CONDITIONS FOR WORLD TRADE

Southland Times, Issue 24439, 20 May 1941, Page 5

CONDITIONS FOR WORLD TRADE

MR HULL EMPHASIZES NECESSITY OF DEFEATING AGGRESSION (United Press Association—Telegraph Copyright) (Rec. 6.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, May 18. The Secretary of State, Mr Cordell Hull, in a broadcast address inaugurating World Trade Week, said there was little use in talking and planning foreign trade unless the outcome of the war was favourable to the free peoples. “At present our foreign trade consists increasingly of making tools of defence and placing them in the hands of nations resisting unlawful attack,” he said. “This trade is futile if the goods do not reach those for whom they are intended. When we set ourselves a task we finish it. We will not permit our purpose to be frustrated. Only thus can we look forward to a brighter day.

“During the past year we have seen the ruthless aggression and enslavement of nations too weak to resist. They have been crushed by unbounded military frightfulness and in the conquered territory organized brutality and coercion have been carried to the utmost. The safety of our nation and of every free nation is in mortal danger if there is a mistaken assumption that two oceans, plus a desire for peace, will protect us. The dictators’ paramount purpose is. to secure control of the high seas, which, is essential to their programme of world domination. Every consideration of our own defence and safety requires that we see that Britain receives adequate supplies for successful resistance.

“We must not be weakened by internal division, but must devote the whole of our energy to essential tasks and avoid delays caused by business complacency or strikes, which gravely

endanger national safety. The greatest national effort must be made or we will find ourselves surrounded by aggressors and compelled to fight virtually alone against great odds for our national existence.

Mr Hull outlined the principles on which the policies of the world must be based after the war, such as avoidance of extreme nationalism, the availability of raw materials to all nations, international agreements, an international finance structure facilitating essential enterprises and the continuous development of all countries. NECESSITY OF OPEN TRADE “Unless we have a system of open trade it will be impossible in future to buy or sell except on military terms,” said Mr Hull. “Unless a system of open trade becomes firmly established there will be chronic political instability and recurrent economic collapse. In the final reckoning the problem is establishing the foundations of international order and independent nations co-operating freely in a world order, not new, but renewed, which liberates rather . than enslaves. We cannot do this until we are free from the scourge of military menace and malign political intrigue of the basest character. Only then will foreign trade revert from cargoes of weapons and explosives to commodities that nourish, heal and enrich. “This nation is resolved to evade no issues and face harsh facts. We believe we can create a safer and more prosperous world. We have the tools, resources, brains and hands, but first the tide of force must be turned back.”

President Roosevelt, in a formal statement at the opening of Foreign Trade Week, declared that dictator nations had already achieved serious economic encirclement of the United States and he summoned all Americans to resist the economic slavery to which Germany and her allies would subject the world. INTENSE CRISIS “America is heading into a worldwide crisis of truly desperate intensity,” he said, “and aggression is menacing the economic, social and spiritual framework of our democratic way of life. It is idle for us to talk of future foreign trade unless we are ready now to defend the principles on which it is, and must be, based and that defence calls most urgently on every American for his immediate and utmost effort.” Stating that a totalitarian victory would mean that world trade would be controlled for the benefit of the Axis, the President added that this is a fact attested by officially inspired German announcements. Trade in such a world would be merely another weapon for further ruthless aggression and subjugation.

AMERICANS HELD IN OCCUPIED FRANCE

(Rec. 7.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, May 18. More than 2000 Americans are held as virtual hostages in Occupied France. According to the State Department no Americans have been allowed to leave Paris and other cities for the last three weeks. The possible motives suggested are:— (1) An effort to conceal troop movements.

(2) A reprisal for the arrest of German seamen in the United States. (3) Anticipatory action to secure hostages in the event of war with the United States.