MR WILLKIE AS WITNESS

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21336, 4 February 1941, Page 4

MR WILLKIE AS WITNESS

The recall from Britain of Mr Wendell Willkie to give evidence before Congressional committees on the United States Aid to Britain Bill will be welcomed as an effort to touch the heart of the problem. Mr Willkie, as an opponent of President Roosevelt in the presidential election, cannot be accused of bias in favour of the Government. He has had a unique opportunity of studying at first hand the condition of affairs in Britain, and his evidence should be most valuable in arriving at a sound conclusion on the proposals of the Bill. From Mr Willkie’s recent utterances in Britain, and indeed from his statements ever since he was nominated in the presidential election, there is little doubt that he will add his full weight to the advocacy of prompt assistance to Britain. Mr Willkie is obviously impressed with the character of the British people, and he has seen the ordeal through which they are passing in defence of democracy. He has visited the areas where the greatest damage has been caused and has had the opportunity of talking with British people in all walks of life. From those experiences he must have formed vivid impressions which will be placed before the Congressional committees. British people are so confident about their own cause and their own conduct that they believe Mr Willkie will speak well of them. But Mr Willkie will have to speak not so much of the defence of Britain as of the defence of the United States. He v/ill be asked whether the United States is secure in its own strength without regard to what happens to Britain. He will have to say whether Britain is fighting America’s battles as well as her own and whether a Germany triumphant in Europe would be a menace to the United States. Again there is little doubt about the nature of Mr Willkie’s evidence. The pity is that thousands more Americans cannot have a similar opportunity of probing into the internal life of Britain, of learning British strengths and weaknesses and of the destiny which Britain envisages for democracy and the wide world. Unity between the two great democracies can be brought about by interchanges of visits such as Mr Willkie has made, and that unity is the world’s greatest hope of a tolerable future.