AMERICAN VIEW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 165, 13 July 1940, Page 10

AMERICAN VIEW.

OUTLOOK ON THE WAR.

THE ISOLATION POLICY.

NO TROOPS FOR OVERSEAS. "If history means anything, no nation can bo licked until it is ready to be licked, ami I don't think that Britain is.'' This remark was made this morning by Mr. .T. V. Lincoln,) president of the. Lincoln Electric Company, Ohio, when he arrived by the Mat.-on liner Monterey on his way to Sydney, where his company has a branch manufacturing welding equipment and electrodes. Mr. Lincoln went on to discuss the war, it* implications, and its possibilities as seen from the American angle, lie .-aid that the bow and arrow had no chance against, the gun. War to-day was not a matter of valour, it was ;i question of and material. The war of 1914 was just as out of date as the automobile of that period, and it was the. mechanism that counted more than the driver of the car. Prepared to Assist. Mr. Lincoln added that, the United State.s was prepared to assist Britain with export*, but would not send troops overseas to light. He considered that the United States would defend Canada if necessary, and also Mexico, and there would be general observation of all that the Munroe Doctrine implied. There was great activity throughout the United States to increase armaments, and Hawaii had been very strongly garrisoned. The larger proportion of the American Fleet was now there. Mr. Lincoln said that there had betn a big increase in American exports owing to war demands, anil some shortages had developed. This applied to steel and manganese, which were largely required for armaments, but paper pulp was also thort since the elimination of Norway as a trading country. General supplies of practically everything could still be got, but for some/ things prices were 'kiting" rapidly. He* added that a great stimulus had been given to the. building of aeroplanes, but some of the prospective output figures given were exaggerated, as last year the United States

was only able to turn out 4000 machines of all types. In the-United States there was much propaganda for all sides, but the American people largely accepted the views and news given' by their own network of radio stations. Referring to trade, Mr. Lincoln said that there was now a tendency for credits to be loosened up, and that tendency would probably develop. He considered that there was good possibility of better trade relations with Atistralia and Xew Zealand, and three products which the United State* sought were wool, gold and manganese.