M   ^*^^^i||BITI8H KMBAS3Y.
| WASHIKOIQN, ».G.
^    January 10th, 1939
My Lord,
With reference to my telegram No* 6
of January 4th Z have the honour to transmit to
Your Lordship a copy of the annual message which the
President read on January 4th before a joint session
of the Senate and House of Representatives*
2* Mr* Roosevelt opened his speech toy inform-
ing Congress that he had in the past felt it necessary
to warn them of disturbances abroad and of the need
of putting the American house in order in the face
of storm signals from overseas;   he now warned then
once more*    A war which threatened to involve the
world in flames had been averted, but it had become
increasingly clear that peace was not assured*
Armaments, military and economic* were growing more
deadly* and there were threats of new aggression*
Storms from abroad directly challenged three insti-
tutions indispensable to Americans*     The first was
religion* and it was the source of the other two,
democracy and international good faith* where
freedom of religion had been attacked the attack had
come from sources opposed to democracy* Where
democracy had been overthrown the spirit of free
worship had disappeared and where religion and democracy
had/
The Right Honourable
Viscount Halifax, K.G
• *
Etc.
etc*
etc.

had raniehed good faith In International affairs
tad given way to etrident ambition and bruta force.
There came a time whoa men must prepare to defend not
their boat a alone, but religion, democracy and good
faith among nations.     If the new philosophies of
force were to encompass the other   continents and
invade America this country no more than any other
could afford to be surrounded by the enemies of our
faith and our humanity. §It was fortunate therefore
that In the tVeatern Hemisphere under a common ideal
of democratic government there was a rich diversity
of resources and of peoples living together in mutual
reapect and peace.        The United States proposed to
do ita share in protecting this Hemisphere. This
did not man the Americas against the rest of the
worldj   *We, as one of the Republics, reiterate our
willingness to help the cause of world peace* We
stand on our historic offer to take council with all
other nations of the world to the end that aggression
among them be terminated, that the race of armaments
cease and that commerce be renewed."
3» The President proceeded to argue that the
world had grown so small and weapons of attack so
swift that no nation could feel sure of peace. weapons
of defence therefore gave the only safety if any
government bristling with implements of war insisted
on policies of force.     Effective timing of defence
was essential and survival could not be guaranteed by
arming after the attack had begun* God-fearing
democracies could not forever let paaa without protest
acts of aggression against sister nations.     "The mere
fact/
50
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fact   that we rightly decline to intervene with
arms to prevent acta of aggression does not raeen
that we Bust act as if there were no aggression
at all*    Words may be futile, bat war is not the
only means of commanding a decent respect for the
opinions of mankind;    There are many methods short
of war, tout stronger and sore effective than mere
words, of bringing home to aggressor governments
the aggregate sentiments of our own people*.
4* Mr* Roosevelt next insisted that everything
should toe done to avoid encouraging or assisting an
aggressor, and pointed out that the existing neutrality
lawa may operate unevenly and unfairly toy actively
giving aid to an aggressor aid denying it to a victim.
Another lesson waa that the probability of attack
was greatly decreased toy the assurance of an ever
ready defence.     The country must have armed forces
and   defences strong enough to ward off sudden attack
against strategic positions and key facilities,
essential to ensure sustained resistance and ultimate
victory.     Secondly, the country must have the
organisation and location of those key facilities so
that they may be immediately utilised and rapidly
expanded to meet all needs without danger of Inter-
ruption toy enemy attack.     Mr. Roosevelt therefore
in the next few days intended to send a special message
to Congress making recommendations for such defence
measures.
6. The/
51
6* The third essential lay in the underlying
strength of citizenship, the self-confidence, the
ability, imagination and devotion to see thing*
through*     Even a well armed nation might meet'defeat
if it woo unnerved by self-diatrust, endangered by
class prejudice, dissension between capital and
labour and unsolved social problems at home* "In
meeting the troubles of the world we must meet them
as one people" •    A democratic nation, not being
regimented like a dictatorship, could only muster ita
united strength when the people felt that they were
receiving the fullest opportunities for development*
The nation's programme of social and economic reform
was therefore a part of  defence as baslo as armaments
themselves*
6* Prom this the President went on to summarise
the achievements of the six years of his administra-
tion In social reform, and to claim that they con-
stituted the greatest six years of internal prepared*
ness in the nation's history, and that all this had
been done without dictatorship, without conscription
and without restriction of freedom of speech* Hew
tools of Government had had to bo forged, and some
of them were roughly shaped and needed improvement*
The tools could not be pat to their ¦stIimm use until
the executive processes of government were reorganised*
After thus foreshadowing a fresh attempt to persuade
Congress to pass a Mil for greater government efficiency
Mr. Roosevelt said that with the exception of legislatior
5A
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to ameliorate railroad and other traneportation
problems, paot Congresses had more or lose set the
needs Of the new order of things*    no period of
Internal conflict In launching a programme of
social reform was now past and energies could bo
released to improve existing legislation. Time
was of paramount importance because "we are off
on a race to make democracy work so that we may
be efficient in peace and therefore secure In self**
defence."
