Statement by the President on the Establishment of the United Defense Fund.

THE FORMATION of the United Defense Fund is highly gratifying to me and, I am sure, to everyone concerned with the national defense effort.

It is good to know that, through this fund, many of our voluntary health and welfare agencies and the Nation's Community Chests have joined forces to raise, through the Chests and other united community efforts, the money that will provide special services to our Armed Forces personnel and to communities in areas affected by the defense effort.

The United Defense Fund is heartening evidence that, while we as a nation are mobilizing our resources of men, money, and goods to defend democracy, we are not neglecting to fortify the inner defenses of the human heart and spirit.

I salute this united effort for its fine example of teamwork. This attitude reflects the attitude of the whole Nation which now, as perhaps never before, must have unity of purpose, of will, and of deed.