MIXED REACTIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26410, 14 March 1947, Page 7

MIXED REACTIONS

FEAR OF WAR EXPRESSED PROPOSAL AIMED AT RUSSIA WASHINGTON, Rec. 10 p.m. Mar. 12. The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Vandenberg, announced that he would call a special meeting to-morrow to discuss President Truman’s request for aid to Greece and Turkey. He said he agreed with the President that the United States .must act. “ The plain truth,” he said, “is-that Soviet and American relations are at the core of this whole problem. Congress must face the facts. Ip such a critical moment, the President’s hand must be upheld, for any other course would be dangerously misunderstood, , but Congress must carefully determine the methods and explore the details in so momentous a departure from our previous policies.” , 1 The chairman of the Republican Policy Committee,. Senator Robert Taft, said he did not want war with Russia and would not cast his influence for or against President Truman’s proposal .until he had studied all the risks involved. Senator Taft added: lf the United States , takes this special position in - Greece and Turkey we can hardly any-longer reasonably object to , Russia continuing her. domination in Roland, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.” - ' Senator Claude (Democrat) said: “To take as grave a step as the President; proposes without first going before the United Nations is, I am afraid to impair the strength of that organisation. Everybody wants to help Greece, but many of us disagree on how; The United Nations, should not be utterly left out in such-a grave crisis. Let us call an emergency meeting of the United Nations. If that fails we shall know the United Nations has failed.” Senator Lee O’Dariiel (Democrat) commented: “This manoeuvring has all the earmarks of a plot to rush us into another war.” The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr Charles Eaton, said, “We are now face to face with the responsibility of choosing—and accepting, the responsibilities that go with that choice—between'slavery and freedom as the foundation of the new world civilisation.” Mr Eaton added that he would support the loan proposal, but predicted most violent opposition to it. Reuter’s correspondent, summing up the Congressional reactions, says the legisation is assured of passage with Republican and Democratic support. Republican opposition almost certainly will be confined to the fringe of certain. roid-Westerners,' who have consistently opposed the United States involving itself. in world .affairs. Three representatives of this group are already raising the old battle cry that the United States is being dragged into war. Others even claim thqt President Truman’s speech itself was an “ undeclared ” declaration of war. Hostile to Russia The Chicago. Tribune, in a leading article, said, “President Truman is.to sing a Circean song to Congress,, designed to lure the Ship of State on to the rocks of a new war.” It added that Russia could only regard the United States policy as hostile and dedicated to defeating her ambitions, if not destroying her As the bill mounted the United States would approach bankruptcy and would fight war as an impoverished nation.