7. The rest of the message dealt mainly
with the President's argument that capital and man
power must he brought together, existing oapital
put to employment In order to create a national
income of 80 billions of dollars a year, and
existing expenditure increased rather than curtailed
to achieve that end.    Z have referred to this part
of the message In another despatch.
6* The tremendous emphasis which Mr. Roosevelt
laid in his speech upon the need for defence organ*
loatlon and preparedness for war io an indication of
how strong is his alarm at the present state of
affairs in Bur ope and Asia.     X understand that ho
talks quite openly with his intimates about the
probability of war in Europe this Spring. Speaking
the other day privately to a group of journalists ho
is said to hawm called their attention to two dates,
April 6th 1917 when the united States entered the
war and May 20th, 1918 when American troops were
first engaged in battle, and to have remarked that
America/
America could not always la the future rely on
others to fight her battles for her* The
President will hare a considerable tussle with
Congress to get his way about an adequate defence
programme*     The legislature la fall of amateur
strategists who will all have their own ideas, and
there la a strong nucleus of complete pacifists who
consider that America should not fight la any cir-
cumstances.    Generally, I believe that Congress
is la favour Of increased armaments for self-
defence, although it reflects the opinion of the
electorate in believing that America should and can
keep out of a groat war*     The President Is convinced
to the contrary and is out to educate the people
away from isolationism*     He began the process at
Chicago la the Autumn of 1937, but in spite of the
"Panay" Incident he met with vary little success.
The shock of events in Europe last September has made
hi a hearers more receptive, but the Munich settlement
is not popular and the President's part la it has
beea rather played dowa of late*    The present session
of Congress may well prove educational to the country
at large, but the real test will come over the
¦eawrality debates and 1 foresee considerable reluc-
tance to give the President as free a hand as he would
like.
9.* The press has on the whole received the
President'e message with more enthusiasm for Its
defence section than for the part dealing with internal
affairs and continued spending for prosperity* The
•Mew/
"Now York Time a" thinks the message Barks a turning
point in the Administration's history, but Is
cautious with praise.     It is disheartened to fiat
lavish government spending still championed when,
la the paper's view, the record shows such spending
to be s relatively minor factor in recovery. It
calls the President's foreign policy, "if put Into
action        a sharp break with the traditions of the
immediate past" and considers that the policy needs
more definition.     It believes, however, that It
is time to reconsider whether the Neutrality Act
"represents the opinion or promises te conserve the
interests of the American people".     the *Wew York
Herald Tribune" in a leading article headed "Spending
from fright", safe the nation "faces a possible war
emergency with the greatest debt In history and the
budget completely out of control" end calls the
President's attempt to shift responsibility en te
Congress "naive".     The paper holds that the road
ef active Intervention against aggressors cannot be
fallowed alone but requires a clear working under*
standing with the other great democracies, which, In
its turn, depends on the reality of the menace.
The "Baltimore Sun" flade the President "net definite
in his bases14 for demanding more ansa*     It charges
him with "groping" and "inconclusiveness" despite
his "discovery* that fer six years America has been
getting ready for Hitler* ¦£ "Never has Mr* Roosevelt
shone more brilliantly in the improvisation of life*
long convictions."     The lesser rape re tend to
approve/
5S
approve the President's foreign policy while
dealing according to their lights with hie attitude
on domestic affaire, or criticising his linking
of the two*    Hone goes further in this latter
angle of attack then the "Chicago Tribune* which,
in a leader entitled "Air. Roosevelt goes to War",
assorts that Hitler, Mussolini and the Japanese
generals are as necessary to the President as he is
to them*     "A dictator seeks the role of deliverer
and protector", it says*   "the greatest danger is
not over the water" •
10. Of the columnists, Arthur Krock, writing
In the "Hew York Tines", believes that the President's
linked programme will be strongly resisted In Congress
and that the chief effort of Its critics will bo to
deal w»ith the two parts one by one*    Frank Kent,
in the "Baltimore Sun", considers that the interest
in the new Congress lies in the attitude of the
Democratic Senators*     If the President, he says*
has lost control of the Senate Democrats, he has
lost control of the Democratic Party* Dorothy
Thompson calls the Message the greatest speech of
the President*s career, and fully approves Its foreign
policy*     She holds however that the Hew Deal has
lamentably failed to secure the cooperation of
capital and labour, and she calls not for spending
alone, but for a policy on spending*    waiter Llppmann,
in a wide-ranging article, calls the message a land-
mark in the history of western thought*    In its
opening insistence on religion as the source of
democracy/
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democracy and international good faith, he
thinks it registers a fundamental change of
ideas that is in general progress throughout the
world*    Mr. Roosevelt has seen, he says, that It
is not enough to denounce tyranny and oppression
abroad;   "that it is necessary to bring to an
end       those deep and ancient antagonisms (i.e.
the class straggle and the hitherto assumed
opposition of religion and patriotism to freedom
and progress) within the democratic nations that
have paralyzed and disorganized them in their
conflict with revolution at home and with aggros*
sion from abroad."
the High Commissioner for the United Kingdom in
Canada. ^
r
ii«
Z have the honour to to
with the highest respect,
My Lord,
Tour Lordship's most obedient
humble servant,
(,8Gii) Y.A.L.yallet
H.K.CHARGE D'AFFAIRES