A NEW NORTH AMERICA

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 58, 5 September 1940, Page 10

A NEW NORTH AMERICA

Fifty destroyers will cross the Atlantic Ocean as tangible evidence —perhaps the most convincing evidence yet —of America's determination to give Britain every help short of war. The Nazi-Fascists doubt whether this help really is "short of war," but they, will do nothing violent about it, because any doubt they may entertain about United States belligerency is at least better for them than the certainty of it. Posing the same question, the "New York Times" says that the United States does not fear the result of a belligerent interpretation of the destroyers transaction. These destroyers are a consideration for the special defensive value to the United States of securing leasehold bases in the Caribbean zone, where the United States particularly needs Canal defences. The Newfoundland and northern leaseholds are in a different category, for the defence values they represent are vital to Canada as well as to the United States. The destroyers therefore are not regarded as being in any sense a consideration for the northern leaseholds, which latter may be considered in connection with American-Canadian defence negotiations now proceeding with the help of a permanent Defence Board. The story of a new North America, hammered out by the United States and Canada on the anvil of war, is not yet half told. This story, says a Berlin commentator, tells of the British Empire's liquidation. He meant, of course, the liquidation of Hitler.