EYES ON AMERICA

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 38, 13 August 1941, Page 7

EYES ON AMERICA

DECISION DELAYED

EFFECT ON SERVICE ACT

(Rec. 1 p.m.) LONDON, August 12, The Vichy official news agency announced that decrees were being issued today to increase Admiral Darlan's powers, especially in the military sphere. , Another report from Vichy says,that the Government is expected neither to flatly reject nor to completely accept the German proposals, and according to the "Daily Telegraph's" Vichy correspondent, says that French officials are confident that nothing approaching a rupture " between America and I France is in the air. It is believed in Washington that Germany had asked Vichy to delay the announcement of its decision on the German demands, for bases in North Africa and for French collaboration in the war against Russia until1 after the United States Congress fin- i ishes consideration of the Bill- to extend the period of compulsory imli-, tary service for the U.S. Army. The delay would be designed to avoid arousing fears of Congress that the threat to America will be increased and thus weakening the hand of the isolationists on whom Hitler depends to put a very strong brake on a move

by the United States towards direct involvement in the war. AMERICANS WOULD ACT. It goes without saying, however, that the United States is likely to abandon even the formality of friendly relations with Vichy if the French accede to the German demands. Americans unquestionably will follow President Roosevelt's lead in resisting the transfer of Dakar and other strategic points on the Atlantic to the Axis. The Vichy decision, whichever way it goes, will only serve to emphasise what Americans are beginning to realise, that it is not a question of the United States becoming involved in the war through its own volition, but of the war creeping closer to the United States every day.