Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1940. AN AMBASSADOR ON THE WAR.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 November 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1940. AN AMBASSADOR ON THE WAR.

* TN their total effect, the observations made by the American * Ambassador to Britain (Air J. P. Kennedy), in an interview with the Boston “Globe” of which passages were cabled yesterday—observations he has since disclaimed as creating a different impression entirely from that 1 would want, io set. forth” —were merely an elaboration of a terse statement by the United States High Commissioner to the Philippines (Air F. B. Sayre) made in Manila on Monday. Mr Sayre said that the power and resources of the United States could turn the balance (in the war) without the United States entering the struggle. Mr Kennedy was reported as saying:— There is no sense in our getting into the war. The whole reason for aiding England is to give us time. England is doing everything we could ask. This attitude, shared in all essentials by the foremost political and other leaders of the United States—amongst others President Roosevelt and Air Wendell Willkie—may appear to embody a considerable element of selfishness as well as of cold-blooded realism. A cynical writer once declared; in the days when Britain was trying to set the League of Nations on its feet, that England was willing to shed every drop of American blood in upholding international ideals, or something to that effect. Today it may be said as a matter of simple fact that the United States is leaving the- British nation and its Allies to bear whatever sacrifice of life may be entailed in what is recognised probably by the great mass of American opinion to be, amongst other things, a first-line defence of American, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” It has been proclaimed freely by President. Roosevelt and other American leaders that Britain is fighting the battle of the United States as well as her own. Some people may feel that on the basis of these facts, the United States, as a matter of self-respect, ought to enter the war. Against that, however,’there is to be set the view rather obviously entertained by many extremely well-informed Americans—amongst them the President and the Ambassador to Britain —that the United States will contribute more effectively to the victory of the democracies by its present non-belligerent alliance with Britain than it could hope to do by declaring war on the Axis Powers. There is, in fact, a great deal to support that opinion. ft is not in doubt that the United States would have to fight the totalitarian aggressors if Britain were defeated. The American Government and people would have to choose, in that ease, between fighting and submitting to totalitarian dictation and demands, and everyone knows what their decision would be. Britain, however, is fighting with good hopes of attaining ultimate victory, and for a considerable time to come, at least, she would be hindered rather than helped in attaining her goal if the United States entered the war.

In. spite of recent astronomical spending on defence preparation and the remarkable development of war industrial and military organisation it has made possible, the United States is still far short of having marshalled its resources effectively for war. At present, however, Britain is allotted a large proportion of the output of American war industries—under President Roosevelt’s rule of thumb policy, fifty per cent. Becoming a belligerent, the United Stales of necessity would reserve a very much larger proportion of the output of its war industries for the equipment of its own forces. That fact is likely to be regarded as decisive so long as Britain is fighting, as she now is, with good prospects of ultimately overthrowing Nazism. Account has to be taken in addition of the pregnant fact instanced by Mr Kennedy if lie said, as he is reported:— Aid for Britain is not likely to draw the United States into the war if we are coldly realistic and for America all the time. We have no ships and could not send an army anywhere. In itself, talk of being “for America all the time” may in these days strike rather coldly on the ear, but the Ambassador’s reported reference to shipping is highly pertinent. Since the United States does not possess the shipping that would enable it to send an army abroad and keep it supplied, it evidently follows that on balance an American declaration of war would weaken rather than strengthen Britain in her war effort. In these circumstances, Britain would lose considerable supplies of American war malerial, and it would bo at least a long time / before the United States could give her'eomponsating armed support, save, perhaps, in conditions making American naval co-operation vital. The considerations here touched upon, which make it undesirable that the United Slates should enter the war, of course make it equally desirable, in American as well as British interests, that United States aid to Britain should he extended and expanded on the greatest possible scale, This, fortunately is precisely Ihe policy to which Ihe American Government is committed with an increasing weight of. public support. A remark was attributed Io Mr Kennedy that: “We must aid England all we can, give her whatever we do not need, and not expect anything back.” 'The last phrase falls rather obviously short of being truly realistic. What I lie American people may “expect back” from effective aid Io Britain is tin* safeguarding of all that in their outlook, and in the British outlook, makes life worth living. Il is entirely in keeping with a ha rd-headed regard for American sei f-i id crest —though it is not fora moment to be suggested that the American people are acting or will act only from that standpoint—that the material resources ol the United States should be drawn upon without stint in helping to build up British fighting power to a maximum.