NEUTRALITY LAW

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 July 1939, Page 7

NEUTRALITY LAW

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S STAND DEMAND FOR EARLY ACTION BY CONGRESS. REMOVAL OF ARMS EMBARGO. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. WASHINGTON. July 11. I’ffiiteii by one vote at a meeting' of the Senate foreign Relations Committee (which decided to postpone until next session consideration ol the neutrality legishitiin), President Roosevelt tonight insisted that Congress remain in session until new neutrality legislation lifting the embargo on arms exports to belligerent countries is enacted, lie issued a warning that the outbreak of war would make it extremely difficult to revise the Neutrality Act. The only way in which a neutrality Bill approved by the House of Representatives can reach the Senate now is through a motion to discharge the committee from further consideration of it. However, while the Administration claims to have a Senate majority, the isolationist bloc threatens to filibuster. According to the "New York Times,"Mr Cordell Hull. State Secretary. and Senators Barkley and Pittman are devising a plan involving' offering as a Senate amendment to the Bill a clause repealing all neutrality legislation. It is claimed that this would not force the House to register its original vote on a proposal against which it once committed itself. It would offer the best chance of preventing a filibuster. and it would attract a large vote in the Senate from those favouring repeal and those dissatisfied with the present proposal for revision. Mr Roosevelt declared that the committee’s vote was not a clear-cut test of the Senate's views. Two Democrats. Senators Gillette (Iowa) and George (Georgia), whom the President attempted to purge in the last primaries, held the balance of power in the committee, and they voted to postpone consideration of the Bill till next session. Mr Roosevelt refused to tell the Precs his next move, but he reiterated that if Congress adjourned without enacting the legislation it would mean

that nothing could be done before next spring. Meanwhile, all kinds of things might happen. He indicated that he does not intend calling a special session unless Europe is plunged into war. Mr Cordell Hull, grim and unsmiling. told the Press: "The interests of peace and the security of the United States require that we continue to urge the adoption of our neutrality programme.” The New York "Herald-Tribune," in an editorial, says: "The Presidents purge has come home to roost. It is the country's loss. Wishes weren t respected, but too many men in the. committee had their own taste of the Presidential abuse of power and position. It is cold comfort when Republicans and Democrats alike feel that the world crisis makes it imperative for the President to have a free hand in the matter of neutrality, but it shows that even when a man is overwhelmingly popular spite politics do not pay.”