The Editor’s Saturday Night

Northern Advocate, 22 April 1939, Page 6

The Editor’s Saturday Night

When last week closed, President Roosevelt’s ringing speech on PanAmerican Day constituted 'an outstanding indication that the United States Administration was definitely agreed that action should be taken to protect democracies from the aggression of totalitarian States. This suggestion was put into practice during the week-end, when the world was electrified to hear’that President Roosevelt had made a personal appeal to Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini, warning them against further acts of aggression.

Simultaneous with this appeal went a dramatic order to the American Fleet centred on Hampton Roads to leave the Atlantic immediately and go to the P'acific. Following upon this unexpected order, there was tremendous stir at Hampton, where some 100 ships of war were located, and where they were to have remained until June next.

Just whether the removal of the fleet from the Atlantic to the Pacific was intended 'as a threat to Japan, or merely as a warning to that nation, has not been stated. but there is good reason to believe that President Roosevelt and his advisers realised that if war broke out in Europe, and held the British Fleet in those waters, the Jiapahese Fleet would be supreme in the Pacific if the ships of Uncle Sam were concentrated in the Atlantic. That could not be tolerated with safety. Whatever may have been the real motive of President Roosevelt, the incident caused a first-class sensation, and the cable columns of the daily press have been filled with discussion thereon.

The world has anxiously awaited the replies of Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to President Roosevelt. Signor Mussolini has made. a statement combining scorn and caution, but Herr Hitler is to reply on behalf of the dictators on April 28, when he will make a speech to a special session of the Reichstag. Just what that reply will be, remains to be seen. In the meantime, the international situation, though described as easier, is decidedly tense.

In Australia, Mr R. G. Menzies has been chosen Prime Minister in succession to the late Mr J. A. Lyons. Whether he will be able to secure the support of the Country Party in a Coalition Government without going to the country for a mandate is a matter of much speculation at the moment.