Wairarapa Times- Age SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1941. A MOMENTOUS DECLARATION.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 September 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times- Age SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1941. A MOMENTOUS DECLARATION.

AFFIRMING, in the speech in London reported yesterday, that the war will be far longer, harder and more desperate if all free men do not rally on Britain’s side while she is at the fulness of her strength,' the Canadian Prime Minister, Mr Mackenzie King, in effect invited the United States at once to declare war on the Axis. This was a decidedly unconventional thing io do, but it must be hoped that in the United States and elsewhere Mr King’s invitation will be considered less from the standpoint of the accepted rides and niceties ol international intercourse than on its plain merits. I Whether the United States is to fight, the Axis or not of ' course can only be determined (as Mr King pointed out that Canada’s participation in the war had been determined), by the deliberate choice of a free people. Apart from suggestions by Mr King or.anybody else, the question whether the United States is to become a belligerent is at present trembling in the balance. It has just been reported, for instance, that an American destroyer counter-attacked with depth charges a German submarine which tried to sink her. The incident is one that might easily lead io war, but that the Nazi dictatorship obviously is doing everything in its power to avoid going openly to war with a country whose President said, a few days ago.-— I know I speak for the conscience and determination of the American people when I say that we shall do everything in our powbr to crush Hitler and his Nazi, forces. Account has to be taken also of the Pacific. If the .Japanese militarists achieve the mastery for which they are striving furiously, and elect to defy the United States. Japan will fight as ahnember of the Axis. The United States in that event presumably will find itself at war with the European Axis Powers as I well as with Japan. The facts and contentions advanced by the Canadian Prime Minister in any case have their full claim to serious attention, in the United Sthtes and in the other countries concerned —not least the partner Stales of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Mr King made no claim regarding the extent to which the security and freedom of the United' States are at stake in the present conflict that has not been made repeatedly by President. Roosevelt, his late Republican opponent. Mr Wendell Willkic, and many other representative Americans. What Mr King did was to emphasise powerfully the need that all free men should combine their efforts, in the Avar and after the war, if humanity is to be saved. The best justification of the Canadian'Prime Minister’s frankness appears in Mr Churchill’s observation on what he called a memorable and momentous declaration: — I am grateful to Mr Mackenzie King today for having put, in terms perhaps more pointed than I, as Prime Minister, would use. that overpowering sense we have that time is short, the struggle dire and, that all the free men of the world must stand together in one line if .humanity is to be spared a deepening, darkening and widening tragedy, which can lead only to something in the nature of immediate world chaos. The question raised by Mr Mackenzie King is simply whether the United States, in its own interests and those of free humanity can afford to put anything loss than its full weight into the struggle against the Axis. This question has been raised and debated actively in the United States, although admittedly there is also in that country a great deal of public apathy, as well as a certain amount of isolationist and defeatist sentiment to lie taken into account. Some people, both in. the United States and in Britain, have ** maintained that, as a belligerent, the United States could do little' more against the Axis than it is doing now. Indeed, it haij been argued that an American declaration of war against Germany would weaken Britain, and her present allies because the United Stales would then divert to its own forces some of the war materials now going to the other democracies. Possibilities of this kind no doubt call for serious examination. Account also has to be taken, however, of the moral effect of an American declaration of war. Au announcement of the belligerency of the United States might be expected Io fall with crushing effect on the peoples of the Axis countries. On the other hand it would be inspiriting to Ihe democracies and would serve an extremely valuable purpose, too, in conveying encouragement to the inhabitants of occupied and enslaved countries now subjected to an almost unendurable strain.