Evening star., 1939-12-06
Roosevelt
Continued From First Page)

untroubled, the steady development
of their free political and social in
stitutions which have aroused the
admiration of the American people" !"
To Segregate Debt Payment.
Yesterday the President disclosed
he had asked Secretary of the Treas
ury Morgenthau to segregate in a
special suspended account the debt
installment of $243,693 which the
Finnish government is reported
planning to pay this country on
December Is. Mr.. Roosevelt plans
to inform Congress of this action
early in the next session, he eX-
planned further, and to recommend
at that time some specific manner
in which the impounded payment
might be devoted to benefit the
Finnish people directly.
Although European efforts to ne
gotiate a peaceful settlement of the
Baltic dispute are reported in high
administration circles here and this
Government is quite apparently
hesitant to take any precipitate
action which might jeopardize such
efforts, the President left open for
further speculation yesterday the
possibility of severance of diplo-
matte relations between this Gov
ernment and the Soviet, or the recall
OF Ambassador Laurence A. Stein
hardt from Moscow for consultation.
Specifically, he said, there was
%n IN 0%
present, but he added pointedly that
he could not predict future develop
ments and that things are happen
ing all the time.
Flint Case Not Closed.
In this connection, it was recalled
by some here today that this Gov
ernment does not yet consider the
incident of the City of Flint seizure
closed nor satisfactory explanation
made by the Moscow government of
its conduct in that situation The
City of Flint, captured by German
crew, was permitted free use of the
Russian Arctic port of Murmansk
while American efforts to gather in
formation on the incident were
blocked.
Considerable mystery has sur
rounded the peace efforts reported
in administration circles yester-
day, with only the following circum-
stances being indicated: First, that
the United States is not now a party
to the efforts; second. that extreme
care will be taken that no official
action of this Government should
jeopardize these efforts, and, third,
tnat measure of optimism is felt
here concerning possible success of
the attempt.
Meanwhile from California the
Associated Press reported that
former President Hoover has
proposed setting up an organization
to gather funds and coordinate
American efforts on behalf of the
Finnish people.
Possibility of extension of Amer
ican credit to the Finnish govern
ment also arose here Since the
Films are not in default to this
Government on their debts and re-
strictions of the Neutrality Act have
not been invoked in the Baltic hos
tilities, there are no statutory OBJ
stacles to assisting Finland in ac-
Quiring wartime supplies in this
country.
Hook to Draft Legislation.
Representative Hook, Democrat. of
Michigan said today he would draft
legislation to make her war-debt
payments available to Finland.
President Roosevelt took occasion
at his press conference yesterday
to defend our foreign policy as di-
rected by Secretary of State Hull.
speaking with pointed sarcasm of
the principal sources of criticism of
this policy. The great majority of
the American people undoubtedly
are in favor of our present policies,
he said, in view of the emanation of
criticism from the following two
groups:
l. The Soviet press. A portion of
the Nazi press. The publicity ex-
pert of the Republican National
Committee and the Hearst news
papers. All, he said, were in substan-
tial accord in attacking American
foreign policy.
2. Statesmen of Russia and Ger
many and a comparatively small
number of politically minded people
in the United States House and Sen
ate.
William Randolph Hearst COM
mented to the Associated Press at
McCloud, Calf, that "the Hearst
papers are never quite sure whether
they can support or oppose the
Presidents policies, because those
policies change so much on their
IN ayaoyyfiNye -