THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 1941 NAZIS ORDERED TO QUIT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23994, 18 June 1941, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 1941 NAZIS ORDERED TO QUIT

Two important moves in the defensive and undeclared war being waged by the United States against Germany have been made in the last few days. The first deprived the Nazis of ready money to finance subversive activities and sabotage in America. Now, by the expulsion of their agents, the Nazis' propaganda machine and political organisations have been crippled. It is true that the German Embassy still brazens it. out in Washington, and the American Embassy remains in Berlin, but neither contains an Ambassador, only the barest forms of diplomatic relations surviving. The closing of German consulates and other thinly disguised political agencies represents the latest stage of the hardening of American public opinion and official policy. The United States has travelled a long way from the Neutrality Act, which bound her at the outbreak of the war. The chief landmarks on that journey are labelled cash-and-carry, destroyers - for - bases, and lend-lease. As Mr. Churchill said, "the Mississippi just goes rolling along." It has to be remembered, however, that the Mississippi is a long river, its current slow and disturbed by eddies, and that its massive progress cannot be materially hastened even as it cannot be wantonly stayed. American opinion has flowed from isolation to increasing intervention, from neutrality to non-belligerency, and seems now to be moving toward full and active intervention as a belligerent. President Roosevelt's latest move has not been made precipitately. In this matter, indeed, he seems to have hesitated long after he j possessed the incriminating evidence and long after public opinion had crystallised in condemnation. Woodrow Wilson used to be blamed | for his delays, yet he acted against | von Papen much more swiftly. Nor was Papen's offence so heinous in American eyes. He used the United States as a base for plotting against ' Britain and her Allies. The German agents of this war have abused United States hospitality by conspiring against America herself. The fact has been common knowledge for long enough. A year ago an official inter-state Commission on Crime spoke of the espionage and sabotage that could be expected of NaziFascist consulates and business firms. Evidence was then accumulating of the subversive activities of the German Bund, although White House began to move against its leaders only a few weeks ago. A year ago, moreover, American opinion i was thoroughly alarmed by the I revelations of treachery and perfidy lin Norway, Holland, Belgium and France, it was ready to approve and actively back the Administration in stamping on the embryo of any American Fifth Column. The occasion was allowed to pass, however, and also the further opporj tunity presented by the publication j last November of the damning I White Paper of the Dies Committee I investigating un-American activities, i The evidence ran to 500 pages, and ! in many respects was conclusive. It proved that German agencies in the United States, including consular establishments, were engaged in activities outside the scope of their legitimate duties, of an improper i and unwarranted character, "inimi- | cal to the welfare of this country." Now that Mr. Roosevelt has decided, seven months later, to act on these very grounds, his orders are directed against the Nazis alone. Yet it has been many times established that Nazis and Fascists workin double harness, and, in addition, the evidence of Nazi-Communist collusion is voluminous and overwhelming. Yet the Italian and Russian consulates remain untouched, providing a screen and a medium for Nazi activities. The facts of delay and incompletion should be noted as one more instance of the executive caution that Mr. Roosevelt often combines with verbal boldness. At the same time his decision to purge the Nazi poison factories is useful, not only by removing a potent source of distraction and trouble in American public opinion and industry, but also by giving a lead to the other, American Republics. They have been disposed to follow Washington's lead in other matters, notably the arrest of Axis ships sheltering in their ports. And they, too, have experienced more than enough trouble from the arrogance and effrontery of the Nazis within their gates. Uruguay uncovered an astounding conspiracy against her integrity and very existence, while the experiences of Argentina, Brazil and Chile with their large German minorities are sufficiently ominous. They should be emboldened bv America's lead to grasp the Nazi nettle, and perhaps to go further by taking equally decisive action against the "boringfrom within" tactics of their active Communist minorities.