Evening star., 1940-06-16
Message to France

President Roosevelt's answer to
Premier Reynaud's last appeal for
aid in the form of clouds of war
planes" from across the Atlantic ap-
parently was designed to bolster Al
lied morale with a promise of more
effective help in the future, but it
revealed clearly what has been all
too obvious-that we can give only
limited assistance at this time.
The tragic truth of the matter is
that we have dWelt too long with our
illusions. While Hitler, with the full
knowledge of the rest of the world,
was building up his mighty war
machine, this Nation, needless of the
warnings that were sounded by a
few, clung to the myth of isolation
ism, and it is only within the past
few weeks that the majority of Amer
leans have opened their eyes to the
fact that we do not and cannot live
apart from the rest of the world.
Nor can we excuse our own lack of
vision by pointing to the fact that
France and England were only
slightly less culpable than America in
neglecting to erect adequate defenses
against a menace which was next
door to them and which is now NOV
ing dangerously close to us.
AS matters stand we cannot send
clouds of warplanes" to France for
the simple reason that we do not
have them to send. Nor can we enter
into military commitments at this
time-neither the President nor Con-
gress-because we are not prepared to
support any such commitment that
we might make.
What we can do with respect to
the war in Europe is precisely what
the President promised that we would
do-redouble our efforts so that in
the future we can send ever-increas-
ing quantities of materiel-guns,
munitions, planes, tanks, food, cloth
ing and medicines--to the Allies. 1t
is our earnest hope, and the hope of
free peoples throughout the world,
that France and Britain will be able
to continue the fight for democracy
until we can supply them with the
instruments of war in volume CAL
culated to turn the tide of battle in
their favor.
On this score of giving all possible
material aid, now and in the future,
to the Allies, there is relatively little
disagreement in this country, for we
have realized at last that we cannot
afford to do otherwise. But there is
no indication as yet that we have
opened our eyes to the most serious
shortcoming of our own defense
preparations.
If our present plans are carried
through expeditiously we should have
on hand and in process of speedy
production vast quantity of modern
weapons and mechanical equipment
of war within a year. But the best
equipment is of no military value un-
less there are trained men available
to use it, and we do not have the
trained men nor are we taking any
steps to insure that such training
will be given at the earliest possible
moment.
If Britain had a trained army to
put in the field in effective numbers
today the chances of halting the
German drive through France would
be immeasurably increased. But she
does not have such an army because
the British government refused to
adopt system of compulsory univer-
sal military training in time, despite
the danger signals that were flying
on the continent. Are we, with the
lesson of Britain's tragic neglect so
plainly before us, going to repeat
that terrible mistake?