The Evening Star SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1940.

Evening Star, Issue 23770, 28 December 1940, Page 8

The Evening Star SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1940.

ANGLO-AMERICAN FRIENDSHIP. It does seem that the superficial differences that have marked the course of Anglo-Amercian relations are disappearing under the stress of present world conditions. An example of the cordiality between Britain and the United States now existing is given in the announcement that the First Lord of the Admiralty has received from the America Secretary of the Navy two picture? of Abraham Lincoln. No more appropriate gifts in the present circumstances could bo imagined, for Lincoln’s name will for ever be inscribed on the roll of fame as one of the greatest apostles of liberty the world has ever known. On the two great democracies now rests the responsibility of defending the citadel of freedom from a rapacious and tyrannous upstart whose aim is to bring the world under his control. At the same moment that Colonel Knox’s gifts were announced, it was stated in a cable message from Washington- that more than 150 people prominent in public life in the United States had expressed their complete approval of President Roosevelt’s plan to lend or lease armaments to Britain. In America today the voice of the isolationist has been subdued in the face of the knowledge that, should Britain fail, the United States would stand in dire peril. The plea is made to the President to make it a settled policy of the country that he leads to do everything necessary to ensure the defeat of the Axis. It is not only self-interest that moves the American people to opposition to the methods of the totalitarian Powers. There is deep in their hearts a reverence for democratic ideals and the sanctity of the individual life. D urthcr, American writers and public men who have visited Britain in the last year have been stirred to profound admiration by the courage and- powers of endurance shown by the British people amid the sufferings inflicted on them by a ruthless enemy. Further, they have seen the wreckage in the invaded countries on the Continent, and observed the miseries of millions of unoffending people. It would be strange indeed if the scenes witnessed failed to stir those who live in the great western democracy to compassion and an active desire to stem the tide of brutal totalitarianism that has swept over so large a part of Europe. When reading of Colonel Knox’s gilts a recent graceful act by the Admiralty will be recalled. In issuing the names of the 50-destroyers transferred from the United States to the British Navy the principle adopted was that each name should be that of a town or village common to the United States and some part of the British Empire. The difficulty in selecting the names was not that there were too few available, but so many that it was not easy to adjust the rival claims. As in the case of Australia and New Zealand, the early American colonists called towns and villages after the places from which they emigrated, and names such as Lincoln, Leeds, Richmond, Reading, and others equally familiar are scattered throughout the United States. In American political circles, with the election over, party rivalries appear to have been dropped, and a general desire expressed to support Europe’s besieged democracies with everything “ short of war.” Attention is now concentrated on the President. It has been said of him that he has penetrated deeper into the aspirations and tragedy of American life than any of his predecessors, oven Lincoln himself. The courses to which he must commit himself in the immediate future will be of profound importance to the democracies of the world.