Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1940 AMERICA AND THE WAR

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 24 October 1940, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1940 AMERICA AND THE WAR

MR BULLITT, the United States Ambassador in France, has made the statement that the agreement recently signed and announced by Germany, Italy, and Japan, is a warning that the Totalitarian Powers and their Eastern ally contemplate an assault upon America, so soon as Britain has been overcome by Germany and Italy, and the British Navy has been transferred to them or annihilated. Of course that is a tall order, but it is understood that there are in the United States some people who believe that Britain may yet go under, as the result of her check to the fulfilment of the Dictators’ ambitions. People who know Britain and her history during the last two-and-a-half centuries will not be without well-founded hope that she will survive triumphantly the malignancy of the tyrant Hitler and his henchman Mussolini, whom the British Prime Minister derides. “The experience of Europe,” says the American Ambassador, “has taught us that to try to appease a Totalitarian Dictator is useless. We know many have tried, and have been destroyed. We do not intend to try.” There is no necessity for America to do so. Britain stands between them and the Totalitarians, her incomparable Navy and the Royal Air Force must first be overcome and annihilated, before there can be any possibility of the United States being attacked by the admittedly powerful forces which the twin tyrants of Europe have at their command.

Obviously the interests of the two j great English-speaking nations are : closely conjoined; and if Britain’s exi istence is threatened by Hitler, it is impossible for the United States to be indifferent or inactive. Neither the Government nor people would ask the Americans to interfere, but if they make it quite clear that they are whole-heartedly in sympathy with Britain, and that, rather than see her conquered, they would go more actively to her help, perhaps the Germans and Italians might hesitate to attempt fulfilment of all their plans of conquest. Nevertheless, the pestilence know as Nazism must be destroyed. Mr Bullitt, having seen the downfall of France, very rightly would adjure the English-speak-ing nations to present a united front to the menacing Totalitarians, and so preserve the civilisation which has made the British and Americans great.

Recently the United States acquired eight Atlantic bases in return for destroyers sent to Britain. This tremendously strengthened America. The Secretary of the Navy, Colonel Knox, has just stated thfit the country needs more naval bases in the Pacific, “and we will have them.” Emphasising that the war had become a war of food and oil, he declared: “The war is again proving that the nations controlling the high seas control the world’s destinies.” Mr Sumner Welles, Under-Secretary of State, has referred to this being a moment of grave danger and all must be prepared to make big sacrifices. There was never a time, he said, when there was greater need for a solid front on the part of all the Americas in the face of the so-call-ed “new order” which other countries are seeking to establish.

Both the main candidates in the Presidential election favour the greatest possible assistance being given to Britain short of actually entering the war. Another indication among the many given to demonstrate that the United States’ policy of isolation is a thing of the past is the official prediction that by next year between five and six million people will be employed in that country in the execution of war orders. A huge army is being built up under conscription, and in addition to the vast supplies of munitions for the British Empire, armaments on a colossal scale must be produced for herself. In August actual appropriations and additional estimates added up to a defence expenditure of about £2,000,000,000, which did not include much of the cost of the twoocean navy programme which is estimated to exceed £800,000,000 spread over six years. The United States Government appears to be determined to do its utmost to make up for lost time, and the people are behind it in that determination and in helping Britain in her titanic struggle for the cause of liberty.