Evening Post.D SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1940. ALL EYES ON AMERICA

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 108, 2 November 1940, Page 8

Evening Post.D SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1940. ALL EYES ON AMERICA

World interest in the American Presidential and Congressional elections was assured in any case by all the principles of international strategy, but has been heightened by two dramatic pre-election events — Mussolini's invasion of Greece and the almost doubling of the American aeroplane contribution to Britain's defence. The latter is not only a reply to the former, but is a reminder that modern war is won by two factors—men and machines. Mussolini clears the way for war on Greece; and now President Roosevelt, at the climax of his thirdterm campaign, clears the way for another 12,000 American-made aeroplanes—to be additional to the 14,000 already arranged for—as America's contribution to democratic victory. Axis flags fly over a great part of Europe, yet both the dictators tremble before their single foe, because, in a war of men and machines, they dread the combination of fighter and manufacturer. The facts of experience, since the fall of France, have told the dictators that as long as Americans will make the materials of war, Britons will apply those materials in the proper place. The invasion of Greece is Italy's defiance of democracy, but Roosevelt's additional 12,000 aeroplanes are more than a Roland for Mussolini's Oliver. The massing of enemy troops in Albania pales in significance before mass production of American aeroplanes.

Coming events cast their shadows before. Twelve thousand aeroplanes are twelve thousand steps nearer the day when Britain will take the offensive. They are twelve thousand reminders to Hitler that the degree of 'mass production in German aeroplane manufacture by which he secured the lead in quantity—but not in quality—of aircraft is nearing its eclipse. Both in quantity and "in quality the air factor is passing into the hands of his foe—and this transformation is due to the passive | partner in the Anglo-American cooperation; is due to the partner with whom Hitler is not at war. Even Britain's loss of France and French factories and French iron and steel resources will not prevail against the growing might of the fighter and the manufacturer who now confront the two dictators. The extremity of Hitler's diplomacy is seen, firstly, in his attempt to leg-rope Japan into an arrangement that might frighten America off her European task; secondly, in his recent FrenchSpanish pilgrimage; thirdly, in the still more recent Greek affair, evidently intended to be bloodless. All vain efforts. The only effect in America is that President Roosevelt speeds up the manufacturer's contribution to democratic victory; and if, next Tuesday, American prejudice against third terms should defeat President Roosevelt—well, Mr. Willkie has promised to outdo Roosevelt in his aid to Britain short of war. Whether Mr. Roosevelt justifies or fails to justify the 5 to 4 odds in his favour offered on Wall Street —as mentioned in today's messages—the fact remains that neither of the Presidential contestants can be called, by ' any

stretch of the Imagination, Hitler's man. Except to say that, for a hundred practical reasons, it is not workmanlike to swap horses when crossing a ford, we will not venture to criticise the American Presidential candidates or the parties they represent. That is America's affair. But it is necessary to point out that, within the limits implied by the words "short of war," there is much more to be done than has been done yet. When the United States Congress, two months after the outbreak of war, amended the Neutrality Act by passing "cash and carry" and other important clauses, the statement was made that the United States thus became, for the then Allies, "an arsenal of unlimited resources." But not all of those resources have been tapped, nor can they be tapped unless the financing of British purchases (still limited by the Johnson Act) is placed on a better basis. In July of this year, in an important, broadcast, the British Minister of Supply, Mr. Herbert Morrison, | pointed out that if Hitler secures j from Vichy the help of the French iron and steel industry, the enemy's steel output must exceed Britain's. Mr. Morrison's proposed remedy for this result of France's fall was that "the American and the British industries be 'dovetailed' for the purposes of the Avar. . . . We ask no more than thai*' What Mr. Morrison| wants, and what Hitler does not want, is surely within the scope of the programme of either contestant! for the Presidential chair. And Mr, Roosevelt's promise of the 12,000; I aeroplanes is a big step along the! way.

Another Roosevelt major policy of inestimable importance is the leasing of naval bases from Britain. Last year America had never told itself that the British Fleet is the United States' first line of defence; this year the fact is, in America, a truism. The Americans at last realise that the Axis war-weapons manufacture, "geared for years to a war economy," exceeds that of Britain singly? and may continue to do so unless industrial America fills the breach. They also realise that "the survival of democracy in Europe is an American interest." The conclusion at which all United States parties have arrived—all aid short of war—-is therefore merely putting two and two together. Yet within that almost commonplace calculation is contained the key to victory in the second world war of the twentieth century, and the potent seed of Hitler's downfall. Hitler may go to Rumania, Mussolini to Greece; together they may go almost anywhere, provided they go dryfooted. But to Britain and to America their way is barred; .and to that fact, and to that fact alone, is due the singular immunity with which 130 millions of Americans, not themselves at war, can hold on Tuesday a great democratic festival, and there decide, unbombed and unawed, the fate of Hitler and of Hitler's Europe.