ISOLATIONISTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 66, 19 March 1938, Page 7

ISOLATIONISTS.

TWO DIEHARDS. J j NO "ENTANGLING ALLIANCES." i BORAH STILL POWERFUL, f (Bv JOSEPH ALSOP and ROBERT KIXTXER.) V\ Ai>HIXGTOX, Februarv 12. In the Senate these days William E. Borah, of Idaho, and Hiram Johnson, of California, are like two rather mature warliorses. who hear the sound of battle from afar, sniff the smoke and paw the ground with eagerness for the tig-lit. The terrible twins of isolationism snsj>ect entangling alliances, and. while they live, they will have none of them. Their most recent achievement was smoking the administration out of its polite secret and into a flat denial by the Secretary of State. Mr. ( ordell Hull, that any understanding existed with Great Britain. It was a considerable acliiex ement. since the whole direction of American policy in the Ear East and every covert intimation of the British ioieig-n Office suggested that a private covenant had been privately arrived at. Their joint a-sault on the State Department looked concerted. Actually the two senators held 110 advance consultations. They have spent >0 manv years watching foreign policy, responding irritably to any indication that tionism was to be abandoned, that their reactions are now automatic and simultaneous. When Senator Johnson demanded a public statement from Ceeretary Hull. Senator Borah was not surprised. He had not been warned in advance, but he charged in behind his old colleague as though he had. What They Pear. Two things have upset Borah and • o inson. A ceitain tone of melodrama in American Ear Eastern polkv—such things as the release of the President's personal memoranduih on the Panar incident, and the original plan to publish the recent sharp note to Japan and the armament message the same afternoon—suggested to them that the State Department might be preparing to hold the fort in China while Great Britain made the world safe for democracy" in Europe.

More important was their conviction that the British Foreign Office was purposely attempting to create the impression that America had aji understanding with Great Britain, involving possible Far Eastern intervention. Borah particularly was outraged by Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden's House of Commons manoeuvre, when his firm and rather hinting refusal to ansn'er questions as to Anglo-American agreements seemed to imply quite definitely that such an agreement existed.

Borah and Johnson want no agTeements with Crcat Britain. Indeed, they want no agreements with anyone. And nothing could be more significant than their effective charge to the attack, when the President's constant emphasis on "making the world safe for domocracy."' and .Secretary Hull's occasional intimations that "we may be next" had begun to weaken isolationist sentiment both in Congress and out.

Whether or not you're an isolationist, it's rather stirring to see the two old gentlemen fighting in t-he front lines again. Borah is sound as a dollar, but lie is 72. and Johnson, who is about the same s2O. is not really well. Vet Borah can still excite the Senate, and .lohnson making a speech, shifting steadily from one foot to the other like an angry elephant, is still effective.

They are the last of the little band of "irreconcilable*" who killed the League of Nations in the long debate of almost twenty years ago. When President Wilson made 1> Ls. last, tragic, crosscountry speaking trip to sell his grandiose notion to the people, both of them followed him. baying his trail with oratory which destroyed him. Borah made the greatest speech of hi< career on the League, bringing an improbable tear to the eye of the flinty, buttoned-up Lodge, of Ma-sacliusetts. The tear would not have come if Borah had not been on Lodge's side, but it was a triumph all the pame. The Court Fight. Curiously enough, the exploits of the evergreen pair have been chiefly negative. But they have been none the less remarkable for that. Take the Court fight. Before the President could disclose his astonishing secret. Borah alone among politicians suiellcd out what was afoot. The result was a clarion .call to the Court's defence several days before the Court was attacked, which quite wrongly convinced the irritated President that Borah had been tipped off. When the Court Bill was disclosed both men reacted to it with an equal vigour. By one of his quick manoeuvres on the floor. Borah persuaded Johnson to come out against it dramatically, immediately on his return from a sick-bed.

Throughout the fight both Borah and Johnson acted as principal behind-the-scenes strategists. Senator Burton K. Wheeler, of Montana, the leader of the -ti-Court plan Democrats, consulted them almost daily. And it was Borah who arranged not only for the dama"iii" retirement of Justice Willis J. ° va n De\anter, but also to have the retirement take place on the very day the Judiciarv Committee voted to report the Court Bill unfavourably.

The pair are no longer young, but trifling with them is something to lie carefully avoided. Now tliev are confronted with President Wilson's former youthful subordinate in the White Hon-e and seemingly going Wilson s way. Thev are as resolved to stop Roosevelt as thev were to stop \\ ilson. For one thing, thev plan to force out infinitely more detailed information on the President's foreign policy before the Armament Bill is passed.— (Copyright: N.A-X.A.)