With the plans of the totalitarian states being held up by their inability to conquer Great Britain, there is an increasing tone of irritation in-the German and Italian press over the assistance being given by the United States to the Allies. As Mr. Churchill emphasized in his war statement in the House-of Commons, the United States have provided an enormous amount of munitions to help to fil the wide gap left by the disaster of Flanders; and in addition, American aeroplanes are now coming to Britain in large enough numbers to affect the situation appreciably in favour of the British and their Allies, who have their backs against the wall It may be merely coincidence, but it is worthy of note that warnings and threats io the United States did not become frequent in the Nazi and Fascist press until there was talk of the United States leasing naval and aerial bases in British possessions in the Western Hemisphere. Until this question came to the fore, the totalitarians seemed to realize that Great Britain was trading in what was theoretically an open market, if the "cash and carry" clause permits the use of that term. In theory, the Germans and the Italians were able to purchase whatever the Americans were willing to sell—guns, explosives, oil, or food. But in practice the British blockade, which is now scoffed at by the Nazis at one moment and made the subject of humanitarian appeals the next, effectively closed that avenue of supplies. The Nazis might have the "cash," but they could not r." While resentment might have been felt over the prodücts being sold to the Allies, there was no legitimate reason for prot-at this time, protest, Never-inspired press of Berlin and Rome is taking the Americans to task about the matter. Why, at this stage? Is it that the acquisition of bases in British islands in the Caribbean by the United States might wreck the totalitarians' carefully laid plans for extending their sway eventually over South and Central America? There can be little doubt that American bases in these islands would, in addition to being an extra safeguard for the Panama Canal, be a deterrent to aggressors, whether internal or external, in the southern continent. And that, it seems, is what is irking the enemy most.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.