The Dominion SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1940. AMERICAN AID AND GERMAN REACTION

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 80, 28 December 1940, Page 8

The Dominion SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1940. AMERICAN AID AND GERMAN REACTION

The “careful analysis of Germany’s reaction to America!l aid for Britain,” published yesterday in a cable “e ss age f rom tom the appearance of enemy propaganda. is us i n cr every that the Germans should be making every endeavour, and using every channel —the more innocent, the better for their pur^-g intimidate the impressionable section of United States opin dent Roosevelt’s latest proposal, namely, months back lending scheme is a far cry from the isolation of 12 months bacic andl represents a very heavy indirect blow at Germany s ambition 0 XS Se denXf.es. ?he Nazis will use all posable means to weaken the proposal by creating politics “‘T ’ ite £ the n«t ietv in Washington. Such propaganda is likely to be rife m the - weeks. What many people will find astonishing about yesterday s report is that it should have come from the Berlin correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor. This journal has had a reputation whtci contrasts strangely with covert and empty threa emng woven “ ltO £ correspodent’s “analysis.” Were it not for that reputation the mes sa-e could well be ignored, but in the circumstances it is proper that tfc “analysis” should be carried a little further “Apparently, says the Berlin correspondent, “Germany has set a limit to American a for Britain, and if it is exceeded she will embroil America " a ' Berlin for the moment has chosen to fix the limit at the confiscation of German ships in American waters.bitt “° r VX-ress than the naming of a specific limit is the act < of Connie and the American people that Germany does not intend to permit the United States, to wage war against Germany beyond a certain point without the penalties of war.

This is intended to create in the United States a feeling that Germany has extended a certain tether, the end of which the America Government is fast approaching. Thus it is implied, by some additional act of co-operation with the Allies, the United States may unwitting y snap the tether and bring “the penalties of war upon herself. This proposition will not stand examination. It reveals itself as propaganda without substance. Had Berlin chosen to fix the limit 0 American action “at the confiscation of German ships 111 American waters ” she would have gone through the motions of making wat on America months ago. The confiscation of German ships in American waters is an insignificant matter by comparison with the gigantic anO far-reaching system of Anglo-American co-operation ill th of finance and industry, which is already in being. President Roosevelt’s latest proposal involves no new principle in respec- of aid to Britain, nor does it involve the abandonment of an established principle. It simply facilitates and improves the practice of a principle laid down six months ago when the political leaders of the Unitec States agreed publicly and practically unanimously that every kmc. ot aid for Britain and the Allies short of direct belligerent action against the Axis Powers should and would be organized in the least possible time As for the “penalties of war,” Germany is in no position to attack the United States directly; nor is she able to apply any penalties not already existing in the shape of a voluntary cuttmg-off by the United States of all her transport facilities for trade with the belligerent world. According to a cable message published this morning, President Roosevelt is expected to make, at the beginning of next week, a declaration of the settled policy of the United States in respect of her co-operation with Britain. In effect he has already done this more than once, but the occasion should serve to dot then’s and cross the t’s of the matter. Moreover, it should serve to disclose the President’s reaction —if’any —to the propaganda which is desperately attempting to stay the tide of American economic support for the sisterdemocracy which stands in the firing line of the war Germany torccd on the world.