The Wilmington morning star., 1940-01-09
WASHINGTON
DAYBOOK
By PRESTON GROVER

WASHINGTON, Jan. s.-That conflict on ma
tional policy which grinds and grinds within
the government was well illustrated here at
one of the academic brain conventions which
hit Washington during the Christmas-New Year
holidays when professors are free from classes.
The grinding continues relentlessly year in
and year out, with first one side gaining a
bit and then another. But for the most part,
these major influences on the nation are vir-
tually forgotten by almost every one except
leading historians and those within the gov
eminent who are forever concerned over grand
strategy"
They blossom out SO seldom that when they
do, they startle casual readers. They even star
tied a few Of the thousand or more historians
who sat arm to arm L. a Washington hotel
ballroom while A. Whitney Griswold, of Yale's
department of government and international
relations, and Captain W. D. Puleston, United
States Navy, retired, presented a few Of the
rival viewpoints,
To Fight Or Not?
Should we preserve our position in the Far
East, by force of arms if necessary?
No, said Griswold. He has written repeatedly
that it was a bad move for the United States
to have taken on the responsibility of the
Philippines. He believes the country now thinks
the same.
1.-THE Washington and London naval treaties,
the Philippines independence act, and last but
not least, the cash-and-carry neutrality law
showed a very substantial qualification of the
'command-of-the-sea' doctrine" he said.
Did Captain Puleston agree with him? He
did not. He reflects the navy's almost unani-
nous view that the theories of sea power
outlined a generation ago by Captain Mahan
are more in force now than ever before.
when Americans realize" he said, that
the best naval defense is a naval offense. I am
convinced they will provide the necessary bases
for the American fleet in the Far East"
(These, no doubt, would be either in the Philip
pines or at Guam, or both.)
IF the Philippines did not exist, it would
still be necessary for the United States to pro-
tect it's interest in the Far East" he con-
tinued.
Pro and Contra
On the other hand, Griswold argued that
there were no grounds in experience for the
assertions of the sea-minded that America must
fight in all parts of the world to protect its
foreign trade lines. That, he said, is a doctrine
which Captain Mahan carried over from the
British.
Because the welfare of so few Americans,
as compared with Englishmen, was bound up
with overseas traffic Of any kind" he said,
the American people never wished to DO
those thinks as much as the British"
But that is a mistaken policy, said the
naval man. professor Griswold states that
the United States invests less capital abroad
than Great Britain. This is one of the contrib
uting causes to the world crisis. Economists
almost universally agree that the sudden cessa-
ton of American capital exports in 1929 was
an important cause of the financial crises.
The continued looking-inwardness' of Ameri-
can citizens p%rotracts the Depression"
The think goes on endlessly. Just now the
naval power expansionists have the upper
hand. The navy is growing greatly. Mahanlstic
Captain Puleston glories in it.
Americans may not want any more terri
tory now" he says, but there have been other
occasions in American history when they did
not want territory, and later changed their
minds"