NEUTRALITY & PEACE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 July 1939, Page 6

NEUTRALITY & PEACE

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT SPEAKS OUT

BAD EFFECT OF ACTION BY HOUSE AGGRESSORS ENCOURAGED. DEMAND THAT ARMS EMBARGO BE LIFTED. By Te 1 egraph—Press Association— Copyright. (Received This Day, 12.25 p.m.) WASHINGTON, July 4. . Sitting on the lawn in his shirt sleeves, in Hyde Park, where a Fourth of July picnic had been given to eighty guests, President Roosevelt, at a Press conference, indieat- - ed further his position regarding the neutrality question, just before interrupting his holiday and departing in a special train for Washington in an effort to secure the elimination of the arms embargo provision from the Bloom Neutrality Bill. The President asserted that Press dispatches from the four major capitals stating that the action of the House in adopting a modified embargo had been welcomed in the Fascist and Nazi nations were substantiated by reports received by the State Department. He expressed a belief that the action had had an unfavourable effect upon the current European crisis and might bring war closer, and would make it more difficult for the United States to remain unembroiled. Mr Roosevelt added that he wanted a measure more likely to have a restraining effect upon the nations considering war, since the first policy of his Administration is to prevent any war in any part of the world.

WARNING ISSUED BY MR CORDELL HULL. MR HOOVER CRITICISES PRESIDENT. (Received This Day, 12.55 p.m.) NEW YORK, July 4. The “New York Times” Washington correspondent states that Mr Cordell Hull has issued a warning 'to some members of Congress that they will have to explain why they want to go home and hang their hats in the shade while the world is in such a dangerous condition. He indicated that the Administration might start an educational campaign to arouse public opinion to the necessity of abolishing the arms embargo.” Mr Herbert Hoover, writing in a magazine published today, demands a formal declaration by the Government that the United States will not go to war with a European nation unless the Western Hemisphere is attacked. He considers the neutrality legislation unimportant unless the United States has the will to remain out of war. He also criticises President Roosevelt’s “more than words” methods against aggressor nations, as drawing the nation into power politics.