"It we made it clear to the world," he said, "that we intend to be strong in leadership which we ought never to have abandoned, we would succeed in avoiding war.
He said whether war comes or not, the world faces the problem of where to direct her energies, when ther to heavy armament industries Or peace-time industry, "The only difference," he said, "is that it would be more difficult in the event of war because that would destroy an incredible amount of capital."
He pointed out that there are still plenty of open and undeveloped areas of the world which could absorb peoples and industries.
"We must proceed on the assumption that people who are sane are the people who will prevail" he said. "We shall escape war. At the same time this country is not open to blackmail—making concessions without adequate concessions in return, We must show the world that we are willing to ce-operate. If we pursue a policy of this kind, the world will believe we are doing it because we are conscious of our strength and will not accept it as indication of weakness."
Britain and France earlier had joined in denouncing reports of peace negotiations which French quarters characterized mainly as "Nazi propaganda" designed to create suspicion among Britain, France and Poland, thereby under" mining the strength of the peace front, A British Government spokesman said that all members of the Cabinet, including the Prime Minister, lacked any knowledge whatever of the alleged peace plan—United Press.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.