The New York Times Book of World War II, 1939-1945

by The New York Times

  The most immediate effect is the complete moral and “ideological” change which this working alliance must bring. It clears the air. It will sweep illusions from millions of minds. For at least the last fifteen years communism and fascism have lived on each other. Each has declared itself to be the other’s exact antithesis and only formidable enemy. Millions of Germans stomached Hitler in the belief that he was the only hope, as he himself repeatedly boasted, to save them from communism. He framed his anti-Comintern pacts and posed before the world as communism’s arch-foe. Though Stalin has always held western democracy in contempt, he created and kept alive for years the pretense of an alliance with it against fascism; his satellites, tools and dupes in other countries formed their “popular fronts” and their leagues against war and fascism. All these pretenses and lies have collapsed together. The most squirming apologists now will not be able to convince anyone but idiots of their sincerity. At last the issue stands clear. Hitlerism is brown communism, Stalinism is red fascism. The world will now understand that the only real “ideological” issue is one between democracy, liberty and peace on the one hand and despotism, terror and war on the other.

  SEPTEMBER 22, 1939

  HEAVY GUARD KEPT AROUND ROOSEVELT

  Women in Peace Group From Philadelphia Try Vainly to Storm The House Wing

  By FELIX BELAIR Jr.

  Special to The New York Times.

  WASHINGTON, Sept. 21—The most elaborate precautions taken to safeguard the life of the Chief Executive since World War days were employed here today when President Roosevelt went to the Capitol to address a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives on the subject of American neutrality.

  Even before Mr. Roosevelt left the White House the streets through which he was to pass were being patrolled, and the Capitol Building and grounds had taken on the appearance of an armed camp. The corridors of the House wing of the building where the President was to speak were barricaded at strategic points and a Secret Service agent guarded every entrance to the chamber.

  Rarely if ever before had there been assembled a more formidable guard of uniformed, Capitol and metropolitan police, Federal operatives and city detectives. Such was the apprehension of those whose first duty is to protect the life of the President that a number of selected private detectives were brought to Washington for the occasion from other cities.

  ALL WINDOWS ARE WATCHED

  Their numbers suddenly enlarged by news of the assassination of Premier Calinescu of Rumania, plainclothes secret service agents and city detectives idled about the corridors and doorways leading to the House chamber. Every Treasury agent available for duty was pressed into service.

  As the President entered and left the west wing of the Capitol, every window overlooking his waiting limousine was being watched and Secret Service men walked back and forth along the balustrade bordering the esplanade which separates the building from the surrounding lawns. There was not a nook or cranny that was not under constant surveillance.

  When the President goes to the Capitol he always is accompanied by a motorcade of escorting policemen. Their number was increased today and a Secret Service car flanked the President’s car on either side a little to the rear.

  For the first time in the Capitol’s history, the Secret Service took over the duties of the House doormen. Admission to the chamber was by card only, and trained eyes scrutinized the few lucky ones who held them, in search of anything unusual about their appearance and clothing.

  No one was allowed to enter or leave the chamber once the President had gone inside. The huge inner doors at all entrances, ordinarily closed only when the House goes home for the Summer, were shut tightly as Mr. Roosevelt began his address.

  PRECAUTIONS IN THE PRESS GALLERY

  Nor was the press gallery overlooked in the preparations for the Presidential visit. In the inner gallery overlooking the House floor, Secret Service agents were posted as a precaution against unauthorized intrusion, while other agents roamed about the adjoining room where correspondents write their dispatches.

  President Roosevelt at the White House, 1939.

  The unusual amount of advance planning for the day was apparent to reporters as they arrived early this morning at the White House executive offices. All gates were half closed so that they could be manned easily by one of the household guards. Those not readily recognized were asked to present their credentials. Sight-seers and other pedestrians were barred from the White House grounds.

  Actually, wherever the President went from the time he left the White House until he re-entered it, he was surrounded with Secret Service agents. They were around his automobile when he appeared on the south lawn of the mansion to start out for the Capitol, and they were within quick reaching distance even after he had entered the House chamber.

  Tension did not ease until the iron gates closed behind Mr. Roosevelt after the motor trip back from the Capitol that ended where it began—on the south lawn.

  The task of policing the Capitol’s interior was made no easier by the appearance of several hundred Philadelphians, purporting to represent the Committee for Defense of Constitutional Rights, who picketed members of the Senate as they proceeded in a body from the Senate wing of the Capitol to the House chamber.

  One group attempted to storm the entrance to the House wing, and several women became enraged at Capitol policemen who barred their way.

  “And me with a flag in my hand,” one remarked.

  “We’re mothers,” another shouted. “We don’t want our boys to go to war. I have six; she has seven.”

  Eventually Representative Luther A. Patrick arrived on the scene.

  “What did Congress do to you that wronged you?” he inquired.

