Surrender expected –
Il Duce and gang must face trial, Roosevelt warns
‘Humanity on the march’ has seized initiative, President asserts, but victory road is still long, he says
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
Washington –
The new Italian government was on notice today to hold Benito Mussolini “and his gang” for trial and punishment by the United Nations as a part of unconditional surrender.
In a broadcast beamed throughout the world, President Roosevelt last night reiterated the Casablanca unconditional surrender terms that are offered to all Axis members and said the United Nations were now substantially agreed on general post-war plans.
It appeared that Italians acceptance of those terms was of almost hourly expectation since ecclesiastical sources in Madrid reported – after Mr. Roosevelt’s speech was written – that the first Italian peace feelers of Marshal Pietro Badoglio’s government were en route to Washington and London.
Mr. Roosevelt spoke from the White House last night. He combined a vigorously hopeful review of the war fronts with announcement that coffee rationing had been abandoned, that more generous sugar rations could be expected soon, and revelation that the 1944 Democratic Party platform plank on war veterans’ benefits has already been written. Mr. Roosevelt proposed a broad program of aid for demobilized American servicemen that would provide substantial financial, educational and job-seeking help.
His broadcast, which bristled with warning to the Axis nations that “the massed, angered forces of common humanity are on the march,” also cautioned Americans that:
The length of the war will depend upon the uninterrupted continuance of all-out effort both on the fighting fronts and here at home.
Allied leaders praised
The President spoke warmly of his major associates – Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and Premier Joseph Stalin. And for Russia, especially, he bespoke the constant friendship of the United States in the world of the future.
The United Nations are substantially agreed on general post-war objectives, he said, but it is too early to attempt to discuss all peace terms and all future details.
He continued:
We must not relax our pressure on the enemy by taking time out to define every boundary and settle every political controversy in every part of the world. The all-important thing now is to get on with the war.
Mr. Roosevelt promised early “serious and constructive plans” on the home front dealing with food, manpower and other domestic problems, but he did not go into detail.
Aid for war veterans
But for war veterans he proposed a detailed program of benefits which will undoubtedly figure in the 1944 presidential campaign unless enacted by Congress prior to the next election. The program, other than as it related to disabled veterans, would facilitate and in large measure underwrite the costs of reentry of servicemen and women in to civil life either as workers or as students at government expense.
Mr. Roosevelt rebuked those Americans who, “playing party politics at home,” ridicule post-war foreign policy planning as “crazy altruism” and “starry-eyed dreaming.” That reference was regarded as a kind but not-too-vigorous gesture toward Vice President Henry A. Wallace.
Mr. Roosevelt had his eye on Italy as he talked. And he promised that Tōjō and Hitler would follow Mussolini into ignominious retirement.
‘First crack in Axis’
The President said:
The first crack in the Axis has come. The criminal, corrupt Fascist regime in Italy is going to pieces. Mussolini came to the reluctant conclusion that the “jig was up.”
But he and his Fascists gang will be brought to book, and punished for their crimes against humanity.
Our terms to Italy are still the same as our terms to Germany and Japan – unconditional surrender. We will permit no vestige of Fascism to remain.
That language was deemed here to be a warning to Badoglio, the new Italian Prime Minister, to be ready to deliver Mussolini and his top associates to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower when the surrender comes.
To the Italian people – and Axis populations in general – Mr. Roosevelt promised immediate food, security and order as the United Nations take over and for the future, he reiterated the four freedoms guarantee.
Mr. Roosevelt found much that was encouraging on the war fronts. He considers the German summer offensive against the Russians a failure. He reported continued success against U-boats, but warned that we never know when the rate of sinkings may rise again.
War with Japan
The President said:
We are still far from our main objectives in the war against Japan.
…and stated those objectives to be attacked on the Japanese islands themselves from the north, east, south and west. But we are growing stronger in the Pacific, we have seized the initiative and we mean to keep it, he added.
He continued:
And if the Japanese are basing their future plans for the Pacific on a long period in which they will be permitted to consolidate and exploit their conquered resources, they had better start revising their plans now.
In the Pacific, we are pushing the Japs around from the Aleutians to New Guinea. There too we have taken the initiative – and we are not going to let go of it.
Mr. Roosevelt could say only that we are delivering planes and vital war supplies for the fighting Chinese and that we must do more at all costs. The manner of his reference underscored the obvious fact that the China front still lags behind all others in obtaining fighting tools because of tremendous supply difficulties. It was with obvious satisfaction that Mr. Roosevelt reviewed the situation on the Russian front.
