IMPERIALISM

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 126, 24 November 1942, Page 4

IMPERIALISM

SUDDEN CONTROVERSY

BRITISH AND AMERICAN

OPINIONS

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) (Special Correspondent.) LONDON, November 22. At a time when it is being generally agreed that Anglo-American post-war friendship will be very important for the world's future, the general public in Britain have suddenly seen a.great division between some sections of opinion in the two countries on the subject of imperialism. This subject has. received the limelight as a result of the verbal exchanges between Mr. Wendell Willkie and Mr. Churchill. The British for so long had taken the Empire for granted that it was something of a shock to many/to find their viewpoint v suddenly assailed, though Mn Winant, the American Ambassador in London, expressed the opinion that between Britain and America there was "a greater divergence of viewpoint on British colonial policy than on any other subject." Briefly, Mr. Willkie apparently believes that colonies should be the wards of the United Nations, their basic commodities should be freely available to the world, and their safety protected by an international police force, and the full yield of their resources should be used for their own health, education, and training in practices of selfgovernment. He stated that this could not be accomplished when one of the two principals of the Atlantic Charter seemingly defended the old imperialistic order and declared to a shocked world: "We mean to hold our own." It is observed that millions of Americans share Mr. Willkie's views. DIVIDED VIEWS IN BRITAIN, Mr. Churchill's comment has evoked approval and condemnation in Britain. Approval was expressed by Sir Edward Grigg, Secretary of War, who said that Britain must stand by her colonial responsibilities, and disapproval by the Labour newspaper, "Daily Herald," which chides Mr. Churchill for not appearing to share the American statesmen's enthusiasm for planning during the war the shape of the world at peace. The "Herald" also protested against the phrase, "We mean to hold our own." On the other hand, the journal "The Spectator" declares that Mr. Willkie misrepresented Mr. Churchill as meaning the intention that Britain would hold on indefinitely to all she has, which could spring only from ignorance and perversity, whereas Britain for a century had been steadily and patiently educating her dependencies for the responsibilities of successful independence. It must be admitted that some people are of the. opinion that America is not altogether altruistic, and that she is at f>resent speaking with two voices, firsty that of Messrs. Roosevelt, Winant, and Wallace, and secondly that of big business. Thus a writer in the "New Statesman and Nation" says:. "This American interest (in the colonial field) is very welcome, but'there, dre clear enough dangers if America is to be the America of Wall Street." AIMS OF BIG BUSINESS. Mr. Kingsley Martin, editor of ' the "New Statesman," who is at present in America, writes: "After the last war American business poured out money on capital investments' in "Europe and lost it; this time the capitalist, if he is clever, wquld allow capital development on lease-lend principles and, on the foundation of American money and good will, create overseas markets that, as individual capitalists, they cannot fail to desire. This would be sensible on the part of big business. More likely, it will regard Mr. Wallace (the Vice-President) as an arch-enemy and go straight imperialist." Many Britons, as "The Times" points out, are puzzled that the Americans should proclaim without cavil their intentions to re-establish the integrity of the French colonial empire while apgarently regarding the integrity of the iritish Empire as an inadmissible war aim. They inquire if Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Holland are to retain their colonial territory, and whether the British colonial empire is the only one to go into liquidation. Further British viewpoints are expected during the debate in the coming week in the House of Commons.