EYES ON AMERICA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23145, 17 September 1938, Page 15 (Supplement)

EYES ON AMERICA

Influence United Sta Wield on Europe s Destiny

A PEOPLE DEEPLY MOVED BY WORLD ISSUES By THE RT. HON. WINSTON CHURCHILL, M.P.— (World Copyright Reserved)

HOW heavily do the destinies of this generation hang upon the Government and people of the United States! From many lands in Europe and in Asia eyes are turned toward this large, strong, English-speaking community, which lies doubly-shielded by its oceans, and yet is responsive to the surge of world causes. Will the United States throw their weight into the scnles of peace and law and freedom while time remains, or will they remain spectators until the disaster has occurred; and then, with infinite cost and labour, build up what need not have been cast down? This is the riddle of a Sphinx, who under the mask of loquacity, affability, sentimentality, hard business, macliincmadc politics, wrong-feeling, rightfeeling, vigour and weakness, efficiency and muddle, still preserves the power to pronounce a solemn and formidable word. In what condition, physical, moral or psychological, do the United States

bo prosperous and well armed. r lke arming part is being achieved on a very large scale. Enormous supplies have been voted by Congress for the expansion of the armed forces, particularly the Navy. . , _ No American party resists the 1 resident's d&sire to make the United States one of the most heavily-armed, scientifically-prepared countries in the world. Pacifism and the cult of defencelessncss have been discarded by all parties. There never was in peace a time when the American armaments by land, air and sea, reached so imposing a height, or were sustained by so much national conviction. But the economic and financial strength which would impart itself so readily to like-minded countries across the oceans is still far from its natural level. The warfare between big business and the Administration continues at a grievous pitch. These great forces do not seem to realise how much they are dependent upon one another. The President continues blithely now to disturb, now to console, business and high finance. He blows hot, he blows cold, and confidence does not return. Immense use is made of the national borrowing power, for relieving unem-

has encountered a new complication. The isolation forces in the United States are not favourable to a settlement which would free Great Britain from the ban imposed upon foreign loans to defaulting countries by the Johnson Act. These forces would naturally press for the most rigorous terms, and make it difficult for a reasonable compromise to be reached. The stirring of this question at this juncture, and when Congressional Elections are already looming, would not bo helpful. Nevertheless there is an earnest desire in Great Britain for a fair and friendly agreement. An Eager Public In the meanwhile, the movement of American opinion upon world affairs is remarkable. Side by side with the loudest reiterations of "Never again will we l)e drawn in," there is a ceaselessly growing interest in the great issues which are at .stake both in Europe and the Far East. There never was a peacetime when the newspapers of the United States carried more foreign news to their readers, or when those readers showed themselves more anxious to be informed about the affairs taking place thousands of miles away, or more disposed to develop strong intellectual and moral convictions about them. There are literally scores of millions of men and women in the United States who feel as much _ opposed to the tyrannies of Totalitarian Governments, Communist or Nazi, as their grandfathers wore to the continuanco of slavery. The. feeling, not against Germany, but against the Nazi regime, i.s more pronounced and outspoken throughout the United States than in Great Britain. It is far more active and widespread than it was before 1914. This mood is not at all discouraged by the Administration.

stand to-day ? The fierce struggle which is proceeding between the anticapitalist or anti-rich-men forces of that vast country on the one side, and the anxieties of its practical economic well-being on the other, has reached a kind of equipoise. It is good politics to hunt the millionaires, to break up the monopolies, to tax and discipline the vested interests. But these have great powers of resistance. They fight, they will keep on fighting; and until the quarrol is settled, prosperity stands a-tiptoe outside the door. Sister Countries Yet there never was a timo when it was more important to the whole world for the United States to bo prosperous as well as militarily strong. The European democracies have a real advantage over the Dictator States in wealth, credit and sea-borne trade; but their strength and energy at any given moment are intimately related to the prosperity or adversity of the United States. When things are going well in America, the more solid pedestrian forces in the free countries of Europe are conscious of a new draught, of strength. When things go ill, they are weakened through a hundred channels in those very elements of strength which ought to reward law-respecting, peace-interested, civilised States. Economic and financial disorder in the United States not only depresses all sister countries, but it weakens them in those very forces which might either mitigate the hatreds of races or provide the means to resist tyranny. _ The first service which the United States can render to world causes is to

ployment which would largely cure itself if even for a single year the normal conditions of confidence were restored. Party politics invade every aspect of economic life. When one measures the prodigious sums which aro being expended on various forms of relief, pump-priming and New Deal ideology, it is possible to visualise the innumerable official and _ semi-official classes of hierarchies inevitably called into being in the process, who will henceforward cherish a vested interest of their own. The attempt to organise and administer a nation-wide scheme of unemployment relief without the essential mechanism of Labour Exchanges must have produced fraud, waste and imposture of similar proportions. The noble effort which the President has made toward a higher form of social justice, requires to be corrected and consolidated by well-administered services running under strict conditions during several years of quiet perseverance. Trade Revival If, instead, there is to be another surge of electioneering at the expense of the national assets, then the stabilising part which the United States might play in the world will be crippled. The authority and prestige which springs from the great armament of a free people will be undermined by financial and political disorder. But we must hope that other counsels will prevail. As a contribution to trade revival, and as an expression of the goodwill prevailing in the English-speaking world, the British-American Trade Agreement is of real importance. There is every prospect of a good arrangement being reached in the near future. The debt question, on the other hand,

The speeches of important Ministers express, in ardent terms, all the feelings of British, French and Scandinavian liberal democracies. The American ex-servicemen confront the Nazi movement with a stern, unrelenting hostility. Against Nazi-ism German espionage in America rivets public attention. The New Yorkers have to be restrained from mobbing German ships. Hardly a week passes without some incident arising in politics or sport which affords the 500-headcd-newspaper press an opportunity of writing against Nazi-ism the kind of things their readers want to read. Evidently behind all this process, a sombre antagonism to tyranny and aggression in all their various forms is steadily growing. The attitude of American ambassadors and their staffs in many capitals is bent toward the maintenance of the democratic ideal, while at the same time in no way committing the United States to active intervention. All these facts should be noted by those whom they concern. It would be foolish of the European democracies, in their military arrangements, to count on any direct aid from the United States. It would be still more _ foolish for war-making forces in the Dictator Governments of Europe to treat with ignoiv ance or with contempt this slow but ceaseless marsbrdling of United States opinion around the standards of freedom and tolerance. The more weightily the personality of the United States is accounted in Europe in these days, perhaps even in these hours, the better aro our chances of escaping another lurch into the pit.