Statement on War and Peace.

One year ago, 26 Nations signed at Washington the Declaration by United Nations.

The world situation at that moment was grim indeed. Yet on that last New Year's Day, these Nations, bound together by the universal ideals of the Atlantic Charter, signed an act of faith that military aggression, treaty violation, and calculated savagery should be remorselessly overwhelmed by their combined might and the sacred principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness be restored as cherished ideals of mankind. They thus created the mightiest coalition in history, mighty not only for its overwhelming material force but still more for its eternal spiritual values. Three other Nations have since joined that coalition.

The unity thus achieved amidst dire danger has borne rich fruit. The United Nations are passing from the defensive to the offensive.

The unity achieved on the battle line is being earnestly sought in the not less complex problems on a different front. In this as in no previous war men are conscious of the supreme necessity of planning what is to come after—and of carrying forward into peace the common effort which will have brought them victory in the war. They have come to see that the maintenance and safeguarding of peace is the most vital single necessity in the lives of each and all of us.

Our task on this New Year's Day is threefold: first, to press on with the massed forces of free humanity till the present bandit assault upon civilization is completely crushed; second, so to organize relations among Nations that forces of barbarism can never again break loose; third, to cooperate to the end that mankind may enjoy in peace and in freedom the unprecedented blessings which Divine Providence through the progress of civilization has put within our reach.