While nothing officially has been divulged concerning what President Roosevelt told the members of the Senate Military Affairs Committee, certain senators are reported to have disclosed the tenor of his remarks, and to this has to be added considerable guesswork which would probably, if the truth could be made known, approximate what the President said. If President Roosevelt did not actually say, as it is alleged, that in his opinion Britain and France were the two Powers who supported the greatest burden of the ideological conflict between the democracies and the totalitarian states,—whereas the United States is left relatively undisturbed,—he might very well have done so, fòr asthe position stands, that is a fact. Itis also a fact that if Britain, and France were worsted in any war which may ensue then the republics of north and south America would form the last rampart of democracy, with the possibility of the American nations in their turn becoming the victims of new territorial expansion by the totalitarian states. Hence the readiness of the President to countenance the sale of war materials not only to Great Britain and France, but also to other independent states in Europe facing the threat of aggression by dictatorships. That decision has had wide repercussions in the United States, where public opinion seems to be definitely split on the subject, with little at present to indicate where the predominance of support lies. In this connection it must be remembered that while on Monday Herr Hitler said nothing to precipitate a struggle, on the other hand he omitted to say anything which might tend definitely to remove the possibility of war. Thus while immediate anxieties are for the moment allayed there has been no real betterment in the situation, and it is obviously the duty of both Great Britain, and France to proceed with the task of putting themselves in the best posture of defence as quickly as possible. That is being done, with gratifying results in Britain as recently announced by Mr. Chamberlain, and there is every prospect that the present rearmament will catch up with German preparations in the not too distant future. Even now, Britain is better prepared than she was last year.
As a result of the pacific idealism of the nineteen-twenties, and the rapid growth of Germen armaments since the advent of Herr Hitler to office the balance of power in Europe has been sadly disturbed, and the position of the Rome-Berlin axis has consequently been considerably strengthened. To a very great extent the free opening of the American war materials market to the democracies as President Roosevelt has done, tends towards the readjustment of the balance of power, putting both Britain and France in a position in which they can proceed at a greatly accelerated speed with the task of catching up on the totalitarian states. It is but natural that the two Europ-can Powers should readily avail themselves of the facilities which have been placed at their -disposal. But there is "iso the American angle to be considered. The huge volume of business which has been placed with the American aircraft manufacturers will enable them so to develop their schemes for mass production that the United States government will in its turn benefit from the growing ability of the manufacturers to supply with speed the requirements of the United States as well. There is a perfectly good reason for all this being done. The Rome-Berlin-Tokyo axis is a definite menace to the. democracies, for it contemplates ultimate world domination. There is no reason whatever to believe that the granting of the German-Italian demands which have been formulated up to the present would in any way permanently satisfy their aspirations, or that Japanese domination of China would put an end to their desire for ultimate further expansion. On the contrary sentiments which have been expressed by the various leaders of those countries suggest that they intend to dominate the world militarily as well as economically, and it is because of this that the President sees the interests of the United States vitally affected by present-day international trends. That may be taking a very long view of the possibilities, but it is one which has to be taken, and any statesman neglecting to do so would deserve that appellation.
With Great Britain and France superior to the combined forces of Germany and Italy except in the matter of aircraft, the assistance which is now being obtained from the United States should speedily permit of the old balance being regained. That some in the United States regard this departure as likely to involve the United States in another European struggle is to be regretted, for in the circumstances that need never become an actual fact.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.