PEACE PLANS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 203, 25 August 1944, Page 5

PEACE PLANS

PRESIDENT WELCOMES DELEGATES “GET TOGETHER” SPIRIT Recd. 7 p.m. Washington, Aug. 23. : Welcoming the 42 delegates to the [Dumbarton Oaks conference to the (White House, President Roosevelt said: “I hope that i»n planning for ■ peace we will arrive at tne same good I co-operation and unity of action as we | have in carrying on the war. It is .remarkable that we have carried on the war with such great unanimity. Often it comes down to personalities. Back in 1941, at the time of the Atlantic Charter, I did not know Mr. Churchill at all well. I had met him once or twice, very informally, during the first World War, but up there in the North Atlantic for three or four days together, with our two ships lying close together, I got to know him and he got to know me. Later M. Molotov came here. Then during the following year at Teheran Marshal Stalin and I got to know each other.”

After quoting Mr. Henry Stimson’S remark that unfortunately the young Nazis favour ideas which will be dangerous to the peace of the world as long as they have anything to say thereanent, the President went on: “Prisoners of 17 and 20 we are capturing now, both on the French and Soviet fronts, are even worse in Nazi-

ism than the prisoners of 40 and 45, therefore as long as these young men have any say the peril of Naziism will always be before us. We must make not merely peace but a peace that will last, in which the larger nations will work absolutely in unison in preventing war by force. But all of us have to be friends, conferring all the time and putting our cards on the table. I am hopeful th#t it can be done because of the spirit shown in the past in getting together for the winning of the war. That is the spirit we have learned so well in the last few years. This close relationship between the British Empire and the United States is sometimes new. This great friendship between the Russian and American people—that is now. Let us hang on to both friendships, and by spreading that spirit throughout the world we may have a peaceful period for our grandchildren to grow up in."

Wishing the delegates every possible success, Mr. Roosevelt added: “Your great task will not be the final task, but at least it gives us something on which to build so that we can accomplish the one thing humanity has been looking forward to for a great many hundreds of years.”