Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1939. SAFETY FIRST IN U.S.A.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 October 1939, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1939. SAFETY FIRST IN U.S.A.

ANYONE who lias read attentively the reports transmitted during the last few days of the discussions that have been proceeding in the United States, in the Senate Chamber and elsewhere, on the amendment of the neutrality law, must have observed in these discussions a prevailing note of mingled parochialism and timidity. The principal participants have been members of the Senate, presumably the cream of American public and political life, but it might be said with little injustice that the ideas presented on international policy are less appropriate, on the whole, to the mighty American Republic, than they would be to some weak little State, occupying a. position of dangerous proximity to powerful aggressors.

Those who support and those who oppose the repeal of the embargo on the. export of arms alike maintain that the policy they favour is the one most likely to keep the United States out of the war. Amongst the senatorial orators there is a general failure to take hold of the commanding truth that in these modern times no important nation can live its life in isolation from the rest —that it must contribute either to the advancement of civilisation or to retrogression. That truth has been proclaimed clearly enough on occasion by some of the most influential leaders of American opinion—President Roosevelt and his Secretary of State, Mr Cordell Hull, amongst others —but in the present discussions, apparently it is being either overlooked or rejected.

Although the Allies fairly claim that they are fighting the battles of world democracy, while the country that claims to be the greatest of all democracies plays the part of onlooker, no one wishes to see the United States plunge into war.. It may be doubted, however, whether the policy of safety first, now being proclaimed so vehemently by Americans otherwise of various views, is really a good method of safeguarding neutrality.

In a country with the history and traditions of the United States it might be expected that-there would be some practical realisation of the fact that the policy of avoiding trouble at all costs is not a good way of making an end of trouble. It might be expected, too, that some thought would be given by Americans to constructive methods of establishing and safeguarding peace. At the moment, however, the policy of avoiding trouble at all costs appears to hold the field. In the measure now before the Senate, the United States is proposing, as one of yesterday’s messages pointed out, the withdrawal of a great part of its merchant shipping from the seas of the world—that is to say, it is proposing to accept, in the interests of safe neutrality, much the same consequences as if the bulk of its trading ships had been destroyed by submarines.

Almost the only suggestion of' positive action reported in the course of the Senate debate is that of Senator Edwin Johnson, who proposed a resolution requesting the President to join with other neutrals in urging an immediate armistice in the European war. In the existing state of affairs this is a dubious proposal, which conceivably, if it were acted upon, might serve no other purpose than to play into the hands of an aggressive dictatorship intent on making peace on its own terms.

Had it acted with spirit and decision at the right time, the United States very probably might have prevented the outbreak of the present war. Even a reckless adventurer like Hitler might have found reason to pause had the United States declared unequivocally that it would take its stand with the nations prepared to uphold international law and to resist aggression, and that if the need arose it would use all its resources in co-operation with these nations. In all likelihood the bold policy would have been the policy of true safety. Preferring instead the feebler policy now being pursued, the United States leaves the European democracies to undertake unaided the task of re-establishing order and peace in the world, and incidentally is doing something to increase the danger that the American people may yet have to fight for the preservation of their own liberties. CHINA HITTING BACK, P.ATHER meagre accounts have been transmitted of late of events in China, but in yesterday’s news of a serious setback suffered by the Japanese in their advance on Changsha, a town on the Hankow-Canton railway,' there is significant evidence that the Chinese are developing increased striking power. The invaders are said to have retreated fifteen miles, abandoning much of their equipment, after suffering heavy losses. At the same time, even the Japanese admit that a measure of success was gained by the Chinese Air Force in a raid on the Hankow aerodrome. The enterprise shown by the Chinese in these operations and others is the more impressive since they have,been handicapped of late by delays and difficulties on the transport routes by which they are still in touch with the outside world. The road from Burma into Yunnan is hard and passable during the dry season, but during the last month or two it has been damaged seriously by torrential rains. An American traveller who journeyed over the road in early August reported that he counted 507 motor trucks, each carrying one and a half tons of military supplies, stalled in the mud on one section of the road. He added, however, that thousands of workers were busy installing drainage systems and that it was quite probable that, by the rainy season of next year the road would be an. all-weather highway. A hundred miles of railway parallel with the road from Yunnan towards Burma have already been built. The Chinese have another supply route in the railway from Haiphong, in French ludo-China, info Yunnan, but this line was recently so overcrowded that it was months behind schedule in dealing with traffic. The manner and extent to which the position in China has been altered by the collapse of the Anti-Comintern Pad is slid obscure and the full implications of a movement, ol Russian troops into Northern China, reported yesterday, have yet to be made clear. In spite of the movement against Changsha in which she has now suffered a more or less serious reverse, however, it is plain that Japan is under the necessity 01. concentrating her forces in view of a possible Russian attack and that she is likely to be restricted correspondingly in pursuing her invasion ol China. COMPULSORY POLITICS. AS the law stands in this country, industrial unions constitute J " an essential part of the machinery for the regulation ol wages and working conditions. That being so - compulsory unionism may be justified on the ground that all who share the benefits of the system should contribute to its costs. Il is another matter altogether, however, to compel members ol unions, irrespective of their personal views and convictions, to contribute to political and other objects, including the establishment of Labour newspapers. In rejecting an amendment which would have made it unlawful for a union to compel, members to subscribe to party undertakings, the House of Representatives, or rather a majority of its members, has upheld a policy of rank injustice. If even one member of a union is compelled to subscribe to any political object against his oilier will, the. principles of democracy are set aside in favour of those of dictatorship. There is no possible ground on which srßh tactics of injustice and coercion can he defended. In its scope this policy is a step towards the destruction of that 'democratic freedom which it is the first and most essential duty of the New Zealand Parliament, or that of any other free country, to maintain.