MEETING WORLD CRISIS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27572, 14 December 1950, Page 7

MEETING WORLD CRISIS

Truman May Proclaim State Of Emergency

New Zealand Press Association—Copyright

Rec. 8.30 p.m. WASHINGTON, Dec. 12. President Truman will make a radio address to the United States next Friday or Saturday night on the world crisis. President Truman has given no indication of what he will say, but officials at the. White House said today that he would outline the grave world situation and the action he thought was necessary on the home front to meet it. The Defence Secretary, Mr George Marshall, said recently that President Truman was considering declaring a state of national emergency. The President, Government officials and Congressional leaders at a conference tomorrow will discuss the possibility of such a proclamation.

Democratic Senators in a closed meeting today considered the same subject. The Senate Democratic leader, Senator Scott Lucas, told the Press that he believed that any emergency declaration from the White House would seek more or less to mobilise and crystallise public opinion rather than call for new legislation. He added that the President already had all the powers he needed to, increase mobilisation. The Washington correspondent of the New York Times quoted informed sources as saying that .‘President Truman in his broadcast would announce the declaration of a state of emergency and the creation of a central war production agency. The correspondent said that all the signs in Washington tonight pointed to drastic moves towards the total mobilisation of the United States against threats of aggression. Thir total mobilisation, however, would come gradually. There would be a selective application of controls on a gradual basis while the defence programme gained momentum and while the administrative and enforcement machinery for complete controls was being organised. Existing control and allocation units now scattered in various Government departments would be concentrated into a central agency similar to the office of War Mobilisation during World War 11. “America in Grave Danger ”

“ The United States is in the gravest danger of its history,” says the Military editor of the New York Times. Hanson Baldwin, in an article published today, “ yet the sense of urgency, the strong national leadership and unity that are essential if the country is to meet successfully the current crisis and the greater crises ahead, are still lacking. The Government should declare a national emergency, start strong mobilisation, and pass a National Service Act calling all youths of 18 up to 27 months’ military training. “The temporarily improved situation of the troops in Korea and the current talk of a compromise agreement in Washington and the United Nations has again lulled some American leaders into complacency, yet nothing has occurred to lighten tne dark world picture. “The Russian attitude has demonstrably hardened,” says Mr Baldwin. “ Open armed aggression against South Korea and Indo-China, followed by the Chinese Communist assault, are cumulative evidence that the Soviet Union will not shrink if it feels it must go to war to accomplish its aims, and those aims are still unalterable and immutable—conquest of the world by Communism. “It is blind stupidity, therefore, to think that any so-called understanding, mediation, agreement, or compromise can be reached that will not hurt us much more in the long run than firmness now. Yet the demand for such compromise comes not only from oui; hesitant Allies —who rightly feel sorrfewhat resentful of General MacArthur’s egotistic high-handedness —but from many well-meaning Americans, who are loath to look upon the horrible face of a general war. Yet weakness or compromise cannot avert a third world war. They may only bring it on when we are in a more disadvantageous position because of that compromise than we are today.”