The Evening Star MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1940. AMERICAN POLICY.

Evening Star, Issue 23688, 23 September 1940, Page 4

The Evening Star MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1940. AMERICAN POLICY.

If all that is said during an election campaign can be accepted as a reliable guide it would appear that the United States foreign policy would not be sharply altered by a swing from Democratic to Republican leadership. Mr Wendell Willkie, head of the Republicans, follows Mr Roosevelt’s programme very closely when he declares that America must keep on sending aeroplanes to Great Britain, “ our first line of defence and our only remaining friend.” The establishment of an impregnable defence system and the acquisition and development of Pacific air bases are other matters to which, as the world knows well, the Democrats have been giving energetic attention. With the domestic policy, such as revision of industry and the “ wise use of credits and economic agreements,” people outside the United States will not he so deeply concerned at the moment, although in the final reckoning industrial affairs must have some relationship to defence. Most Britons will agree that the Roosevelt Administration has been a good friend to the Empire. It has applied steady pressure to the task of giving aid to Great Britain, culminating in the swift completion of the deal made over destroyers and use of strategic bases. Mr Willkie agreed with the plan to hand over the fifty destroyers, but opposed,the procedure by stating that the scheme should have been discussed by Congress. This would indicate that, in spite of his avowed determination to help Great Britain, he does not possess President Roosevelt’s awareness of the urgency of a position in Europe which vitally affects America’s acknowledged first line of defence. Had the more cautious Mr Willkie been in power a batch of those useful little war craft would not yet have been manned by British crews and standing by ready for immediate action. A survey of American defence preparation* since the war started and for some' time before the actual outbreak affords ample proof of the ability and sincerity of the British Empire’s older and well-tried friend, President Roosevelt. We are now familiar with cabled news of the passing of huge appropriations for the United States fighting services and with the arrangements for making supplies of aircraft and military equipment available to Britain. The restraining hand of America, hacked by elaborate plans for Pacific defence, has probably been an important factor in ' discouraging the Japanese from breaking out into a more open form of aggression in the •Far East. The close collaboration with Canada, cemented by the formation of a joint defence board, will have been regarded as distinctly encouraging and significant by all who see in permanent Anglo-American co-operation the only real hope for world civilisation. This board lost no time in settling down to work. One of to-day’s cablegrams gives an outline of its recent survey of the Pacific coast, and it is stated that so far the members of the board have found themselves in complete accord.

Then, again, talks have taken place at Washington between Mr Cordell Hull, Lord Lothian, and Mr R. G. Casey (the Australian Minister), giving rise to the hope that at some not very distant date British possessions in the South Pacific will be linked more closely than ever with the powerful democratic defensive chain planned for tho Pacific. Meanwhile, according to Colonel Knox, the United States is making Hawaii one of the great military bastions of the world. If to all these developments is added the fact that, without waiting to be drawn into war, the United States has passed its Conscription Bill by a sound majority, it will be realised beyond all doubt that “ Uncle Sam ” means business. Neither Mr Roosevelt nor Mr Willkio null deliberately plunge the country into war, but each is determined that the malign influences emanating from Nazi Germany, and spreading to sycophantic Italy, will not be allowed to infect the freedom-loving peoples of tho world. And before they win their foul campaign the Axis Powers would certainly have to overthrow the North American Continent, as well as the gallant British Isles.