Evening star., 1940-05-30
Aid for the Allies

It is generally if not unanimously
agreed that a fundamentally inn
portant part of our national defense
lies in sending aid to the Allies. That
is too apt to be overlooked in the
teverish efforts to build and to get
in motion our own machinery for
defense. But it should be empha-
sized over and over again, not by
the hush-hush methods that unfor-
tunately have marked our whole
approach to the subject, but openly
and frankly. Nothing is to be gained
by beating around the bush any
longer.
Speaking in Akron on Tuesday
evening Wendell L. Willkie proposed
that the United States ask the Allies
what they need, short of the troops
which they do not need and which
we cannot send, and bring out the
request in the open for debate and
decision on its merits. The proposal
is refreshing for its frankness and
10, AL duuAt1Oll, SClSc.
The burden of armament to be
imposed on the American people by
a German victory would dwarf into
insignifcance the Presidents rec
concentrations and proposed recon-
mendations to date regarding
national defense expenditures. A
German victory would saddle the
American people with taxes far sur
passing anything we have ever
experienced and the effect would
adversely affect our whole economy. If
there is even a slim chance that this
German victory could be averted by
help to the Allies, in the form of
sales, loans or gifts for financing
war purchases, the chance would
justify every effort we can make in
extending that help.
Yet the American public knows
little or nothing about what we are
doing, within the confines of our
so-called Neutrality Act, to supply
the desperate needs of the Allies.
We are not told what they are, which
ones are permitted to be met under
the cash-and-carr terms of the law
and which ones 60 begging under
policies laid down by departmental
regulations. The Allied Purchasing
Agency, which is handling the buy
ing end, is tongue-tied by the rami-
f1cations of our own flctional
neutrality and cannot make known
its wants publicly. The various gov
ernmental agencies with which 1t
deals are pursuing the same mysteri-
Gus secrecy which from the outset
has marked our whole policy of aid
to the Allies. This policy is hopelessly
confused by regulations and procla-
nations that leave the executive
departments uncertain as to what
they can do and cannot do.
A resolution by Senator Pepper Of
Florida authorizing sale of Army
planes to the Allies was defeated in
committee a few days ago, twelve
to one, on the argument that such
transactions would violate interna-
tional law and not be neutral. Yet we
sidetrack Army orders, and properly
so, to make way for Allied orders in
the factories and we have sold Army
materiel to China that we refuse to
sell to the Allies. Planes manufac-
tured in the United States for de-
livery to the Allies can be rolled, but
not flown, across the Canadian border
and until yesterday their delivery in
Canada could not be made by Amer
lean personnel. The whole picture
of aid to the Allies is a tangled mass
of stupid contradictions. Why can
we not make our own rules on the
basis of what is best for us? The
pretense, the delays and the failures
to face realities in the matter OF
aid to the Allies are all part of
the lack of preparedness which we
have tardily discovered-to our hor-
rified amazement-today.
Aid, and more aid, to the Allies as
a part of our own defensive plans,
should be brought into the open and
pushed with all possible speed.