Message Informing Congress of the President's Appeal to the Nations of the World.

To the Congress:

For the information of the Congress I am sending herewith a message that I have addressed this morning to the Sovereigns and Presidents of those Nations participating in the Disarmament Conference and the World Monetary and Economic Conference.

I was impelled to this action because it has become increasingly evident that the assurance of world political and economic peace and stability is threatened by selfish and short-sighted policies, actions and threats of actions.

The sincere wish for this assurance by an overwhelming majority of the Nations faces the danger of recalcitrant obstruction by a very small minority, just as in the domestic field the good purposes of a majority in business, in labor or in other cooperative efforts are often frustrated by a selfish few.

The deep-rooted desire of Americans for better living conditions and for the avoidance of war is shared by mass humanity in every country. As a means to this end, I have in the message to the various Nations stressed the practical necessity of reducing armaments. It is high time for us and for every other Nation to understand the simple fact that the invasion of any Nation, or the destruction of a national sovereignty can be prevented 'only by the complete elimination of the weapons that make such a course possible today.

Such an elimination will make the little Nation relatively more secure against the great Nation.

Furthermore, permanent defenses are a non-recurring charge against governmental budgets while large armies, continually rearmed with improved offensive weapons, constitute a recurring charge. This, more than any other factor today, is responsible for governmental deficits and threatened bankruptcy.

The way to disarm is to disarm. The way to prevent invasion is to make it impossible.

I have asked for an agreement among Nations on four practical and simultaneous steps:

First, that through a series of steps the weapons of offensive warfare be eliminated;

Second, that the first definite step be taken now;

Third, that while these steps are being taken no Nation shall increase existing armaments over and above the limitations of treaty obligations;

Fourth, that subject to existing treaty rights no Nation during the disarmament period shall send any armed force of whatsoever nature across its own borders.

Our people realize that weapons of offense are needed only if other Nations have them and they will freely give them up if all the Nations of the world will do likewise.

In the domestic field the Congress has labored in sympathetic understanding with me for the improvement of social conditions, for the preservation of individual human rights, and for the furtherance of social justice.

In the message to the Nations which I herewith transmit I have named the same objectives. It is in order to assure these great human values that we seek peace by ridding the world of the weapons of aggression and attack.