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"AMERICA FIRST," URGES WALSH IN A.I.L. SPEECH

Senator Demands Absolute Neutrality As Guarantee to Safeguard U.S. From "Belligerent World"

"Think of America first and ignore the inherited hatreds and rivalries of Europe" was the advice given by David I. Walsh, senator U.S. senator from Massachusetts, in a speech before the American Independence League in the Kirkland House Common Room last night.

Urging a spirit of aloofness to the chaos in Europe, Walsh backed his policy of "complete neutrality" in spite of what happens in Europe. "Why," he pointed out, "should the United States, a government designed to give the greatest, amount of blessings to all and strongly protected by nature from the belligerent world, risk its future happiness and security by taking sides in a fight in which it has no real concern?"

Regrets Embargo Repeal

Walsh, a Democrat and chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee, told an audience of nearly 200: "We should have learned our lesson from the last war." He felt the repeal of the arms embargo was a step toward weakening our traditional neutrality and jeopardized our position in world affairs.

A strong navy is essential to American safety in the present crisis, the senator said. Building up our maritime strength to the allowance of the 5-6-8 ratio need not be interpreted as violating our position as a strictly neutral nation, he remarked.

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