Evening star., 1940-03-18
A Real Peace Busis

Whether or not it be true, as per-
sistently land. doubtless, wishfully)
rumored in certain European capi-
tails, that President Roosevelt Is
ready to launch "a peace offensive"
he has at any rate taken occasion to
indicate what he considers the basic
terms for "a real peace" They were
outlined by him Saturday in an in
ternational broadcast under the
auspices of Christian Foreign Mis-
sion Service convocation held in
New York City.
London and Paris authorities were
prompt to interpret the Presidents
address as an assurance that the
United States would not sponsor any
peace conditions which left Germany
in possession of gains won by force.
1t is, of course, counting chickens
before they are Matched for any of
the European belligerents to assume
American sponsorship" of peace
terms of any kind, for it is not a
matter of knowledge in this country
that Mr.. Roosevelt has any such
plans. Certainly, if he has, he will
come to no conclusions in advance
of Undersecretary of State Welles'
return from the war zone next week.
Meantime, the President unveils
for all the worlds inspection the
state of his mind as to what a post
war Europe should look like. The
picture he draws, as the British and
the French rightly deduce, is not one
to comfort Nazi Germany, for it
frowns directly and unreservedly
upon the kind of peace" Hitler
espouses. Mr.. Roosevelt seeks a
moral basis for peace-a peace that
cannot be real peace if it fails to
recognize brotherhood"
Der Fuehrer seeks a peace guar
anteed by and rooted in military
force-a pax Germanica, based in
part on the superiority and suprem-
acy of Aryanism, not brotherhood.
The President of the United States
urges that 'it cannot be a lasting
peace IT the fruit of it is oppression,
or starvation, or cruelty, or human
life dominated by armed camps"
The Chancellor of the German
Reich evidences, by the peace"
he has imposed in Czecho- -Slovakia
and Poland, that he has no faith in
the humanitarian ideals advocated
by Mr.. Roosevelt as the only solid
foundations of peace worthy of the
name.
The President cannot envision as
sound" a peace which requires
small nations to live in fear of
powerful neighbors." He can hardly
have failed to think of recent events
in Northern Europe when he wrote
that passage of his broadcast, for it
applies precisely to the fear" which
inspired Sweden and Norway in con-
nection with their yearnngs to give
substantial aid to Finland-the fear
that any such move on their part
would automatically bring down
upon them the wrath and military
might of Germany. And the same
consideration lies at the root of Mr..
Roosevelt's assertion that no peace
will be moral if freedom from in
vasion is sold for tribute"
Communing primarily with church.
men, it was appropriate for the
President to emphasize freedom of
speech and religious conscience as
prerequisite and quintessential to
IAN intelligent peace" for it cannot
be "a righteous peace" he said, If
worship of God is denied" In the
neo-pagan, racial state Adolf Hitler
has created, he demands worship
of the state as the Germans primary
spiritual obligation. Protestant,
Catholic and Jew who have dared to
challenge that view have paid dearly
for their resistance. The imprison-
ment of Lutheran Pastor Niemoeller,
still in concentration camp custody,
attests the Nazi concept of what
comes first-not allegiance to God,
but idolatry of Hitlerism.
European dispatches tingle with
circumstantial hints of peace moves,
mainly of German instigation. Won
Ribbentrop's recent dash to Rome
for conferences with Mussolini and
the Pope, and Hitler's surprise meet
ing with II Duce at the Brenner Pass
today, are generally associated with
the Reich's anxiety for the wars
termination-of course, on the basis
of Germany's holding what she has.
President Rooseveit's broadcast at
least gives strong indication that
the United States sanction of that
sort of peace can be classified among
the definite improbabilities.
Strong Arm Tactics