast left no doubt where the United States stands and how jt regards the pact. On the eve of a bitterly-con-tested election the President could not have spoken as he did in this vigorous, uncompromising pronouncement; if -he had not been speaking foe the. great majority of the country.” Pledge to Help Stands The same point is made by the Daily Herald, which writes: “Whoever wins, the pledge to help Britain stands. Mr. Willkie sees his duty as clearly, as President Roosevelt.” The President’s answer to the Axis threats has evoked admiring comment in other parts of the Empire. The Melbourne Argus says: “The President’s bluntness is welcomed throughout the Empire. He explicitly pledged the United States to give protection to the entire western hemisphere. The President’s words mean that we are not left solely to our own devices if we are menaced from the north. The corollary to this is that' our participation in the Empire’s struggle can be full and wholehearted as the people of Australia wish it to be. Australia’s first , line of defence is necessarily naval. With the assurance that the United States is vitally interested in the Pacific, we can deploy our full strength where it can be used to the greatest advantage.”