Atlanta Daily World

HAITIAN PRESIDENT URGES BLACK FRONT AGAINST AXIS

Sacred Duty To Champion

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti - (ANP) - "There will undoubtedly be made a call at a given time to our sons, our women, to us all, to mingle our blood with that of those who defend the common cause: the liberty and independence of all peoples. At that moment, there will be made no distinction and the blood of the children of the people, to whatever class they may belong, will be blended in the same sacrifice," President Elie Lescot told the republic of Haiti in an address Jan. 16, marking the 38th anniversary of Haitian independence.

Associating himself with the crusade of democracy against the threatening totalitarian forces, he reminded his countrymen of their secret and patriotic resolutions and that the cause with which they had associated themselves is also the cause of the black race of which "Haiti is the eldest sister in this hemisphere."

RACE COMES FIRST

He said: "Before belonging to a nation, we belong to a race and you are not unaware of the fate that is reserved to it, if the Nazi and Fascist forces should be victorious. We shall not hesitate, therefore, if it is necessary to re-enact the heroic gesture of our ancestors who inscribed in the frontispiece of their declarations: 'Liberty or Death.'"

"Our race finds itself particularly at stake," because for a long time it has been subjected to the hatred and the violence of the pirates who are possessed with the evil spirit of domination or destruction. And, in the concept of their Fuehrer, the black man is only destined for slavery or extermination.

"One should then understand why this people of three millions (Continued on Page 6, Col. 7)
Sacred Duty

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of Negroes which we constitute in the Caribbean sea joins hands firmly with the millions of other men of the same race who inhabit the earth, the ones and the others enshrouded in the same unjust condemnation, drenched with the bitterness of the same insult."

President Lescot told the Haitians that it was their sacred duty to steel themselves against the assault of "stupid prejudices" and to refuse to submit to those summary judgments that condemn them. He assured them that the cynical dream of "an insolent and cruel Nazism" that the "sorrows of war shall serve to prepare the harvests of the future world," would not be realized. Such Nazi ideology triumphant throughout the world would be degrading to the entire human race." he continued. "and would not in any way coincide with the Creator's plan."

EXPRESSES FAITH

Expressing his faith in the ultimate victory of the Allies President Lescot spoke of the treachery of the "Nipponese hordes" in the cowardly attack on Pearl Harbor saying. "The blood of the innocent victims .. cry out for vengeance!" He said he felt certain of the triumph of the United States and of the British arms and of the Soviet arms "which God animates to crush the bloody and cowardly barbarians."

President Lescot concluded his address by urging all black men of the world to rally in support the great democracies for the defense of your threatened liberties, for the defense of your right to live as men under God's Sun "