Evening star., 1939-05-25
The Kinq at Winnipeq

he King at Winnipeg
While skirting the Great Lakes, on
whose waters no men-of-war ride,
and journeying west along those
three thousand miles of unfortified
Canadian American border, it was
natural that King George should
utter the sentiment that fell from
his lips at Winnipeg yesterday. 1t
loses nothing in significance because
he was indulging in a commonplace.
Britons and Americans alike have
been saying for the better part of
half century that war between the
British Empire and the United States
is "unthinkable"
So the element of novelty was
lacking when his Britannia majesty
chose the nearby capital of Mani
toba, of which, in friendly sentiment,
at least, our states of Wisconsin,
Minnesota and North Dakota can
almost be said to be provinces, as a
sounding board for the declaration
that mo man, thank God, will ever
again conceive" of the use of force
or threat to settle differences be-
tween "the peoples of my empire and
the people of the United States"
Within the lifetime of King
George VI there have been Anglo
American differences which, arisen
between other nations, might easily
have led to conflict. The Alaskan
Boundary question, the Bering Sea
dispute, the Venezuelan controversy,
even our resentment of British inter-
ference with American shipping in
the earliest years of the World War
each and all of these affairs, in the
outmoded conception of a sovereign
nations afronted pride and inalien-
able rights, were of war potentiality.
Yet in every single case either
friendly arbitration or diplomacy
served to assuage national suscepti-
bilities and produce settlements that
safeguarded honor and protected
legitimate interests.
Within the past few years the
United States has taken action de-
signed, perhaps more than anything
else could do, to persuade COM
monwealth like Britain, which de-
pends for it's very life upon its safety
at sea, that this country cherishes
no thought of war with King
Georges peoples. When we trans
ferred the United States Fleet to
the Pacific, virtually denuding our
Atlantic seaboard of effective naval
strength, we meant not only to de-
note in which direction we consider
that possible danger lies, but also to
signify that we, too, in the Kings
words, do not conceive ever again"
of an armed clash between the Eng
disappearing peoples.
The recent return of the Fleet to
the west coast at moment of high
international tension was fresh
evidence of American feelings with
respect to the only sea power in the
world commensurate with that of
the United States. Nor is it to be
overlooked that, with Anglo-French
naval force necessarily pegged in
home waters, especially the Mediter-
ranean, by current European condi-
tions, the presence of the United
States Fleet in the Pacific is token
of assurance to the democracies that,
in certain eventualities, the Far
Eastern annex of the Fascist axis
could not reckon, with absolute GER
tainty, upon being the unchallenged
mistress of the Asiatic seas.
King George asserted at Winnipeg
that "the faith in reason and fair
play which we (the British peoples)
share with the people of the United
States is one of the chief ideals that
guides the British Empire in all it's
ways today" There is not a syllable
in that sentiment to which the
American Nation does not whole
heartedly and unreservedly subscribe.