The Evening Star FRIDAY, MAY 9, 1941. AMERICA IN EARNEST.

Evening Star, Issue 23880, 9 May 1941, Page 6

The Evening Star FRIDAY, MAY 9, 1941. AMERICA IN EARNEST.

Not even Mr Churchill has been more explicit concerning the issues of the war and obligations they impose for the defence of freedom than Mr Stimson in his latest speech. The American Secretary for War, in a nation-wide broadcast, advocated the use of the United States navy to safeguard shipments of supplies to Britain, and warned Germany that his country would not flinch and would not permit these munitions to be sun'; in the Atlantic. During all the time that the United State# was neutral in the last war one would have searched in vain, in the speeches of official Americans, for such a statement as that of Mr Stimson t_at “ for over 100 years control of the Atlantic has been exercised by the British Fleet. This tradition was accepted by us as a dominant factor in ocean defence, upon whicn our safety and mode of life depend." The tradition was recalled by Britisn statements, but Britain has no need to-day to cite the interdependence or the two great English-speaking communities. America knows that the protection so long enjoyed by her is threatened, and in . the time of jeopardy knows how to vdlue it. She knows also that she has a fleet that can ensure its preservation, and that fleet will act even at the risk of war. •Her Press applauds Mr Stimsou’s speech, hailing it as “a turning point in the nation’s history.” Mr Lloyd George agrees when he calls it “ epochmaking.” And America is doing more than talk. The passage through her House, of Representatives of legislation empowering President Roosevelt to take over upwards of 100'foreign merchant ships is an indication of how far she is prepared to go to balk the lurking submarines and aeroplanes. The rounding up of over 100 German seamen, former members of crews of Standard Oil tankers who have been stranded in the States since the beginning of the war and are expected now to be interned, marks another timely precaution against emergency. If America should be at war again she will know at least who her aliens are, and something about their record, which she did not know when too many of them were being suborned to plant bombs on numitions-carrying ships and work other mischief during the last conflict. The gaining of that 'information was provided for when the Alien Registration Act was passed, requiring . more than three and a-half million aliens to bo registered within (the space of sixty days. That huge task has now been performed, and the classification of the non-citizens, according to racial groups, employment, and other distinctions, should be well in hand. Everything possible was done to convince the-aliens that registration was in no way a threat to them. Even those who had entered the country illegally, and whose numbers could only be guessed at, were given to understand that registration, by their own act, would be to their advantage as a mitigation ot their first offence. The great majority of the non-citizens showed no hesitation in coming forward to register, answering the seventeen questions, to which they were assured replies would be secret, and leaving their fingerprints. Some, remembering countries they hqd left, were bewildered and frightened by any contact witu government, but these were won over. A minority remained, determined to fcj unknown to any authorities as long as possible, and these will have penalties to face when they are discovered. It is certain, however, that “ fiftli columnists ” will have less scope :n America for their activities than they did in the last war, when that term was unknown.