STANDS ALONE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 216, 11 September 1940, Page 6

STANDS ALONE.

THE LAST BASTION. WHAT US. SHOULD DO. " \ AMERICAN'S TRUMPET CALL. ! Colonel Henry Breckinridge, who wrote this article, printed in 25 papers all ever America. I Is 54-year-old ex-Assistant Secretary of War (In the Wilson Administration), anti-New I Dealer, lawyer specialising in aeronautics. I The United States should prevent the , conquest of the British Isles by the Nazi. Britain is the last bastion between us jand the conquering dictators. If she goes down we face them alone. If we I permit it we shall deserve to suffer every ; baleful consequence and disaster.I Hitler's jackal Mussolini gave warnJing of his formal declaration of war in I this gigantic battle. He said it is only : a phase of the destruction of the "Plutojcratic Democracies" of the West. } Well, we are the particular plutocratic democracy of the West that sits on its pile of gold (20 billions of it—Bo per cent of the world's supply). j The well-known final goal of Nazi-ism and Fascism operating in Spain is the reconstitution of the Spanish Empire, j Spain is to be the front. Nazi military [might and organising ability will be the real drive behind the conquest and subsequent exploitation of the illimitable natural resources of South America. Millions of Fifth Columnists will do their stint in South America. The Nazi agent, the Fifth Column man, the sincere pacifist, the shallow military follower of the cult of Nazi invincibility, the defeatist each is playing his role here and now. Tliey did it successfully in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland. Norway, Holland, Belgium, and even France and England. The Munich umbrella well may ibe the immutable symbol of the dying democracies of the world. America has its Quislings.

Isolationist Delusions. I Isolationists tell us at each stage of | the discussion that we must do nothing lor can do nothing at the moment. A year and a half ago it was that we must build no 'planes until there could be research; 10 months ago we must build none until there could be meticulous definition of our foreign policy in all its details. i One month ago we must do nothing until elaboration of the great plan. Eleven years ago Italo Balbo, now dead, a better man than Hitler's jackal, made his first air reconnaissance in flyine from Rome to Chicago. He made it easily and successfully with 24 'planes. He used the well-known stepping stones of Iceland and Greenland, easy hops for every type of modern military 'plane. America's Quislings. War is a terrible thing. The resources of the earth could yield a bountiful living for all if peace and golden rule prevailed, but the die has been cast otherwise. A modern Genghis Khan marches to universal conquest, universal destruction and universal slavery. The modern Genghis Khan looses from the air thunderbolts of obliteration on whole populations. Having disarmed and conquered them, he holds them in complete subjugation by aeroplane, tank and Gestapo, "if he is not defeated before the conquest becomes universal his victims will be slaves not for a while but for ever. Disarmed men cannot revolt successfully against tanks and bombers. Our Quislings and their assorted allies say: "We cannot fight, we could not do anything effective if we would —even if we had the vision and courage to see the fatal import of the present hour and act," but the very ceaseless activities of these Quislings indicate that they still have a slight, lingering fear that we may act in the end like our ancestors at Gettysburg and Valley, Forge, like Charles Martel at Tours in 732. like the Greeks at Thermopylae and Marathon.

Help Strike the Vultures. Is there nothing we could do? (1) We could mobilise our merchant ships and convoy them with warships ! and bring the children of Britain to j refuge on our shores. Not to suffer little children to come to us now would Ibe to deny our every heritage of j humanity. (2) We could send 1000 volunteer pursuit pilots to the airfields of Britain. Let us not be deluded about our air . force. We have 4000 of the finest military and naval pilots in the world. They j would knock the Nazi bombers out of I the air like vultures struck by lightning, j In equal combat the British have univer- [ sally bested the Nazi airmen in the ! present war. One thousand American I pilots in Britain would turn the tide of j the war. I (3) Stir the power of this nation to i action, mobilise its productive activity, outmatch every diabolical machine Hitler can contrive. Take the Nazi out of his cross-country locomotive and he is no better than any other man, and not so good as some. Match him in the air with equal numbers of 'planes flown by free men and he will soon be back on the ground. If he asks for it. put him at the other end of the bead drawn from an American bombsight and see if he can stand the punishment which he mercilessly metes out to others. The cult of the invincibility of the Nazi is a myth. Britain Oar Last Outpost. America has the material, resources and organising genius to be invincible and irresistible, but prompt, courageous action is the cost even of survival. The British Isles are our last outpost against the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. If we permit Britain to so down without a struggle, history will record ill yellow letters of shanie the failure of American intelligence and courage in the most fatal crisis of modern history. Would the America of Lincoln let 'government of the people, bv the people, for the people" perish from the earth ?