The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 1941. U.S.A. AND THE WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 81, 5 April 1941, Page 8

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 1941. U.S.A. AND THE WAR.

For the cause that lacks assistance. For the inrovg that veeds resistant*, For the future in the distance, And the good that tee can do.

The r-tllU'llielll ;il 1 riliilled l<) !'• M;ir!in Dies, ;i iiroiiiiiu'iit- meiiihcr o£ Ciiii.m-c.-s, Hint the United Stales will he ;il w»r within !>(> il.-i.v-. is the Isitc.-t ol' scviM'iil prediction- of the kind. \\ (in l other-! litul Ikm-h correct, Auiericn won Id li.-'.vc \>rvn in the war l/v now. Ajjiiin-l them, iiiul nna'm.-t Mr. Dies' >iiitcMneiif. i- the probability Hint ;i In majority .id' Americans do nut wan I I heir country to enter the war, and their sent imenl is influential in the White House and in Congress, which alone can declare war. "If 1 were a member of. (nnmess/ , said Mr. Wendell Willkie in his memorable appearance before the Senate's foreign relations

coiuiuittof, "1 never would vote in favour of n declaration of war until the American public sentiment w;is so overwhelmingly for it that I did not think, consistently with ray oblign lions to my constituent?, I could do otherwise." That declaration evoked the approval even of the isolationist Senators who were questioning , Mr. Willkie in an endeavour In make him admit that the passage of. the Lease-or-Lend Bill would take America closer to wnr. That he would not admit: he in-i-trd thiit the hill provided "tho method of keeping out of war."

Whether this opinion was correct or not has -till to be proved; but it was clear from the evidence given by Mr. Willkie, and h!*o by the Administration officials, that they were conscious of a strong populuc feeling agninst America's entry into war and they were anxious not to offend it.

But, whatever the American people and Congress wish, it cannot be doubted that they may, sooner or later, and perhaps quit* suddenly, find themselves in a situation from which a declaration of war will follow inevitably. The United States /is openly aiding Britain in many ways, and the agreed policy, overwhelmingly supported by the people, is to give aid quickly and on an ever-increasing scale. At some point, at any point, Germany may choose to treat American action in helping Britain as an act of war. Then, Congress and people alike will have no alternative to .standing; up to face the consequences of things done on their behalf. At what point may Germany choose to act? The most probable occasion would be provided if the President decided to convoy munitions supplies to Britain, or even if he decided to transfer, lease or lend American warships to Britain for the purposes of such convoy. The recent appearance in the Atlantic of the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, than which very few ships in the world are faster and more heavily gunned, may have been intended partly as a hint to the President that if he proposes to use Amei-ican warships for convoy purposes they will risk encountering something much more formidable than submarines and bombing planes. "Give us the tools, and w« will finish the job," said Mr. Churchill in his appeal to America. Now the question is arising whether the Americans, anxious to provide the "tools," will also help to deliver them. If that question should be decided affirmatively, Mr. Dies , prediction may bo proved to have been nearer the mark than some others.