Sept. 11.
Rear-Admiral Yates Stirling, Jr, USN. retired, is one of the writers on' naval affairs in the' United States, who, because of his completely realistic outlook on problems with which his country is concerned, has earned very considerable respect. He is greatly pleased with the agreement between his country and Canada for the establishment of a joint defence board, and looks upon as eventually opening the way for a defen: sive alliance between the two countries. At present, of course, the conversations which have been going on have been limited to the exchange of information, and the for mulation of joint plans of defence, There is still a great deal of work to be done, but the point of outstanding importance is that the two countries have mutually recognized the part they must play in common defence against outside aggression, and the need to substitute intelligent advanced planning for precipitate unplanned ation which has led to so many diMeulties in the past. It been the main fault of the democracies in the past that they have not made those preparations against the possibility of an outbreak of war which they should have done.
Apart from: those subterranean activities which undoubtedly brought about the downfall of France, the history of the past few months clearly demonstrates that the Allies were not only wholly unprepared for warfare on the newer principles, but had utterly failed to comprehend in advance their thoroughly changed nature. There were military writers both in Britain and France who voiced thei opinion as to what fulure wars would be ike, but, as with General de Gaulle himself, their teachings were disregarded. The welding of the niechanized units and aero planes into one common weapon of offence had not been fully understood by the Allied command, and the result was that some very bitter Iessons had to be learned in the Low Countries and afterwards in France itself, It is probable by now that the British.om-mand has fully understood all the implica~ tions of the new form of warfare, and, should the enemy ever manage to land in Britain, would be able to deal with him energetically and. satisfactorily, IL is gratifying' to note that the United States have been fully awakened to the possibilities of the present situation. It is un= likely that they will be called upon to defend the western hemisphere, for the task of subduing the British is one which will more than tax the brutish ingenuity of the German command. The fact, however, that Washington and Ottawa are taking time by the forelock, and making preparations, even ayainst an unlikely eventuality, show that both the United States and Canada,—and -apparently. the whole of the American republies,—have recognized the fact of the existence of common peril. Not only do they realize that, but they have learned exactly the form that' perit will take, and the capacities of the possible enemy. The geographical unity of Canada and "the United States presents military problems which are by no means: incapable of solution. They are solved to a very large extent by the incorporation Ganacia into the defence scheme of the Unite ates, But the joint board which is discussing the formulation of the necessary plans have to go much beyond purely military and naval considerations. 'There are the questions of \dustiial ce-operation, joint planning of transportation, the placing of airfields, the' development of electric power, and kindred matters. In addition to all that there is the necessity for investigating traitorous fifth column activities, That such exist in the United' States has been openly admitted by the authorities who have been making enquiries. They are undoubtedly upon a very extensive scale, for in any move which Hitler contemplated against the western hemisphere, he could not possibly hope to succeed unless he could bring about-conditions of disorder such as prevailed in Norway and Holland. To deal with that may not at the moment come within the scope of the Joint board's consultations, For the time being that is entirely a matter for the civil side of the administration, but plans to deal with it will have to be devised, not only for! application upon the possible ' outbreak of war, but even in times of actual peace. The
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.