"MIXED UP TOGETHER"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 169, 19 July 1941, Page 6

"MIXED UP TOGETHER"

Churchill once spoke of British and American affairs becoming "mixed up together." He spoke of this tendency as inevitable, like the roll of the mighty Mississippi. The tendency has become much more marked since he spoke. The recent development of it which won world-wide attention was the occupation by United States. troops of Iceland, where they are gradually replacing the British occupation force. That action brought the United States' military power into a region which, if not in Europe, is far more often associated with Europe than with the Western Hemisphere. It is a region, too, which had been declared by Germany as part of the area of her operations of counterI blockade, and inevitably, it would seem, the American naval forces will co-operate ever more closely with the British in the incessant task of countering that counter-blockade. Now we hear of Mr. Harry Hopkins President Roosevelt's "man Friday," and supervisor of aid to Britain' flying across the Atlantic in a bomber—one of a fleet of bombers made "v? 1 — 1 9 a fo r. Britain—and soon afterwards attending a meeting of the British Cabinet, the first non-British subject ever to do so. If we look back and recall the rare occasions on which there has been close consultation between the leading men of Britain and of the United States, the ease and speed of Mr. Hopkins' journey appears the more remarkable. Such journeys, we may expect, will before this war is over become so ordinary as to excite no comment. The day mav come Churchill himself will fly the Atlantic for a week-end in the White House. The frequent and intimate consultation of British and American leaders inspires hope for the future, not only in the war but after the war. As Mr. Churchill declared when welcoming the new Ambassador, Mr. Winant, "the day will come when the United States and Britain will share together the solemn but splendid duties which are the crown of victory."