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Show PGENERAL (?d HUGH S. JOHNSON '"lift fcnil WNUSoy. Washington, D. C. 'OPPOSITION' THINKING A favorite lawyer's trick is to give his own version of what his worthy opponent "thinks" and then tear his self-constructed straw man to pieces. That is being done daily in the current debate on foreign policy. Those opposing our rapid approach to a virtual war alliance with Great Britain, are said to "think" that no combination of powers will ever attack us and, no matter who wins, we can do business with them, so why risk offending Hitler and provoking pro-voking him to fight us. What duck soup that is to argue down. These truths are self evident: that it is to our great interest to see Britain Brit-ain win; that the hateful destruction destruc-tion of England embitters every American heart; that force rather than honor and good will now rule the world and that we hate that as we hate Hitler who has been foremost fore-most in advancing that hellish condition; con-dition; that we are in great danger and that our only course is swift preparation for invincible defense; that we are not so defended "now and that the preparation is lagging lag-ging shamefully. Any advocate of what is rushing us to a war alliance who denies the sincerity of these opinions of others as a basis for I , his argument, is beclouding the real issue the dreadful question of peace or war for America. There can be only one question in the troubled heart of every true American what is it best for us to do to safeguard the present and the future of our own country? Is it best to engage now in a two ocean war with a one ocean navy? Is it best for us to send, or threaten to send, our armed forces to seize the Azores, the Irish harbors, the tip of West Africa and Singapore to plunge into warlike operations all the way from the Straits of Dover to the Straits of Malacca and, conceivably con-ceivably even further through the Mediterranean and Red seas to Greece, Egypt, the Dardanelles, Calcutta Cal-cutta and Colombo? Short of this, is it best to take the intermediate step leading straight and inevitably to this course by putting put-ting our overseas shipments into American bottoms and, with a convoy con-voy of cruisers, attempt to buck the line of a legitimate blockade? Is it best now to undertake to finance another an-other nation in a new world war, when we are already staggering under un-der a mountainous burden of debt and confronting a near necessity of doubling it as a necessity in our own defense? These' are real and basic issues and not at all the ill-considered or emotional conscious or deliberate obstruction of them by attacking the patriotic integrity or plain sanity san-ity of the people who raise them. Furthermore, let this be faced: If our defense is so wholly dependent on Great Britain as we are now told if she is now fighting our decisive battle which, if lost, loses our freedom free-dom then the course advocated by those who say we should contribute unlimited material resources, but no blood, without regard to any of the considerations raised here if these things we are told are true then that advocated course is the most futile and pusillanimous ever followed fol-lowed by an honorable nation. If they are true, we should have been in this war a year ago with everything every-thing we have. Surely there is a question of truth here that deserves debate. The whole of our future is at stake on the wisdom of our answer. OVERNIGHT OFFICERS The army is not making the best use of its trained officer personnel. The war department quite properly prop-erly and necessarily encourage tens of thousands of civilians to take appointments ap-pointments as reserve officers. Naturally, Nat-urally, some of them were rank amateurs as soldiers and the bulk of them held lieutenant's commissions. commis-sions. Now we are calling thousands of them to active duty. When they join for duty with troops they have to earn their advancement, but I npeiirn. when iney come m ai.au ments, it is becoming a very different dif-ferent matter. A little personality plus, sometimes, some-times, a political drag, works for many' of these neophytes what many years of service don't work for a regular. New captains, majors and lieutenant-colonels are being created creat-ed out of reserve subalterns who haven't a year of active duty. At the same time, men with complete com-plete military experience and education educa-tion who have resigned or retired or are World war veterans returned to civil life, get a deaf ear when they volunteer to be recommtssioned and recalled to active duty. It is demoralizing to officers on the active list of the regular army. We should as readily condemn the selection of an amateur officer to look after their welfare as an amateur ama-teur doctor to look after their health, especially if there is a reputable specialist available. Exactly the same thing happened at the beginning of the World war, until General Pershing got his independent in-dependent remmand in lrar.ee and began to send the misfits wholesale to toe reclassification center at Blois !!or Blooey' .. U.e sold.ers called it. |