SPREADING LIES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 29 April 1942, Page 2

SPREADING LIES

WASHINGTON EVIL PRESIDENT'S BLUNT WORDS “VICIOUS HUMOUR FACTORY” Los Angeles, Feb. 24. President Roosevelt has described the United States capital as a vicious rumour factory and a prolific source of war*rot and lies spread by what he termed the Cliveden Sot of Washington. Mr Roosevelt asked reporters at a press conference to give wide circula lion to his charges because, he said, he and they can prove their accuracy, lie did not identify members of the socalled Cliveden Set an appellation heretofore applied to a wealthy group of pre-war Nazi appeasers in Great Britain —but he denounced them in ex tremely blunt terms. This set in Washington, he protested, is responsible for the spreading of rumours that Russia will be too powerful for the democracies after the war if she gets additional financial and material help from the United States. “CROWDED WITH PARASITES” He blamed it also for the rumour that damage to the United States Fleet at Pearl Harbour was greater than reported by the Secretary of the Navy after a personal investigation. The President's attack came alter he confirmed that plans were under way to make a new loan to the Soviet Union, a loan which he said would have strategic value in terms of dead Germans and smashed tanks. His blast at the Cliveden clique recalled the furore he created recently when he said that the capital is crowded with parasites whom lie invited to leave and make room for indispensable war workers. Mr Roosevelt specifically pointed an accusing finger at social leaders who own large homes in fashionable downtown areas which are rarely occupied, whereas thousands of girls and men who have arrived in Washington for war work are packed into overcrowded and unsanitary lodging houses. STORM OF PROTESTS The President’s invitation hit the cocktail lounges and the “400” with a bang. The local newspapers were filled with “letters to the editor” from indignant social lions and patricians, politicians, hangers-on and others who felt they had been clone a rank injustice. Their reaction was epitomised by a “parasite” who suggested the “squatters on Pennsylvania Avenue”—the street of Presidents upon which the White House is located—start the exodus. Representatives and Senators railed privately against the President’s denunciation. and some asked sarcastically whether they, too. were parasites.