Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1941. ISOLATIONISTS IN DISARRAY.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 February 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1941. ISOLATIONISTS IN DISARRAY.

PROSPECTS of a rapid and elective expansion of American material aid to Britain in her war effort are brightened not a little by the rather childish tactics to which members of the isolationist minority in the United States are reduced in their efforts to impede the passage of the Lend and Lease Lili. Nothing more petty or puerile eotdd well be imagined than the attempt made bv some of the isolationists to fasten on the British Ambassador. Lord Halifax, a charge of lobbying in support of the Bill. This remarkable allegation, it may be hoped, has been disposed of sufficiently and finally by Mr Cordell Hull’s statement that the visits made by Lord Halifax to the chairmen of Congressional committees wore tormal courtesy calls and that the State Department does not consider that such calls constitute a departure from established precedent.

Since lie reached Washington. Lord Halifax has taken up the task of promoting Anglo-American co-operation at the point at which it was laid down by the late Lord Lothian. Like bis predecessor, and like a great majority ol those who lead American opinion in political and other fields, Lord Halifax has been entirely frank in urging that it is as much in its own interest as in that of world democracy that the United States should give all possible material aid to Britain in her war against the Axis Powers. What Lord Halifax could have said in furtherance of that contention, in private conference with Congressional leaders or anyone else, that he Ims not said publicly, it is impossible to imagine.

The latest efforts of the isolationists are of interest chiefly as betraying an inability to face the realities ol the world situation ami a desire to find relief in raising bogus side-issues. It may be supposed that these tactics will accomplish nothing, unless it is to bring ridicule upon those who adopt them. '1 he American people have been told by their responsible leaders, notably their President, Mr Roosevelt, his late opponent, Mr Wendell Willkie. and members of the President’s Cabinet, that the alternative, for the United States, to giving all practicable aid to Britain is l<» prepare for a life and death struggle, unaided and at a hravv disadvantage, against the totalitarian aggressors.

What the isolationists must do if they wish to establish their ease is not to convict Lord Halifax of lobbying, but to demonstrate that the totalitarian menace to the Americas does not exist. That, admittedly, it would be very difficult to do, tor the reason, among others, that an organisation financed, directed and controlled from Nazi Germany is working actively to undermine am! destroy the existing constitution of the United Suites —the fii'-t> have been e-lal'hshed eom-btsivMy and in detail by purely American investigation - while parallel organisations are intriguing and agitating to gain command over a number of Latin American countries. The strength of what is called the aid to Britain policy in the United States is that it is opening the way to the only policy under which even the most powerful democratic mill ms can hope to survive and prosper, flic ultimate truth '.n l>c faced is that Britain and the British Empire arc not so much asking for aid as offering an opportunity to those who prize their own freedom to cr-oprratr m upholding it and making it secure,