VITAL ISSUE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 30, 6 February 1939, Page 9

VITAL ISSUE.

Important Foreign Policy Debate This Week.

PRESIDENT "ON THE SPOT."

I'nlted Press AfsorUitiom.—Copyright.

(Rppplvcml 11 a.m.)

W ASHI\(i TON, February 5,

The foreign policy debate this week will turn on the question as to whether President Roosevelt intends the (Hited States to back Britain and France, except with man power, in Ihe event ot a Kuropean war. Senators regard this as more important. than the controversy which raised it—whether the President put America's defence frontier in France.

Mr. Kno-evelt's statement of policv on 1-iidnv was based 011 principles of Americati tradition and was completely acceptable to tl\e Isolationists, whose, running attack must be confined to its lack of detail.

It is expected Senator Key Pittmaii. cha irma 11 of the Foreign Relations Committee, will l>e asked to amplify Ins statement that the only way to prevent war in Knrope "would he such an equal balancing of military power that neither side would he willing to undertake the chance of defeat."

Tlie object of the questioning will be to discover whether or not the administration intends to throw the weight of the United State* on the side of this "equal balancing of military power" on the assumption that this could only mean facilitating rearming in Britain and France, while withholding munitions for other nations highly armed. President Charged With Muddling. The bulk of the American Press charges Mr. Roosevelt with muddling, but at least his practice of advancing and retreating has the advantage of preventing a clear issue rising between the isolationists and his own followers. He does not want a decision on a specific issue to be forced while, as now, there is a risk of a setlwick.

According to the New York "Herald - Tribune*' the probability is there will not be a concrete issue unless and until a major war breaks out.

The trouble for the isolationists is that the issue in sucli an event may corrie too late. Their position has weakened visibly since Munich. Thus, although he wonld like to see the Neutrality Act amended, President Rodnevelt' may continue to talk generalities. Any move to amend the Art would certainly precipitate a trial of strength. Indignant Senators. A full airing on the floor of the Senate of what occurred at the conference between Mr. Roosevelt and the Military Affairs Committee is likely to follow the President's declaration that it is a deliberate lie that he put America's defence frontier in I 1 ranee. Indignant Senators stick to their story, and reliable newspapers, after rechecking the sources of their information, do not withdraw their earlier accounts.

It is suggested that Mr. Roosevelt sent up a trial balloon, although the New York "Herald-Tribune" observes that such an amiable metaphor is hardly Usable when the President "simply eats his words." It is pointed out that he retreated similarly, although not so far, after his foreign policy speech in Chicago in 1937, and after declaring support for Canada in 1938.

The "New York Times" comments: "There is reason to doubt whether the matters discussed on Tuesday were intended to bo kept It wa * obviously impossible with 17 listeners.

Editorially, the "Times" says the President chose the worst possible way to further his own foreign policy, and followed this up quite unfairly with an attack on the Press. "If he will lead the way in proposing an amendment to the Neutrality Act enabling' American influence to be used more effectively in restraining aggressors," the paper says, "he will have the prompt support of all who agree with him that there are methods, short of war, of bringing home to aggressor Governments the sentiment# of the American people."