Evening star., 1939-09-07
Cunudu's Course

SOIOOO , >Vui SS
Today the Canadian Parliament
meets to decide its course in connec-
ton with the European war. The
choice which Canada makes will be
a direct concern of the United States
as we'll as of England and her allies.
II our northern neighbor votes to for
sake the status of a neutral for that
of a belligerent, it will become in
cumbent upon President Roosevelt
to add Canada's name to the list OF
warning nations to whom shipments
of arms, ammunition and imple-
ments of war" are banned under the
embargo law That will mean, among
other things, that no American guns,
shells, airplanes or other 'imple-
ments of war" may be shipped into
Canada as long as she remains at
war American manufacturers now
working on orders for warplanes des-
tined for the Canadian air force will
not be permitted to complete their
contracts
A declaration of war at Ottawa
would end the speculation in some
quarters over the possibility that
neutral Canada might be of more
help to Britain and her allies than a
belligerent Canada. Some of this
popular speculation even involved
the suggestion that the Presidents
enforced proclamation against arms
shipments to contestants in the
European war could be circumvented
by selling arms to peaceful Canada
and shutting our eyes to what hap
pened to the shipments thereafter.
AS Secretary of State Hull pointed
out to reporters yesterday, however,
no such loophole exists in the law or
in the presidential proclama ton.
Certain specific wording was inserted
in the 1887 Neutrality Act to fore
stall just such attempts to evade
the embargo through neutral chan
nels. The act forbids the export of
war instruments not only to actual
OClilSSI CllUS, buJ w oA1y 1lCuVA al StcVO
for transshipment to, or for the use
Of, any such belligerent state" Sec
retary Hull made it plain that this
clause will be enforced as rigidly as
the remainder of the unwise law.
Neutrals will be obliged to supply
satisfactory proof that arms and
munitions ordered in the United
States are intended for, and will be
used exclusively by, themselves.
Obviously, a breach of good faith
under this pledge would constitute
serious offense.
But the fundamentally Short
sighted and highly unsatisfactory
embargo law does have a loophole of
another sort. It bars only the ship
ments OF certain manufactured war
devices and death-dealing chemical
products. There is nothing in the
statute to preclude the sale to Can
ada, or to any other belligerent or
neutral, of the iron and steel and
copper and other raw materials
from which men fashion their i'm
plements of war. Nor is there any
prohibition against the use of Amer
ican capital to build plants in Can
ada or elsewhere for the manufac-
ture Of war materiel for fighting ma
tions. Thus, Canada-neutral or at
war-might well become a supply
TNn%
would take much time and capital
to develop plants capable of render
ing effective aid to the allies, and
time is vital element in war. Some
observers believe it would be to
Canada's advantage to delay for
while any decision to enter the
conflict. Meanwhile she could build
up her own military machine to the
full strength contemplated under her
peacetime defense program, which
has Jagged sadly until recently. In
this armament expansion program
neutral Canada could depend
almost entirely on American manu-
Misunderstanding her own plants
free to turn out guns and bombs and
planes for shipment to England. It
is safe assumption that President
Roosevelt's embargo proclamation is
being read and re-read and that all
Of its conceivable implications are
being meticulously studied across the
Canadian border today, before the
Dominion charts its course in the
troubled seas that, in any event, lie
just ahead.