The Gisborne Herald. IN WHICH IS INCORPORATED “THE TIMES” GISBORNE, SATURDAY, JANUARY 19, 1946. IN MEMORY OF PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21924, 19 January 1946, Page 4

The Gisborne Herald. IN WHICH IS INCORPORATED “THE TIMES” GISBORNE, SATURDAY, JANUARY 19, 1946. IN MEMORY OF PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT

|fjV.lyß since the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt important events in both war and peace have followed one another so rapidly that people have had little time to view in contemplative retrospect the contribution made to human security by one of the greatest men of our days. It must not bo thought, however, that the name of the President who piloted the United States safely through a period of singular political and economic difficulty and who later rose to the peak of efficiency in wartime foreign policy will ever bo forgotten or lightly dismissed. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s record stands too high in the world’s estimation for that. When the persisting anxieties of the early peace era arc allayed—as, thanks to President Roosevelt’s own part in laying the foundation for international friendship, they surely will be— the history of both great victories, on the battlefield and at the conference table, will be rich in appreciation of all this great American has done.

Even better than that, a movement is afoot to perpetuate his memory in such a way that the inspiring lead given by him will still serve as a practical example for posterity. An official statement to this effect states that an organisation has been launched in London, to commemorate President Roosevelt by the worldwide practice of his ideas. The'Roosevelt. World Memorial Association, as it is called, is supported by leading statesmen of the United Nations and it hopes that some form of commemoration may be conserved in the United Kingdom on January 30. the anniversary of the late President’s birth. Whatever is clone, it, is a movement in which the British Dominions, who owe a great deal to Mr. Roosevelt’s leadership of the United States, should join in wholeheartedly.

This wartime President did more than many of his fellowcountrymen to foresee and check the catastrophe that came in full force in 1940. lie grasped its implications accurately and moved to action with a boldness equal to his domestic policy in 1933. He saw at once the immediate threat of Hitlerism to America and that the British Isles represented flic last, vital bastion of the civilised world. He also realised the tremendous latent power of the American industrial machine to produce the weapons that, could turn the precarious balance. Further than that, he realised 1 hat only through the organisation and co-operation of the free peoples—through a genuine international system—could a further catastrophe be avoided and the colossal sacrifices of war made good. The work being clone by the United Nations at the present time is all part of the policy which lie helped to lay down. The delegates to the Assembly must know this well. And so there would be nothing incongruous and everything to be commended in materialisation of the report that Hyde Park. President Roosevelt’s home, will be the permanent seat of the organisation.