A BITTER ATTACK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23649, 5 November 1938, Page 14

A BITTER ATTACK

MR RANDOLPH HEARST "PERFIDY" OF ENGLAND REPLY TO MR CHURCHILL LONDON, Oct. 23. The well-known American newspaper proprietor Mr William Randolph Hearst, in a speech broadcast throughout America, bitterly attacked Britain, and advocated that the United States should isolate herself from European politics. The address was rebroadcast throughout the world in five languages, including Italian and German.

Mr Hearst was replying to Mr Winston Churchill's plea to the United States. Presumably referring to the trade negotiations, Mr Hearst declared: "Even those of us who had hopes of Anglo-American accord have been disabused of the idea by England's invariable selfishness and perfidy, and would willingly wash our hands of the whole business."

" British Soft Soap for Uncle Sam " Mr Hearst added: "England needs help. Where should she turn but to good old Uncle Sam, so sought after when needed, so scoffed at and scorned in the intervening times. British soft soap is being poured over Uncle Sam's devoted head and lathered into his eyes and ears. We tried, with earnest, sincere, and costly effort, to make democracy safe for the world in the Great War. We failed because of the treachery of France and England, who were not concerned about American ideals and considered only their personal domination and aggrandisement.

"It is no part of the duty of the United States to support the British Empire in her ambitious schemes to dominate Europe, absorb Africa, and control the Orient. The United States is no longer merely a collection of disloyal colonies, a land to be exploited like India or Africa. England never in history extended any aid, comfort, or consideration to the United States. On the contrary, in the Civil War, England, for reasons of envy and antagonism, took the South's side and tried to disrupt the union.

" Furthermore, we are not greatly impressed by the 'faithful and zealous comradeship' of those nations who betrayed American ideals during the Great War, when we were fighting unselfishly for their national salvation. They repudiated their debt when they no longer had any need or use for us; nor does the desertion of Czechoslovakia add to our confidence in the ' faithful and zealous comradeship' of volatile France and perfidious Albion.

Striving for Power and Territory

"All the world wishes for peace and security. Perhaps even Germany wants peace, when she offers England limitation of armaments, with the German Navy at only one-third of the size of England's.

"Perhaps England does not want that kind of peace and security. Nazis, Communists, Fascists and Imperialists are all cut out of the same cloth. All are striving for power and territory. All are seeking, from time to time, a new prize and a new victim. They are all ready to go to war. all ready to get us in to add to their imperial conquests. America must not succumb to the purely selfish propaganda of foreign nations." The whole of the Hearst press, which includes moi'e than 20 newspapers, has intensified its criticism of British foreign policy. In the speech which Mr Hearst replied to, Mr Winston Churchill said: "The sole guarantee of peace is a swift and resolute gathering of forces to confront military and moral aggression, and a resolute and sobei acceptance of their duty by the English-speaking peoples, and by all nations who wish to walk with them. " Their faithful and zealous comradeship would, almost between night and day, clear the path which darkens the sunlight to a hundred million men."