WILLKIE WITHDRAWS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 April 1944, Page 31

WILLKIE WITHDRAWS

NOT SEEKING REPUBLICAN NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST. FOLLOWING ON WISCONSIN RESULT. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, April 6. Mr Wendell Willkie, who contested the presidency in the last election, has announced his withdrawal from the contest for the Republican Party’s nomination in the coming presidential election at the conclusion of a speech in which he sharply criticised the Administration’s foreign policy, which, he contended, was causing delay and uncertainty in the prosecution of the war and promoting confusion, cynicism, and distrust on the home front. It had been his conviction, Mr. Willkie said today, that a Republican could not be nominated for President unless he received at the party’s convention the votes of some of the major Middle Western States, where the Republican Party had had its greatest resurgence. Therefore he had deliberately entered the Wisconsin primary ballot to test whether the Republican voters there would support him personally in the advocacy of every sacrificce and cost necessary for winning and shortening the war, and also affective economic and political co-operation between the nations for the preservation of peace and rebuilding humanity. The result, naturally, was disappointing, and doubly so since the leading candidate was known as an active supporter of such organisations as the America First Committee. The “New York Times” in an editorial commenting on Mr Willkie’s withdrawal, describes him as best fitted for the Republican nomination for the presidency and the I orie Republican candidate whose election would be interpreted by allies and enemies alike as in no sense a sign of a possible withdrawal of the American people from world affairs.