Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 1941. WILL AMERICA ENTER THE WAR?

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 April 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 1941. WILL AMERICA ENTER THE WAR?

ACCORDING to Hie latest Gallup poll, 7!) per cent of the people of the United States are opposed to sending' an American expeditionary force to Europe and somewhat smaller, but still very substantial, majorities are opposed Io sending American air or naval forces. It may be doubted whether voting on this basis is of much significance. An increasing proportion of the American people probably believe that the material aid they are giving', on an ascending scale, to Britain and her allies, will enable the democracies to win the war. In his recent historic broadcast to the United States, Air Churchill definitely favoured the idea that American material aid should suffice. He did not say: “Come to, our aid with your armed forces,’’ but: “Give us the tools.”

The issue of the United States entering the war against the Axis as a belligerent, of her own volition and on her own initiative, is hardly raised. On the other hand, the possibility that the United. States may be drawn into the war is raised very clearly and has been and is being- discussed freely, in the United States and elsewhere. Some American commentators have expressed. the view that circumstances may arise in which the Axis will take the initiative in making war on the United States. It is not doubted that Hitler would take, this step at any time if he saw some prospect of advantage in doing so, if only to the extejit of hampering effective American aid to Britain.

Some American isolationists have asserted that President Roosevelt is pursuing intentionally a course that ultimately will involve the United States in. belligerency, and even some of the strongest supporters of the Lease or Lend Bill are said to fear the same thing. It has been argued that if the President were not headed for ultimate war he would have welcomed those amendments proposed to the Lease or Lend Bill which would have limited his powers to authorise the convoying of American supplies to England or to send an expeditionary force to any place outside of the western hemisphere.

Actually these contentions appear to be unwarranted. Air Roosevelt, has defined his position frankly and quite clearly. In a recent speech in which he declared that: “If Gyeat Britain goes down, all of us in the Americas would be living at the point of a. gun,” and that: “There can be no appeasement of ruthlessness,” he said also:—

I make the direct statement to the American, people that there is far less chance of the United States getting into the war, if we do all we can now to support the nations defending themselves against the Axis, than if we acquiesce in their defeat, submit tamely to an Axis victory, and wait our turn to be the object of attack ...

It is entirely consistent with the President’s desire to keep the United States out of the war, and with his hope that this may be possible, that he has opposed determinedly the imposition of hampering restrictions on the .American Government where powers of defence are concerned.

It must occur to anyone that the imposition of restrictions of this kind on the American Government would be likely to encourage the totalitarian aggressors to proceed to new excesses. The position is complex and holds many-sided possibilities, but President Roosevelt is by no means alone in bolding that a policy of unrestricted aid to the democracies gives the United States its best, chance of keeping out of the war. In giving evidence not long ago before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, for instance, Mr Wendell AVillkie answered a question by Senator A. H. Vandenberg whether the policy of aid to Britain implied that the United States would enter the war itself if neeessary to keep Britain afloat.

The odds on America keeping out of the war come from aiding Britain (Mr Willkie replied). I really do not think we have any chance of keeping out if we let Britain fall. If Britain falls the United States will be in the war within 30 days, or at least within a very short period. Aid to Britain really means not working for Britain but working with her to defend an area of freedom.

It is here fairly brought' out once again, as it was brought out by President Roosevelt in his earlier statement, that at an ultimate view the question of possible American, involvement in the war turns, not on.,the question, of how far the people of the United States are prepared to .go .in aiding Britain, but how far they are prepared to go in defending themselves. It is an important aspect of the situation that there is a rather more obvious likelihood of the United States becoming a belligerent in the Pacific than in the Atlantic and in Europe. The reason for this, one Washington correspondent observed recently, is that any outright expedition by Japan into the South-West Pacific would compel the United States to resist. Any large-scale Japanese ventures in that area, uncontested by the United States, would mean the beginning of a retreat which would make difficult or impossible any later stand against further Japanese advances. Americans know that it is better to stop Japan along the Philip-pines-Singapore tangent than at Honolulu. The hardening of American opinion in the last fortnight of February against Japan—notably the decision by Congress to permit the Navy to fortify Guam and the bitter attacks in the Senate against Japan—are incontrovertible evidence of this. While American policy has hardened against Japan, President Roosevelt and his advisers have been careful to avoid developments which might give'the .Japanese militarists a pretext for resorting to violent counter-measures. As yet, for example, the American Government has used the embargo weapon against •Japan only within rather narrow limits. Tn this and olhei- ways it made manifest that the United States desires as little as does the British Empire an extension of war in the Pacific. At the same time, there are apparently good grounds for believing that any new and important development by .Japan of tier policy of aggression would bring her into immediate collision with both branches of the English-speaking race.