Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1941. AMERICA’S INTERNATIONAL PART.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 September 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1941. AMERICA’S INTERNATIONAL PART.

■■ — r J\AKING account of the rate at which American aid to the nations fighting' the Axis Powers is now being extended and expanded, it may appear that there is no longer any need to speculate about the growth of opinion in the United States regarding the Avar ami the all-important problems that will have to be dealt with in some fashion whei\ the war is over. The flow of American material aid to the Allies. President Roosevelt has said, will become a river and finally a torrent, in which Nazism will be engulfed. At the same time lhe American Navy has been ordered to protect against Axis piracy the ships of all nations plying in the seas that are regarded as vital,to the defence of the United States. In the Far East, the United States stands before .Japan as a stern mentor, refusing to budge an inch on Questions of international right and fail dealing. These developments are opposed only rather feebly, and in some instances in terms that obviously invite condemnation, by an apparently diminishing band of American isolationists. Since deeds are worth more than words if may appear that lhe policy of the United States, now and in the days to follow the war, has already been determinefl decisively. That may be true —it certainly must be hoped that it is—but it is nevertheless encouraging to have from Viscount Halifax, who has now had fairly extended opportunities of observing and noting the growth of American opinion, the statement that: — The overwhelming mass of the American people is just as alive to the menace to things they value as are the British from their own angle. It was perhaps fairly true to say. Lord Halifax further told a Press conference in London, that while there was in the United States a small percentage at either extreme, “the great block of middle opinion was broadly prepared to follow the course of events as they developed, and 1o follow whatever lead the Administration might give.” Nothing less than this, it must frankly be admitted, would make it possible to look ahead with any great confidence to the future of humanity. All the help the United States can give is needed and will be needed in order that civilisation may be preserved. Apart from the immediate demands of the Avar, which may be accentuated critically in the immediate future if a serious diminution of industrial and other material resources compels the Russian armies to yield further extensive territories to the common enemy, there can be at an ultimate view no secure re-establishment of civilisation unless the United States puls its full weight into the scale ami keeps it there. Tn the great international charter that was drawn up by President Roosevelt and Mr Churchill at their Atlantic meeting, the problems confronting the world are recognised. As the “Christian Science Monitor” observed in a recent editorial on this subject:—On the basic question of organising “a permanent system of general security” the Churchill-Roosevelt programme is honest and realistic. It says .nothing about a federation or league of nations but recognises that some such organisation must be established before there can be more than one-sided disarmament. Until the abondonment of the use of force can be realised .they are prepared to face the responsibility of re-establishing order. The primary condition of the survival of freedom is I lie destruction of Nazism, but with that condition satisfied much will be demanded of nations, individually and collectively, if peace and security are to be established on firm foundations. In the roughest definition the tasks to be undertaken to that end Avill include both international policing, which ma}- be difficult and burdensome in its early stages, and the promotion of social reform and advancement, it must be hoped that when the Avar has been fought and Avon it will be possible to say, as Lord. Halifax has said now, that the overwhelming mass of the American people is alive to the menace to the things they value. For the United States, as much as for other free nations, security will continue to depend upon international action and organisation which cannot be made effective without full-hearted American co-operation.