Roosevelf Calls Japan's Bluff

Manawatu Times, Volume 65, Issue 245, 16 October 1940, Page 7

Roosevelf Calls Japan's Bluff

Forthright Answer To Three-Power Pact OCEANS AS WELL AS CONTINENTS MUST BE FREE (British Official Wireless.) Received Tuesday, 9.20 p.m. RUGBY, Oct. 14. President Roosevelt’s broadcast on Saturday, following closely on the recent declarations of Wendell L. 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 a new emphasis. “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 continent and its adjacent islands are guaranteed by that policy but also the peaceful use of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans—a traditional principle in American diplomacy which has been ignored before with disastrous results to the challenger.

“With this Mr. Roosevelt combines a perfectly clear assurance upon a matter which more nearly concerns Britain and those peoples who are in any way able to act with her as combatants. No combination of dictator countries of Europe and Asia, said Mr. Roosevelt, will prevent the help we are giving to almost the 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 is designed to intimidate America its failure has been disastrous. President Roosevelt’s broadcast left no doubt where the United States stands and how it regards the Pact. On the eve of a bitterly contested election the President could not have spoken as he did in this vigorous and uncompromising pronouncement if he had not been speaking for the great majority of the country.” 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 Mr. Roosevelt. ’ *

The President’s answer to 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 will not be left solely to our own devices if menaced from the north. A corollary to this is that our participation in the Empire's struggle can be as 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.”