  “We don’t want it to do anything to wrong us,” one of the women exclaimed. “Are you a Communist?”

  “No,” he assured her.

  “Well,” said she, “you sure look like one.”

  SEPTEMBER 26, 1939

  Letters to The Times

  VIEWS ON THE ARMS EMBARGO

  MAJORITY OPINION EXPRESSED IN LETTERS TO THE TIMES FAVORS REPEAL

  To the Editor of The New York Times:

  It seems to me that the discussion of the embargo repeal issue, in your letter columns and elsewhere, has ignored a fact of basic importance to our policy—the overwhelming popular sentiment in favor of the Allies.

  Both the Gallup poll and the Fortune survey reveal that our sentiment in favor of non-participation is based in the premise that the Allies can win without it. Both sources show a considerable bloc of opinion, potentially much larger, which favors our entering the war in the event that the Allies should begin to sink. It follows, I submit, that a neutrality policy designed to help the Allies win is the best conceivable policy to keep us out of war. For if the Allies begin to lose the pressure for our participation will become enormous, perhaps irresistible.

  Since Germany has every interest in keeping us out of war, I cannot take seriously the conceptualist arguments of those who suggest that, in the context of war, repeal of our arms embargo would be an unfriendly act toward Germany, likely to involve us in the struggle. The phrase “act of war” has only the concreteness which history has given it. Lesser events than the repeal of an embargo have in the past been “acts of war,” and greater affronts have often been ignored.

  If Germany in its sovereignty decided that repeal was an act of war against it, and followed by declaring war against us, then certainly the repeal would be such an act. If, on the contrary, Germany did nothing, then repeal would be repeal, and neither an act of war nor an unfriendly act likely to embroil us in Europe.

  Eugene V. Rostow,

  New Haven, Conn., Sept. 23, 1939.

  FAVORING INTERNATIONAL LAW

  To the Editor of The New York Times:

  The majority of the American people want peace. They stand by President Roosevelt and support the views expressed by him in his speech before Congress.

>   It is to be noted, however, that this great majority is unorganized, whereas the minority, those who disagree with the President, or a substantial part of it, appears to be highly organized.

  Under these circumstances it would be most unfortunate and regrettable if the President’s proposals should be defeated by the pressure of the organized opposition. Therefore, those who support him should immediately take effective measures to offset or overcome the pressure of that opposition.

  I want peace as much as any American, and no one wants it more than our President; we all want to avoid involvement. We can best protect ourselves by repealing the embargo and having our neutrality governed by international law, as it should be. At the same time, by repealing the embargo, we would return to England and France, with whom we have common vital interests, the advantages which they have over Germany, to whose policies almost all of us are opposed.

  Jules Schnapper.

  Brooklyn, Sept. 23, 1939.

  SEPTEMBER 29, 1939

  Editorial

  NEWS IN WARTIME

  The need of caution in sifting truth from falsehood in reports of war moves is also indicated in assaying reports of peace moves. In recent days the British have flatly denied official German accounts of a Nazi air raid on the British fleet in the North Sea. A similar denial now has been given to a report from Rome stating that the Pope is working diplomatically through neutral countries to induce Britain and France to agree to a conference for peace based on the creation of a Polish buffer state. This unconfirmed story was current in Rome, our correspondent said, and had been repeated by an Italian correspondent in Berlin. Later the Vatican declared that no new efforts had been initiated by the Holy See, and that the report had originated in Germany.

  These contradictions of fact are the daily by-product of a war being fought at the moment more fiercely with diplomatic bombshells and propaganda raids than with military weapons. They differ from the contradictory interpretations placed on the negotiations now in progress in Moscow. These are the product of deliberate mystification. Even when the secret conversations in the Kremlin are concluded, the full extent of agreement or disagreement between Stalin and Hitler will be revealed only by their subsequent moves on the Western Front no less than in the East.

  Less and less, however, do conflicting reports or confusing intrigues becloud the judgment of the American public. Opinion in this country has become pretty expert in sifting evidence and appraising the credibility of the statements of governments that live by lying and chicanery. Seldom in our history has America shown itself so aware, so skeptical, so consciously responsible as during the present crises, and the chief reason for this sobriety and vigilance is that our information, though often contradictory, is more complete and reliable than that of any other people. We are in the unique position of hearing all the contradictions and therefore of basing conclusions on all the evidence available. It is not by accident that the United States is the object of every variety of appeal and propaganda. It is a recognition of and in a way a tribute to the fact that this is now the largest open forum of free report and uncensored opinion.

  SEPTEMBER 29, 1939

  TALLINN GIVES WAY

  Capitulates to Demands as Russian Planes Fly Over The City

  By G. E. R. GEDYE

  Special Cable to The New York Times.

  MOSCOW, Sept. 29—Without its necessitating any immediate change in the uncertain map of Europe the Estonian Republic virtually ceased to exist in the early hours of today.

