AID BILL SIGNED

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 87, 12 March 1941, Page 8

AID BILL SIGNED

HISTORIC OCCASION. (United Press Association—Copyright.) (1.5 p.m.) WASHINGTON, March 11. President Roosevelt has signed the British Aid Bill. A short time after Congress had completed its action on momentous Bill, the Vice-President, Mr H. S. Wallace) and the Speaker (Mr Rayburn) signed it at 3 p.m. Mr Roosevelt signed the _ measure at 3.50 p.m., thus completing the most important enactment.

In the House of Representatives the final scene of the historic legislation occurred when, amid applause from both Republicans and Democrats, Representative Martin (Massachusetts), the Republican floor leader, said he would vote for the Senate revisions.

"I voted against the Lease or Lend Bill because I was opposed to granting powers to the President which I believed should be retained by Congress. I feared the Bill would bring us nearer war, but the majority of both branches of Congress decided otherwise. I realise that, Congress having determined to follow the policy set forth in the Bill, it is wisdom to act quickly. "We have taken a step unparalleled in American history. All of us pray fervently, that the decision is a wise one and that it will preserve peace and security for our country." Mr Martin concluded: "Let me say we stand united for liberty at home and we share in the common desire to see liberty prevailing in every part of the world. Totalitarianism is obnoxious to us all. We live, thank God, in a country where we can debate these great questions, but once a decision i"s readied we accept the majority verdict. We may differ among ourselves, but there is no division in our loyalty to our country. We are one people—an undaunted people determined that real Americanism shall not disappear from the earth." ! The closing stages of the enactment , of the historic Bill were characteristically quiet, but the impressiveness of the notable occasion was enhanced by the noble speech of Mr Martin. Mr S. Bloom (chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee) made the closing P He said:—"Mr Speaker: This Bill is the voice of aroused America, the sounding of the trumpet call of victory for free government everywhere. By this action the United States gives the lie 1 to the cowardly and defeatist cry that Democracy is powerless in the face of aggression. We are now proving that Democracy can and will unite to carry into effect President Lincoln's high resolve that it shall not perish from the earth. ' Almost all the members of the House arose to applaud his declaration of unity.