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Show iffthp kG AN DREVrPEARSON ,. . . . - - "- Washington, D. C. BRITISH FLEET FOR U. S. LOANS L. W. ("Chip") Robert, secretary of the Democratic national committee, commit-tee, has a plan for refunding war debts, also for selling more supplies to the allies and at the same time ensuring en-suring Western hemisphere defense. Briefly put, it is to take a mortgage mort-gage on the British fleet in lieu of war debts. In other words, the British would make a small token payment, then promise to turn their fleet over to the United States on the war debt in case of default. In return, the Johnson act would become inoperative, inopera-tive, and the United States would extend ex-tend immediate war credits. Behind this, of course, is not so much the matter of war debts, but the very real fear that the United States may lose its greatest bulwark1 of protection the British fleet. How important the British fleet is to American defense is only just ' percolating to the general public. Real fact, however, is that the United Unit-ed States is not now prepared to defend both the Pacific and Atlantic At-lantic coasts, and will not be prepared pre-pared for four more years. It would take at least that long to build a second fleet. Note Another plan receiving informal in-formal consideration by some of the insiders is to repeal the Johnson act and give immediate 'credits to the allies, in return for a mortgage on the French and British possessions in the Western hemisphere. GREENLAND AIR BASE You can write it down as certain that should Hitler send an air expedition expe-dition to Greenland or occupy it otherwise, Roosevelt would oppose that occupation, if necessary with the armed forces of the United States. However, should Hitler get to Greenland first, the United States would have no adequate airplane force or naval strength in the Atlantic At-lantic to dislodge him. If Hitler took Greenland or Iceland, Ice-land, the United States would have about as hard a time getting him out as the allies had in rooting the Nazis out of Norway. Military axiom (emphasized by this war) is: Once the enemy gets control of a seaport or an air base, it is going to be twice as hard, almost al-most impossible to get him out. So you may see something done by the United States about Greenland in the not too distant future. HEMISPHERE DEFENSE These are days when the United States is supposed to be bending every effort to co-ordinate the defense de-fense of the Western hemisphere; days when President Roosevelt impresses im-presses upon congress the vulnerability vulner-ability of the Panama canal and Latin America to airplane attack. Boiled down to cold fact, however, the United States has done very little toward co-operating with Latin America on Western hemisphere defense. de-fense. For instance, four years ago Brazil asked the United States to permit the leasing or sale to South American neighbors of decrepit destroyers de-stroyers rusting in Philadelphia and San Francisco harbors since the World war. But congress threw up its hands in horror of rearmament and said No. Then in March, 1939, a bill was introduced in congress permitting Latin American nations to build ships in U. S. navy yards and buy certain equipment from the U. S. army and navy which would not conflict con-flict with our own national defense all paid for in cash. , The bill passed the house of representatives rep-resentatives but hung up in the senate. sen-ate. And there it still hangs. In fact, it has been stymied for a year by Senator Vandenberg. LATIN AMERICAN CRITICISM Meanwhile Latin American nations, na-tions, not understanding the American Amer-ican parliamentary system by which one man sometimes can thwart the rest of congress are critical, saying say-ing U. S. doesn't co-operate. Note The senate foreign relations committee also has buried the Argentine Ar-gentine sanitary convention which permits the entry of dressed lamb from Patagonia, the Antarctic end of Argentina, where hoof and mouth disease does not exist. nOW HITLER FIGURES To understand the present tactics of Germany you have to go back to a remark attributed to Hitler before the war really got serious: "If the war lasts four years I would lose 4,000,000 men. It is better bet-ter to lose 3,000,000 men in three months." Hitler is determined to push the war to a quick finish this summer, no matter how long and tragic may be the stream of coffins going back from the front. Hitler has ample supplies to last through the summer, but not beyond. be-yond. So if the war drags past the autumn, Germany is lost. MERRY-GO-ROUND If you want to read a sizzling book on politics, get the recently published pub-lished "Rascals in Democracy" by Kansas political writer W. G. Clugs-ton. |