  By the signature of two treaties, labeled “mutual assistance” and “trade agreement,” the little Baltic republic passed under the full domination of the Soviet Union and yielded to Russia naval bases and airdromes and the right to maintain military forces in Estonian territory.

  She fully accepted the implications of Soviet assertions about the operations of mysterious, unidentified submarines in Estonian waters and handed to Moscow the keys to her security and national existence, which she had held since the collapse of Russian Czarism and the formation of the Soviet Union.

  The “mutual assistance” pact is to come into force upon the exchange of ratifications at Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, within six days. The pact is concluded for ten years. Unless it is denounced by either party within a year from the date of expiration, it is to continue for another five years.

  It was signed by Premier and Foreign Commissar Vyacheslaff M. Molotoff of Russia and Foreign Minister Karl Selter of Estonia.

  TERMS OF THE AGREEMENT

  Article I of the Soviet-Estonian pact says the two contracting parties will give each other every assistance, including military, if direct aggression occurs on the part of any great European power against their respective frontiers in the Baltic Sea or their land frontiers or across the territory of the Latvian Republic, as well as against the bases in Estonia, that are granted to the Soviet Union, which are indicated in Article III.

  Article II says the U.S.S.R. is to give the Estonians assistance in armaments and other military equipment on favorable terms.

  Article III says the Estonian Republic assures the U.S.S.R. of the right to maintain naval bases and several airdromes on the stipulated terms at a reasonable leasing price on the Estonian islands of Faarenaa, Hiccunha, Taleiska and Baleiski. The exact sites of the bases are to be allotted and their boundaries defined by mutual agreement.

  For the protection of the bases and airdromes, the U.S.S.R. is to maintain at its own expense Soviet land and sea forces of a strictly limited strength in Estonia. The maximum numbers are to be determined by special agreement.

  Article IV provides that the two parties agree not to participate in any coalition directed against either party. The fifth article says the pact does not affect the sovereign rights of the contracting parties or their economic or State organization.

  OCTOBER 1, 1939

  HITLER, POLES CRUSHED, WOULD HALT WAR NOW

  He Will Offer ‘Peace’ To Britain and France, Hinting Russia Will Help Him if Answer Is ‘No’

  By EDWIN L. JAMES

  Now that Poland has been crushed and divided between Germany and Russia, Hitler thinks Britain and France should halt their war against Germany. It is his argument that if London and Paris declared war on Berlin in order to carry out their pledges to protect Poland, it is henceforth useless to fight about that because Poland is gone. It is understood that Italy will probably propose peace and Hitler has called the Reichstag to meet next week.

  It looks like Hitler expects Britain and France to turn a deaf ear to his proposals and that he is preparing to tell the German people that the democratic allies are really fighting to destroy Germany and that the war he will lead will be to save the Third Reich from that destruction.

  Of course, there is a certain amount of logic in all this as the Germans state it. But there are imponderable considerations which affect that logic. When they gave their guarantee to Poland, London and Paris had more in mind than a simple wish to preserve Polish independence. Poland, in a way, had become a symbol. In other words, London and Paris sought to end the aggression of Hitler, which seemed without limits, or rather which did not conform to the limits Hitler set upon it. From this point of view, the destruction of Poland constitutes a reason for continuing the war rather than for stopping it.

  WHAT WOULD PEACE BRING?

  It is naturally an important matter which Hitler plans to bring to the attention of Chamberlain and Daladier. The war has really not started on the Western Front and Germany proposes that it not start and that those concerned forget about it, demobilize their forces and go home. What the British and French leaders have got to consider is, “Where will that leave us?”

  Hitler started out with a program of getting as many Germans as possible within the confines of the Third Reich, making a great deal of the point that he wanted only Germans. There was no little sympathy with this ambition in many quarters. But when he went to Prague and annexed millions of Czechs, he did much damage to tha
t program; he caused people all over the world to think that it was only a cloak for imperialistic ambition.

  Now the line drawn through Poland has brought under the German aegis millions on millions of Poles, who are not German by any stretch of the imagination. That puts a further dent in the program Hitler boasted.

  THE GERMAN-RUSSIAN HOOK-UP

  For years Hitler built up his position as the great knight defender of the world against communism. Now he is a partner with Stalin in the rape of Poland. That does further damage to his simple program of bringing Germans together in one happy family. It makes his Anti-Comintern Pact, for years the center of his foreign policy, look like a lost hope in a fog—a fog out of which no one knows what will come.

  Furthermore, Berlin is now threatening that Russia will come to the active military help of Germany if Britain and France keep up the war and he has announced with enthusiasm the arrangements made by which Russia will become a base of supplies for Germany. Whether or not one believes that Germany will let a Russian army cross its soil to fight on the Western Front, there can be no doubt that Hitler is threatening, for what the threat is worth, to bring Russian military force to his aid.