Evening star., 1940-05-11
Costs Of Unpreporedness

Costs Of Unpreporedness
Great Britain today is paying some
OF the costs of unpreparedness.
Winston Churchill's amazingly frank
admission in the House of Commons
that failure of the allied campaign
IN Central Norway was due to the
overwhelming superiority Of German
air power provides the world with
a grim object lesson on the dangers
of a laissez-faire policy with respect
to national defense. The Prime
Minister-to-be deprecated Britain's
failure in the last five years to
maintain or regain air parity with
Germany" and warned that this
neglect will condemn us for some
time to come to great deal of diff
Guilty, suffering and danger which we
must endure with firmness until
more favorable conditions can be
established"
It is interesting to compare Great
Britain's expenditures for defense
during those five vital years with the
cost OF war preparations In Germany
during the same period. Britain's
total was $780,, 100000, Germany's
$1e,100,000,00o. A large part OF the
Nazi bill was for airplanes-the same
airplanes which desolated Poland,
which swept in waves over Norway,
driving the helpless allied landing
forces back to their ships in con-
fusion, and which now are spreading
death and destruction over the new
Lowland front.
The record of events since Munich
gives disturbing proof that the
nation unable to defend itself be-
comes easy prey for avaricious and
unprincipled aggressors. Britain's
shocking experience in Norway is
well worth pondering on this side
Of the Atlantic Ocean in these cru
cial days. The same sort Of apathy
which afflicted England in recent
years has been all too evident in
the United States until the last year
or so. The same outcryI raised in
England against military costs has
been heard in Congress. Even now
there are those who contend that
what has happened to the democ-
racies Of Europe could not happen
here.
But these misguided individuals
should not be allowed to forget that
when aggression is on the march,
the lust for further power and fur
ther conquests is not easy to satiate.
II Britain and France should fall
and it is high time that America
began to think seriously about that
very possibility-we would have two
oceans to watch, instead Of one. We
do not have a two-ocean fleet, be-
cause we have depended on England
to patrol the Atlantic for US. Can we
afford to ignore the implications of
Nazi domination Of Greenland or of
Bermuda. Of Nazi fifth columns" in
any Of the republics to the south?
And what Of Japan in the Far East
If democracy is crushed in Europe
and we are forced to divide our fleet?
These might have been fantastic
thoughts two or three years ago-but
they are taking on real substance
today. Fortunately, the administra-
ton and both Houses Of Congress
have begun to face the realities in
fortnight manner. Large expendi-
lures for national defense already
have been approved. It is regrettable,
however, that the House and the SEN
ate Naval Affairs Committees have
seen fit to reduce the naval expan-
sion program from the twenty five
per cent asked by the Navy to eleven
per cent. There have been indica-
tions of shortsightedness, also, in the
shelving Of certain other defense
items-such as the harbor improve
ments at Guam and the air base at
Anchorage, Alaska. It is not too late
to reappraise Army and Navy needs
in the light Of the spreading flames
Of war in Europe and to take such
additional action as our experts on
hemisphere security deem to be
urgent. Failure to do so now might
condemn US In the future to "difn-
Guilty, suffering and danger" of the
type which Britain gravely faces
today as a result of her own short
sightedness. America should profit
by Britain's tragic lesson: That while
the costs Of preparedness are great,
the costs Of unpreparedness can be
inestimably greater.
No Immunity
Honest appraisal Of the implica-
tions Of the latest attacks on civili-