"HOLDING EMPIRE TOGETHER"

Evening Star, Issue 24325, 14 October 1942, Page 3

"HOLDING EMPIRE TOGETHER "

BRITISH-AMERIGAN CONTROVERSY REPLY TO EDITORS OF " LIFE " NEW YORK, October 12. “ The editors of the magazine ‘ Life 1 have touched off a bitter BritishAmerican controversy over the basio United Nations- war principles by demanding in an open letter that the British ‘ quit fighting a war to hold the Empire, because if you cling to the Empire at the expense of the United! Nations you will lose,’ ” declares the paper ‘ P.M.,’ which severely criticises ‘ Life.’ ‘ P.M.’ was unable to reach Mr Henry Luce, the publisher of ‘ Life,’ but bis wife, Clare Booth Luce, tho famous playwright, said: “I am absolutely certain that there is no intention oj suggesting a separate peace.” ‘ P.M.’ asks Mr Luce in an editorial: “ Where do you want the British people to cease holding the Empire together? Australia? The Australians have more to say about that than the British, and haven’t we a hit at stake out there, too? Egypt? The Lord knows, Rommel is doing all he can to pull the Empire apart there. The east; coast of Africa? The Vichy French would like that, for then Laval would be * able to bargain with the Germans and the Japanese over Madagascar, just as Vichy sold out Indo-China. The west coast of_ Africa? Remember Freetown is our side’s closest base to Dakar, which threatens us in the hands of Vichy, Canada? The Canadians, like the Australians, should decide for them-, selves. “We are not defending the Imperialists or the Colonel Blimps, but when ‘ Life ’ puts out big nice-sounding generalities without being specific it does not help the war effort either here or abroad, for such statements are apt to be ready by people who will accept them without thinking them through—any more than you thought them through as you wrote.” A London message states that tho editors of ‘ Life ’ have issued a statement there claiming that all their open letter really demanded was that tho British war aims ho stated 1 and that they be the United Nations aims, not merely the British aims. “ The accusation that we are seeking to drive a wedge between Britain and America is false and unrealistic,” they said. [“Americans may disagree among themselves about what they are fight-; ing for, but they are sure they are not fighting to hold the British Empire together,” declared the editors of ‘ Life ’ in an open letter to the people of Britain. “If your strategists are planning a war to hold the Empire together, sooner or later they will find! themselves strategising alone.”]