AMERICA AND THE WAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24414, 27 September 1940, Page 8

AMERICA AND THE WAR

QUESTION OF PARTICIPATION A VISITOR'S OPINION (Per United Press Association) AUCKLAND, Sept. 26. The opinion that the vast majority of Americans would not be averse to active participation in the war should Great Britain be faced with a dire extremity was expressed by Mr i loyd Soto, an executive of the Califorman Shipping Company, who arrived by the Honolulu Clipper from San Francisco. Mr Soto is on his way to Australia to complete arrangements for the delivery of one of his company's steamers, a vessel of 6000 tons, to the agents of the Siamese Government, which has purchased it. The speed-up of American defence measures and the production of war materia! for Britain had resulted in greatly increased industrial activity in the United States, Mr Soto said. There had also been a great demand on tonnage as the result of the British activity in the shipping world. The failure of the Germans to make any attempt to invade Britain during the past two months was taken by American public opinion to indicate that Britain would eventually triumph. Mr Soto said it was generally accepted in the United States that active intervention by America would be inevitable should there be any likelihood of a Nazi victory.