TOUGH AND LONG JOB

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 30 April 1942, Page 5

TOUGH AND LONG JOB

ROOSEVELTS SURVEY OF WAR U.S. TROOPS ON MANY BATTLE-FRONTS Washington, April 28. it is nearly five months since the attack on Pearl Harbour, for two years prior to which the United States had been gearing up to a high level of production of munitions. Yet our war effort has done little to dislocate the normal lives of most people,” said President Roosevelt in a world-wide broadcast to-day. “Since then, we have dispatched forces—hundreds of thousands of them—to bases and battle-fronts thousands of miles from home. e have stepped up war production on a scale testing our industrial power, engineering genius and economic structure to the utmost. We have no illusions. This will be a tough and long job. “American warships are now in combat in the north and south Pacific and the Indian Ocean. American troops have taken stations in South America, Greenland. Iceland, the British Isles, the Near East, the Middle East, the Far East, Australia, and many islands in the Pacific. American warplanes, manned by Americans, are flying in actual combat over all continents and oceans.

“On the European front the most important development in the past year | has been the crushing offensive of thej great armies of Russia against the{ powerful German army. These Rus- 1 sian forces have destroyed and are | destroying more of the armed power of our enemies—troops, planes, tanks. ' and guns—than all the other United ; Nations put together. “Recently we received news of a change of Government in what we used to know as the Republic of France, j We hoped for the maintenance of a French Government which would strive to regain independence, and re-estab-lish the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity and restore the historic culture of France. We are now concerned lest those who have recently come to power may seek to force the brave French people into submission to Nazi despotism. AXIS AND FRENCH TERRITORY “The United Nations will take measures to prevent the use of French territory in any part of the world for military purposes by the 1 Axis. Such action is essential to ! prevent assistance to the armies, ' navies and air forces of Germany, Italy and Japan. “The overwhelming majority of the French people understand that the : fight of the United Nations is funda- 1 mentally their fight, and that our vie- s tory means the restoration of a free, in- J dependent France and the saving of ] France from the slavery which would 1 be imposed upon her by external ene- i mies and internal traitors. “In all the occupied countries there < are men, women and children who 1 have never stopped fighting. In the ] German and Italian peoples themselves i there is a growing conviction that the 1 cause of Nazism and Fascism is hopeless. |j “There is good reason to believe the Japanese southward advance has been checked. Australia and | • New Zealand and much other ter- j ritory will be bases for offensive j | action, and we are determined that j ' the territory which has been lost shall be regained. PLEDGE TO CHINA “The news in Burma to-night is not ! * good. The Japanese may cut the Burma Road, but I want to say to the i gallant people of China that, no matter what advances the Japanese may make, ways will be found for the delivery of aeroplanes and munitions of war to the armies of Chiang Kai-shek. The Chinese 1 people were the first to fight against the aggressors in this war. and in future an unconquerable China will play its c proper role in maintaining peace and ei prosperity not only in eastern Asia, t but the jvhole world. c “For pvery advance the Japanese C have made since they started on their * frenzied career of conquest they have t had to pay a very heavy toll in war- c ships, transports, planes and men. They a are feeling the effects of these losses. a It is even reported from Japan that e somebody dropped bombs on Tokio f and other principal centres of Japanese war industries. If this be true, it ■ is the first time in history that Japan has suffered such indignities. “Not all of us can have the privilege of fighting in distant parts. Not all of us can have the privilege of j working in munition factories, ship- c yards, farms, oil fields or mines, pro- j j ducing the weapons and raw materials c which are needed by the armed forces. ' c but there is one front where everyone c in the United States is in action and j r privileged to remain in action through- j «. out the war. That front is at home, j [ Here everyone.can have the privilege of . c making whatever self-denial is neces- ; sary not only to supply our fighting j ( men, but to keep the economic struc- ! , ture of our country fortified and secure ! . during the war and after the war. This J L will require the abandonment not only I x of luxuries but creature comforts. j t “We are now spending solely for ; t war purposes 100.000,000 dollars every 1 day, but before the year’s end that ! ] almost unbelievable expenditure will ! be doubled. All this money has to be spent and spent quickly if we are to ' produce within the time now available the enormous quantities of weapons | which are needed. DANGER TO NATIONAL ECONOMY “But spending these tremendous sums j presents a grave danger of disaster to , • our national economy. Such spending s means that an unprecedented sum of ' \ money goes into the pocketbooks and 1 bank accounts of the people of the i United States. At the same time raw j c materials and many manufactured goods v are taken away from civilian use. You j do not have to be a professor of eco i nomics to see that, if people with plenty of cash start bidding against each other for scarce goods, prices go up. I submitted to Congress yesterday a seven-point programme which could be called a national economic policy for attaining the great objective of keeping the cost of living down. The blunt fact is that every single person in the t United States will be affected by this ' programme. “Sacrifice is not the proper word to J describe this programme of self-denial ♦ When at the.end of this great struggle we shall have saved our free way of ' life, we shall have made no sacrifice. ~ The price of civilisation must be paid " ir. hard work, sorrow and blood. The ■price is not too high. If you doubt it. [ ask those millions who live under the , tyranny of Hitlerism, ask the workers of France and Norway, whipped to ! labour by the lash, whether stabilistion of wages is too great a sacrifice. \ “We do not have to ask them. They have already given us their agonised answers. I “This great war effort must be car- ■ ried through to its victorious conclu < sion by the indomitable will and deter- : initiation of the people. It must not be impeded by the faint heart ot those j who put the!" own selfish interests over the interests of the nation. Above 1 all, it shall not be imperilled by a v handful of noisy traitors and betrayers of America and Christianity itself. I know that the American farmer, work I , man and business man will gladly em ; t brace this economy of sacrifice. As , we here at home contemplate our own < duties and our own responsibilities, let j ( us think hard of the example which is j f being set for us by our fighting men. t

■ We. too. must work and sacrifice. It )is for them; it is for us; it is for ’ victory.”—P.A.