Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1948-02-08

on several occasions and pleaded tt
whatever was told him he kept ir
strictest confidence, a flood of rumol
boiled in his wake. These rumors
filled the Allies and small neutrals
with diismay lest the President, or
Mr.. Weles' return, should make 8
move for peace which, at this
juncture of the war, would confirm
Hitler in most of his gains .anc
render another war inevitable. Con-
sequently the President and
agreed that he should make q
speech to dispel these fears. Ac-
cordingly, on March Is, Mr.. Roose.
welt broadcast from the White
House to the Christian Foreign
Service Convocation, saying:
Flood of Rumors Started
To-day we seek moral basis fol
peace. 1t cannot be a real peace
If 1t fails to recognize brotherhood
It cannot be a lasting peace if the
fruit of it is oppression, or starva-
ton, or cruelty, or human life DOM
mated by armed camps. 1t cannot
be a sound peace If small nations
must live in fear Of powerful neigh
bors. 1t cannot be a moral peace II
freedom from invasion Is sold fol-
tribute. It cannot be an intelligent
peace If 1t denies free passage tc
the knowledge of those ideals which
permit man to find common ground
1t cannot be righteous peace II
worship of God is denied"
As a further step in squelching
these dangerous rumors, I sent the
President a memorandum on March
10, attaching the draft of cable
I intended sending Mr.. Welles, then
in Rome, "as matter OF special
precaution." The President wrote
his "OK F. D. R." in pencil on the
memorandum. On the same day ]
cabled, saying that I had made
clear to the press that his mission
was purely finding one, that
he was in no way acting as go-be-
tween from one belligerent to an
other, or taking part in any nego-
tiations, that it could hardly be con-
ceived that he would be given, either
for comment or action, any peace
proposal based on threat Of force
or an ultimatum with time limit
and that it was my assumption that
no peace terms would be given him
for any purpose other than for our
information. Before leaving Rome,
Mr.. Welles issued a press statement
that he had not received or con-
veyed any peace proposals, and that
his mission had been solely one of
gathering information.
Lothian Was Pleased
British Ambassador Lothian came
to see me on March 20 to thank the
President and me for what he called
the prompt way in which our Gov
eminent had acted to check and dis
pei the spread otfthe peace at any
price" sentiment, based on all sorts
of rumors about what Mr.. Welles
might do in Europe to bring about
negotiated peace, which would be
the equivalent of a German victory.
He said that efforts directed toward
bringing about a negotiated peace
might injure the British and French
war situation. I made it clear that
we had not overlooked the slightest
phase of the whole question during
recent weeks and had been ready I'd
make our position clear as emphat-
ically as we could at the proper
moment.
When Mr.. Welles returned to
Washington at the end of March, he
gave the President and me very
full report of his conversations with
Mussolini, Hitler, Daladier, Cham
berlain and the Pope, and their
foreign ministers. No one could
have cleaned more information
from them than he, but nothing he
learned gave us any basis for action
The leaders he talked to gave him
no hope for peace. The President
issued a statement on March %
that, even though there might be
scant immediate prospects for any
Just peace, the information gath
cred would undoubtedly be Of the
greatest value when the time came
for the establishment such peace
Even this statement was too opti-
mistic, as events later proved. The
time for peace did not come for
five more years, and when it did
come the men who in 1910 headed
the governments of Britain, Ger
many and Italy were dead, and the
then head of the French govern
ment was no longer in office.
Copyright. 1913, by North American
Newspaper Alliance, 1nc.)
\ The next tnstallment of Mr.: Hulrs
memoirs will appear in The Evening star
! tomorrow.