The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1940-05-20

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confident of an Allied victory. To-
day that confidence has been
considerably shaken. The stun
ming Allied defeat in Norway,
coupled with the developed fact
that Nazi Germany has a war
machine of almost unprecented
efficiency, has brought with it
the grim specter of possible Al
lied loss of the war. Today, most
competent authorities seem to re-
gard the European struggle as
toss-up, in which neither side
has any decisive edge. They
think that anything can happen.
And that situation is forcing
America to consider what steps
must be taken against the event
of sweeping victory by the die
tators, which would put all of
Europe firmly under the heels of
Hitler. Mussolini and Stain.
1t is apparent that sentiment
in this country is heavily in fav-
or of expanding our armed
forces, especially the navy, as
rapidly as possible. AT the same
time, it is equally apparent that
we have no fixed military policy,
and that no one really knows
Just how strong we must become
in the light of the strength of
possible enemies. One school OF
thought holds that if Hitler wins,
America will be faced with the
potentiality of immediate mill
tary and economic invasion. This
school of thought is led, so far as
the publicists are concerned, by
Walter Lippman, who observed
in a recent column that the great
conquerors of the past have new
er stopped-that they have gone
on until, like Alexander, they
dominated the world, or, like Ma
poleon, came to a Waterloo. Their
past successes, in other words,
breed future campaigns. And the
very fact that their people are
hungry and exhausted makes It
necessary for them to force their
armies on, in search of new re-
sources and new victories.
The other school of thought
pooh-poohs this theory about 100
percent. 1t believes that the vic
tor in the present European war
will be so worn out that it will
take generations before its en-
ergies can be sufficiently renew
ed to make more campaigns pos
sible. Ex-President Hoover has
subscribed to this theory in sew
eral magazine articles and
speeches. And John T. Flynn,
one of the foremost of the isola-
zionist columnists, recently wrote
an article in which he scathing-
" decried the interventionist po-
sition, and observed that the
English and Germans alike found
it exceedingly difficult to move
any considerable number of
troops with equipment into Nor
way. a few hundred miles from
English and German ports, and
used that fact to illustrate what
he believes to be the impossi-
bility of moving a large invading
army across either the Atlantic
or Pacific
Irrespective of who is right in
this controversy, it seems certain
that military expansion will go
on here. 1t is rumored that the
Japanese navy is dangerously
close to parity with ours, and that
Nippon has new battleships of a
type superior to any we possess.
Late reports from the European
front indicate that Germany has
new fighting planes against which
our best planes, such as we have
supplied to the Allies, are made
quate. And there can be no
question as to the weakness of
the American army 1t woefully
lacks anti-aircraft guns, tanks,
and other essentials, according to
the army high command itself. as
well as lay commentators. And
the new Garland rifle, of which
SO much was heard a year or two
ago, seems to have fallen short
of expectations-testing experts
have reported that it tends to
warp and overhead, and is other
wise faulty.
The trouble is that we have
not decided upon any fixed de-
tense programmed it is obvious
to anyone that the kind of army
and navy and air force needed to
defend our own territorial shores
is vastly different from the kind
we would need to defend the far
flung Philippines, or to again
send an A-EF. to Europe. In an
election year. with both parties
trying to win the voters by any
possible means. there is little
chance of program being de-
fined-in all probability, it will
remain as vague and indecisive