MR ICKES'S SPEECH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23691, 24 December 1938, Page 11

MR ICKES'S SPEECH

PROTEST FROM GERMANY SHARP NOTE TO WASHINGTON BERLIN, Dec. 22. Germany presented a sharp Note of protest to the United States against Mr Ickes's speech, alleging that he used insulting and coarse remarks,. Specifically mentioning Mr Henry Ford and Colonel Lindbergh, the American Secretary of the Interior, Mr Harold L. Ickes, criticised the American acceptance of decorations from Germans. He commented: "How can they pretend, in accepting shabby baubles from a brutal dictator, that they are honouring a great people whom the dictator victimised and degraded." THE PROTEST "REJECTED WASHINGTON, Dec. 22. The State Department emphatically rejected the German protest against the address by Mr Ickes, and also criticised German press attacks against President Roosevelt's Cabinet. It stated that Mr Ickes had voiced the feelings of an overwhelming majority. WASHINGTON'S REPLY UNCOMPROMISING TERMS WASHINGTON, Dec. 22. (Received Dec. 23, at 10 p.m.) The German Charge d'Affaires was told officially that the demand for an apology by Mr Ickes came with singularly ill-grace from a Government which so persistently had permitted the controlled press to carry out an official attack on American leaders, including Presidents Wilson and Roosevelt and members of the present Cabinet. The statement was couched in strong, uncompromising terms, which the United States rarely uses in diplomatic discussions with a friendly Government. Mr Welles (Acting Secretary of State) said that Germany must know that the recent policy pursued by Germany has shocked and confounded public opinion in the United States more profoundly than anything for a decade.