AT AMERICA'S GATES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24619, 29 May 1941, Page 7

AT AMERICA'S GATES

MENACE OF HITLERISM THE PRESIDENT'S CALL GREATER AID FOR BRITAIN (Rec. 1 a.m.) WASHINGTON, May 29. " Now, as never before, the unity of the American people is of supreme importance to each and every one of us and to the cause of freedom throughout the world," said President Roosevelt in his eagerly-awaited broadcast which he made from the White House. " The pressing problems that confront us are military problems and we cannot afford to approach them from the point of view of wishful thinking or as sentimentalists. " The fundamental fact is that what started as a European war has developed, as the Nazis always intended it should develop, into a world war for world domination. It is unmistakably apparent to all of us that unless the advance of Hitlerism is forcibly checked now the western hemisphere will be in range of the Nazi weapons of destruction." The President went on to review the necessary measures already undertaken for the defence of the United States and the aid given to democracies, culminating in the passage of the Lend and Lease Act. " Our whole programme of aid for democracies has been based on hard-headed concern for our own security," he said, " and for the kind of safe and civilised world in which we wish to live. Every dollar's worth of material we send helps to keep the dictators away from our own hemisphere and every day they are held off gives us time to build more guns, tanks, planes and ships. " We have made no pretence about our own self-interest in this aid. Britain understands it and so does Nazi Germany. We have doubled and redoubled our vast production. We are increasing month by month the material supply of tools of war for ourselves, Britain, China, and eventually for all the democracies. The supply of these tools will not fail; it will increase with greatly augmented strength. " Your Government knows what terms Hitler, if victorious, would impose," The President said. "They are indeed the only terms on which he would accept a so-called negotiated peace. Germany would literally parcel out the world, hoisting the swastika over vast territories and populations, and setting up puppet Governments of Hitler's own choosing and wholly subject to the will of the conqueror."

"Quislings would be found to sub vert the Governments in our republics and the Nazis would back Fifth Columns with invasion if necessary The Nazis plan to treat the Latin American 'nations as they are now treating the Balkans. They plan to strangle the United Slates of America and Canada. American labour would have to compete with slave labour in the rest of the world, with minimum wages and maximum hours. The dignity, power, and standard of the American worker and farmer would bs gone, trade unions would become historical relics, and collective bargaining a joke. The American farmer would get Jor his products exactly what Hiner wanted to give. He would face obvious disaster and complete regimentation, and tariff walls would be futile. Freedom of trade is essential to our economic life. The whole , fabric of

working life as we know it —business. manufacturing, mining, agriculture—all would be mangled or crippled under such a system. Yet to maintain even that crippled independence would require permanent conscription of our man-power. We would Devouring our resources into armaments, and year in, year out, standing watch against the destruction of our cities. " We do not accept, and will not permit, this Nazi shape of things to come if we act in this present crisis with the wisdom and courage which have distinguished our country in all the crises of the past. " The Axis Powers can never achieve their objective of world domination unless they first obtain control of the seas. This is their supreme purpose to-day. and to achieve it they must capture Britain. But if they fail to gain control of the seas they will certainly be defeated, and their dreams of world domination will then go by the board and the criminal leaders will suffer inevitable disaster. That is why they are risking everything in desperate attempts to break through to command the seas. Once they are limited to continuing land war their cruel forces of occupation will be unable to keep their heels on the necks of millions of innocent, oppressed peoples on the Continent of Europe, and in the end their whole structure will break into little pieces. Even those Italians and Germans who themselves have been enslaved will prove to be a powerful force, in disrupting the Nazi system. Alarming Number of Sinkings "The Battle of the Atlantic now extends from the icy waters of the north pole to the frozen continent of the Antarctic. Throughout this huge area there have been sinkings of merchant ships in alarming and increasing numbers by Nazi raiders or submarines. The blunt truth is—and I reveal this with the full knowledge of the British Government —that the present rate of Nazi sinkings of merchant ships is more than three times as high as the capacity of British shipyards to replace them, and it is more than twice the combined British and American output of merchant ships. Measures to Meet Peril "To-day we can answer this peril by two simultaneous measures—first, by speeding up and increasing our great shipbuilding programme; secondly by helping to cut down the losses on the high seas by attacks on shipping off our very shores. We are determined to protect ourselves against the present actual military danger to the Americas. That danger has recently been heavily underlined by the presence in western waters of Nazi battle- i

6hips of great striking power. Most of the supplies for Britain go by a northerly route which comes close to Greenland and Iceland. Germany's heaviest attack is on that route. Nazi occupation of Iceland or bases on Greenland would bring the war close to our continental shores because they are stepping stones to Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and northern United States, including the great industrial centres of the north-east and the middle west. Equally the Azores and Cape Verde Islands, if occupied or controlled by Germany, would directly endanger the freedom of the Atlantic and our own physical safety. Under German domination they would become bases for submarines, warships and aeroplanes, raiding waters which lie immediately off our own coast and attacking shipping in the South Atlantic. They would provide a springboard for actual attack against the integrity and independence of Brazil and her neighbouring republics. I have said on many occasions that the United States is mustering men and resources only for the purpose of defence and to repel attack. Speed of Modern Warfare

."I repeat that statement now, but we must be realistic. When we use the word ' attack' we have to relate it to the lightning speed of modem warfare. Some people seem to think that we will not be attacked until bombs actually drop on New York, San Francisco. New Orleans, or Chicago, but (hey are simply shutting their eyes to the lesson we must learn from the fate of every nation that the Nazis have conquered. The attack on Czechoslovakia began with the conquest of Austria, the attack on Norway began with the occupation of Denmark, the attack on Greece began with the occupation (if Albania and Bulgaria, the attack on the Suez canal began with the invasion of the Balkans and North Africa, and 'he attack on the United States can begin with the domination of any base which menaces our security, north or south The Stupidity of Waiting

" Nobody can foretell just when the acts of the dictators will ripen into an attack on this hemisphere and us, but we know enough by now to realise that it would be suicide to wait until they are in our front yard. When your enemy comes at you in a tank 1 or bombing plane, if you hold your fire until you see the whites of his eyes you' will never know what hit you. Our bunker hill of to-day may be several thousand miles from Boston. Anyone with an atlas and a reasonable knowledge of the sudden striking force of modern war knows it is stupid to wait until a probable enemy has gained a foothold from which to attack. Oldfashioned common sense calls for the use of strategy which will prevent such an enemy gaining a foothold in the first place. Atlantic Patrol Extended " We have accordingly extended our patrol in the North and South Atlantic waters, and are steadily adding more and more ships and planes to that patrol. It is well known that the strength of the Atlantic Fleet has been greatly increased during the past year, and is constantly being built up. These ships and planes warn of the presence of attacking raiders on the sea. under the sea, and above the sea, and the danger from these raiders is J greatly lessened if their location is definitely known. | " We are thus being forewarned, and shall be on guard against efforts to establish Nazi bases closer to our hemisphere. The deadly facts of war compel nations, for self-preservation, to make stern choices, and if we believe in the independence and integ-1 rity of the Americas we must be willing to fight to defend them just as much as we would fight for the safety of our own homes.'* I