DESTROYER DEAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 221, 17 September 1940, Page 5

DESTROYER DEAL.

AMERICAN REACTION. HAILED WITH SATISFACTION. (Air Mail.) SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 7. Except for the flamboyant small section of isolationists in Congress, the agreement reached between Britain and the United States whereby the latter exchanged 50 so-called over-age destroyers for air bases in Newfoundland, Bermuda, the Caribbean and other locations, to strengthen the Americas defensively, was hailed with the greatest ' satisfaction by the man-in-the-street in America, once he digested the terms of the agreement. The average man believed the destroyer should long ago have been sent to assist Britain in her fight for democracy. Many of the United States legislators were outspoken on the subject. For example, Senator Carter Glass, Democrat of Virginia, said he approved not only the exchange of overage American destroyers for British bases, but was "in favour of sending our battleships over, too." He added: "I wish it had been done long ago. And not. only do I wish it had been done long ago, but I am in favour of sending our battleships over, too. I would rather fight with England than without her, which we would have to do if the barbarians should beat her in this war." The announcement of the destroyerbase deal took Washington completely by surprise and Congress reacted with both applau«e and dismay, but the expression disregarded party lines. Discussions quickly centred on whether the deal presaged another request for appropi iations to augment the alreadv swollen defence Budget. Equipment will have to be supplied- for the bases and in some cases it may be found desirable to extend the base confines by purchasing adjacent private property. No cash consideration was involved in obtaining

ihe bases, Great Britain agreeing to lease the sites to the U.S.A. for 91 years in return for the destroyers. Congressional supporters of the Roosevelt "aid-to-Britain-«hort-of-war" policy quickly voiced approval of the transaction. Those who advocated aloofness from the European conflict condemned it just as promptly as an act of war," justification for Hitler to "declare war" on the United States, and an illegal I Transaction without Congressional ap- ; provaL 1 "May Turn the Tide." Senators Nye, Republican, of North Dakota, and Danaher, Republican, of ' Connecticut, contended that the transfer of the destroyers would constitute an act'of war, while Senator Claude Pepper, Democrat, of Florida, and Colonel Henry i Breckenridge, New York lawyer, argued f that it might avert war from this country. They discussed the proposal on the American Forum of the Air, a popular ) programme. Nye characterised as "silly palaver" s the contention that the United States . was dependent upon the British Navy, . asserting that the "best of militarv authority has demonstrated how little : force could be moved against us by a - victorious Hitler." Danahex said that , the United States was bound by domesr tic and international law to refrain from j ' such a transfer. "Supplying destroyers 1 j to England is a recognised act of war,! and the American people should fullv' realise it," he asserted. "If we make I available to England some of our destroyers for use in the war, inevitably j we enter that war." Expressing the view that the additionj of 50 destroyers to the British Fleet! might mean the difference between vic-j torv and defeat for Britain, Pepper! said: "These 50 World War dest rovers! could be of no higher service to their! country s safety than if, by maintaining j England's naval supremacy, tliej* canl keep England's enemy and our own from the shores of the United States." Breckenridge said that "50 to England may be worth 500 to us five weeks from now" because "they may turn the tide of battle against our declared enemies."