PLAIN WORDS OF UNMISTAKABLE MEANING

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 228, 23 June 1941, Page 6

PLAIN WORDS OF UNMISTAKABLE MEANING

In his statement to Congress on the subject of the sinking of the American ship Robin Moor by a German submarine, President Roosevelt has discarded, it would almost appear deliberately, the veiled phraseology of diplomatic language, and spoken straight to rhe point. He has made it perfectly clear to the American people and the world in general that this outrage is capable of only one construction, namely, that so far as United States shipping in any of the Seven Seas is concerned, Germany from now on must be regarded as an active enemy. There is no question, he adds, of yielding to the threat implied. The logic of this points unmistakaoly to the corollary that the threat will be resisted, by force, if necessary. In other words, a situation is developing in which the United States under Nazi provocation may at any moment be drawn into a state of war with Germany in defence of American property. This may be an issue of more immediate concern to the American people than the larger question of safeguarding the security of the Western Hemisphere against the threat of future Axis aggression. But the President draws no distinction between immediate and ultimate issues. The attack on the Robin Moor he regards as a manifestation and a portent of larger-scale aggressions. “The United States,” he says, “must now consider whether the sinking of the Robin Moor is not a step in the German campaign against other nations, and adds that any declarations by Germany to the contrary must be placed in the same category as past proved falsehoods. Ihis is another way of saying that the sinking of this ship, which if resulting from the act of any other nation whose word could be relied upon would be accepted as an unfortunate misunderstanding, must in Germany’s case be regarded as a deliberately hostile act, and the precursor of similar attacks. The statement suggests very strongly that an important development in United States policy may be impending. Meanwhile the United States Government has followed up the closing down of all German consulates and other institutions and .the expulsion of persons connected with them by taking similar action against Italy. By successive moves, parallelling the course of events, it would appear that the stage is being set.