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Show Lend-Lease Bill Limitations PROPOSALS now before congress that certain limitations on the power to be granted President Presi-dent Roosevelt under the lend-lease bill for aid to Britain be included in the' measure seem meritorious. Senator George, chairman of the senate foreign for-eign relations committee, has tentatively approved ap-proved three such limitations. They would place definite time limit for the powers to be granted, probably two years. They would specifically spe-cifically prohibit the use of U. S. naval vessels for convoying ships to Britain. They would require re-quire the president to make periodic reports - to congress on his use of the powers conferred upon him. ' Certainly all of these limitations seem reasonable. rea-sonable. The time limit would automatically rescind the broad powers conferred without further congressional action. That's sensible, assuring the nation that the powers would not be retained re-tained after the emergency Is past. If thei . .emergency is not past at the expiration of two years, then congress could very easily extend the powers for another limited period. The ban on use of our naval vessels for convoying con-voying cargo ships to Britain is Justifiable. We do not know that President Roosevelt would take any such action, but it is Just as well that we play safe. No move this nation could take would be so likely to plunge us directly into the war as would the convoying of (hips to Britain with our own naval vessels. The requirement for periodic reports to congress con-gress on the president's use of his powers is very sound. Probably Mr. Roosevelt would make such reports anyway, but having the express ex-press provision in the act merely assures such reports will be made and it also serves to emphasize that the congress is not surrendering Its role as an Independent and responsible second sec-ond branch of government. There has been talk of two more limitations one to place a top limit of perhaps $2,000,-000,000 $2,000,-000,000 on the, amount of money to be spent, the other to forbid export of any defense articles already purchased by the army or navy without with-out certification by the army chief of staff or the naval operations chief that such export would "not in any way" diminish American defenses. de-fenses. Neither of these limitations, we think, Is necessary or advisable. It is impossible at this date to estimate accurately ac-curately the amount of money we will have to use In our all-out aid to Britain program. A ceiling might merely disrupt our program of aid at a critical time. Furthermore, before any money can be spent under the lend-lease act It must be appropriated by congress. Thus congress con-gress has ample opportunity to exercise control con-trol over the spending in the future. Much the same argument applies to the second proposed limitation. We don't know what defense materials Britain will need in the future. fu-ture. If, in order to survive, Britain needs some of our army and naval war material, then we might well better run the risk of weakening our own defensive strength than to risk a British collapse and the Immediate prospect of lacing all-out war ourselves with defenses which, no matter how we might try to conserve con-serve -hem in the immediate future, would be hopelessly inadequate. |