Roosevelt’s Moving Appeal to Hitler To Avoid Holocaust

Northern Advocate, 29 September 1938, Page 8

Roosevelt’s Moving Appeal to Hitler To Avoid Holocaust

WASHINGTON, September 27.

JN A FURTHER MESSAGE TO HERR HITLER, PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT SAID: “I WAS CONFIDENT YOU WOULD COINCIDE IN THE OPINION I EXPRESSED RE GARDING THE UNFORESEEABLE CONSEQUENCES AND INCALCULABLE DISASTER WHICH W r OULD RESULT TO THE ENTIRE WORLD FROM THE OUTBREAK OF A EUROPEAN WAR. ; World Looks io Nations’ Heads. “The question before the world today is not a question of errors of judgment, or of injustice committed in the past; it is a question of the fate of the world today and tomorrow. The world asks of us who are the heads of nations cur supreme capacity to achieve the destinies of nations, without forcing upon them, as a price, the mutilation and debt of milions of citizens. “My conviction, on these two points is deepened because responsible statesmen have officially stated that an agreement in principle had already been reached between the German and Czech Governments, although the precise time, method and details of the carrying out of the agreement remain at issue. “Whatever the existing differences may be, and whatever their merits, my appeal was solely that negotiations be continued until a peaceful settlemeht be found, and thereby resort to force be avoided. Door Still Open. “The present negotiations still st and open. They can be continued if you will give the word. Should a need for supplementing them become evident, nothing stands in the way of widening their scope into a conference of all the nations directly interested in the present controversy. “Such a meeting, held immediately in some neutral spot in Europe, . would offer an opportunity for this, and for co-related questions, to be solved in a spirit of justice and fair dealing, and in all probability with greater permanence. \ “In my considered judgment, and in the light of the experience of this country, continued negotiations rema in the only way whereby the immediate problem ca be disposed of upon any lasting basis. A Moving Sentiment. “Should you agree to a solution in this peaceful manner, I am convinced that hundreds of millions of people throughout the world would recognise your action as an outstanding historic service to all humanity. i “Allow me to state my unqual ified conviction that history, and the souls of every man, woman child whose lives will he lost in ihe threatened war, will hold all of us accountable should we omit , any appeal for its prevention. 5 _ Government of the United States is not politically involved in Europe, and will assume no obligati ons in tiie conduct of the present negotiations. Yet, in our own right, we recognise our responsibilities as part of a world of neighbours. My conscience, and the impelling desire of the people of my country, demand that the voice oi their Government tie raised again, and yet again, to av ert and to avoid war. Resort to War Futile, “Resort to force in the Great War failed to bring tranquillity. Victory and defeat! alike were sterile. That lesson the world should have learned. For that reason, above all others, I addressed on Monday my appeal to your Excellency, and to the Preside nt of Czechoslovakia, and the Prime Ministers of Britain and France. “The points I sought to emphasise were: First, that all matters of difference between the German Government and the Czechoslovakian could, and should, be settled by pacific methods. Second, that the threatened alternative of the use of force on a scale likely to result in a general war is as unnecessary aS it is unjustifiable. /

“It is therefore supremely Import ant that negotiations should continue without interruption, until a fair and constructive solution is reached.”