Hew York Time a, July 7, 1999
ON BOMBING CITIES
Ex-President Asks Pact Pro-
tecting Food Ships, Neutral
'Referees' for War
The text of Herbert Hoover's
address is on Page 6.
"4. TnaTrieutral observers should
be continuously in session wlthta;
every belligerent country to deter-
mine the facts of any killing of ci-
vilians from the air."
Mr. Hoover said that for America
to voice these Ideas on behalf of
women and children requires no
use of force.
"We possess a great moral
power," he added, "and we should
I use it to save mankind from the
barbarities of war.,* Thereby we
will promote peace. In this we will
be right at all times;"
As to those who doubted the prac-
Spooiai to Tax new york Tons.
CLEVELAND, July 6:—Former
President Herbert Hoover proposed
tonight that nations agree not to
attack food ships In time of war
and not to bomb civil populations.
He suggested that neutral nations
be the "referees," declaring that in
the World War the losers lost "by
failure to heed the public opinion
of what were originally neutral na-
tions."
In an address at the International
convention of Christian Endeavor
Societies, Mr. Hoover, who headed
the Belgium Relief Commission and
became United States Food Admin-
istrator after we entered the World
War, asserted:'
"The omotlonal reaction of the
American people upon a conviction
of wholesale killing of women and
children in another great war would
come nearer to driving our people
to Intervention than all the other
arguments in the world."
Mr. Hoover pointed out that "one
of the impelling reasons for un-
ceasing building of bombing planes
Is to prepare reprisals for blockage
starving of women and children or
reprisals for air attack."
Until these . menaces were re-
moved, he said there would be little'
relief from increasing navies and
air fleets and "little decrease in the
fear that is driving the world to its
own destruction."
"I .am going to risk a proposal
that might end the worst of It/' 'ho!
said.   "My proposal Is that all na-
tions who are willing to do so1
should enter an agreement:
"L That vessels laden solely with;
food supplies should be> placed upon'
the same basis of immunity as hos-
pital ships. They should go freely.;
Blockade should not apply to them.
There should be no attack upon!
their passage by either warships or j
submarines.
"2. That there shall be no bomb-1
ing of civil populations and no
bombing anywhere except in the i
field of actual fighting men on land
or sea, and at works devoted strict-
ly to munitions.
"Nations who are not willing to
enter such obligation will nave at1
least declared their shameful de-
votion to barbarism. They will be
proved outcasts from civilization.
"Now for the moral teeth that I
proposed for enforcement.. That Is
the definite participation of neu-
trals of the world In protection:
against these barbarities. As a
part of such agreement the neutral
nations should become the referees
announcing In authoritative way
any fouls that take place.
Neutral Observers Suggested
"To effect this, such agreement
should provide further:
"8. That . the shipment of food
supplies in war to any blockade
nation' may be in full cargoes under
the management and jurisdiction of
a commission of neutral nations.
ticablllty of the Idea of ships mov-
ing through blockades, Mr. Hoover
recalled that the Belgian Relief
Commission delivered more than
2,000 full cargoes of food through
two rings of blockade in the World
War, this being accomplished by
international agreement under neu-
tral management operating contin-
uously for more than four years.
"Incidentally," he said, "on Ar-
mistice Day In 1929, I made the
part of this proposal relating to the
Immunity of food ships. It was
approved by the leaders in a score
of nations. Those nations who did
not regard it with favor thought it
one-sided. But they now find them-
selves hideously menaced from the
air. - The double proposal should
now commend Itself to those who
then .thought It one-sided."
He contended that it was only
hyprocrisy to say that a wartime
blockade was directed to the starva-
tion of soldiers, munition workers
or government officials, declaring
that armies and munition workers
were not short of food in blockaded
Germany. All over Europe In the
World War, he said, women and
children died by millions.
Holds Frlghtfulness Futile
Mr. Hoover pointed out that a
part of the methods of modern war-
fare is the breaking down of the
morale and resistance of the civil
population at home with the result
that war today is a battle of whole
peoples who must be mobilized "to
the last atom of their economic and
emotional strength."
"The killing of women and chil-
dren haunts every council table and
affects every move of power poli-
tics," he said. "It drives not alone
to armaments. It drives to more
and more military alliances that
breed war.
"The standard of living, the com-
fort of all men Is today being
steadily lowered by this race of
armaments. It Is the backs of the
men and women who toil that carry
this load of war preparedness dur-
ing peace. It is nonsense to say
this is paid for by the rich. The
pay comes from the productivity of
the people. It Is breaking the backs
of nations today."
Mr. Hoover dismissed as an "old
fallacy" thd opinion that the pros-
pect of war becoming more terrible
frightens nations Into keeping the
peace.
"It creates fear, hats and despera-
tion which drives nations to war,"
he said. "The prospect of the kill-
ing of women an dchlldren makes
war more likely." I
Another old fallacy, he went on,
was that "the more terrible war is,
the quicker the sickened nations
will make peace." -.Pointing out
that war has become more terrible
every'year since the Invention of
gun powder and that "human cour-
age rises far above any terror yet
invented,"-Mr. Hoover said:
"Tfiis same fallacy pretends that
putting the screws on the civil
population gets war over quicker.
Such a policy is thus said to be
more humane. The last war proved
that starvation and bombing only
sharpened and hardened the resolu-
tion to continue."