Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-09-04
History in the Making

President Roosevelt, in one coura-
geous and far-sighted move, has
written new chapter in American
hiStory-a chapter whose full impli-
cations only the future can ade-
quately appraise. But the immediate
benefits of the trade with Great Brit
ain, in which we acquire leases to
eight vitality important naval and air
bases at strategic points in the At
lantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea
in exchange for fifty average de-
stroyerS, are obvious.
The base facilities granted to us
by Britain for ninety-nine years plug
what might soon become dangerous
gaps in our defenses, vast unde-
Tended stretches of water along
what have been called the northern
and southern highroadS of invasion.
In the past, these deficiencies in out
posts have not been considered vital,
for we have depended to large ex-
tent upon the friendly British fleet
for our security in the Atlantic. But
II that feet were to be destroyed, or
even if it should be driven from its
bases in the British Isles, our safety
would be put in gravest jeopardy.
One immediate result of the agree
ment reached between the President
and the British government, then, is
to give US an opportunity to make
ourselves strong where we have been
weak. According to Admiral Stark,
chief of naval operations, the traded
deStroyerS are not essential to the
defense of this country, and, in his
judgment, the total defense" of the
United States will be strengthened
as result of the transfer if Congress
grants the funds for proper develop
ment of the new bases.
On the other side of the picture
there is the strong probability that
we also stand to gain in security
from the uses to which Britain will
put the destroyers received from us.
If these old but still useful fighting
vessels should enable the British to
stand off the German assault, our
security will be assured for years to
come. But if that is not to be-if
Britain is beaten despite this assist
ance-the newly acquired bases,
properly developed, will be more use
full to us in resisting aggression from
across the Atlantic than would be
the aging deStroyerS. And it is not
inconsistent to expect that these
ships-old though they are-Will give
good account of themselves in con-
voy or combat operations, under the
desperate circumstances prevailing
in England; that if they should
be lost in action, our potential enc
mics will be proportionately weak
ened in achieving their destruction.
The President will be criticized for
concluding this agreement with the
British through use of his executive
powers instead of through the more
formal treaty process, which requires
ratification by a two-thirds vote of
the Senate. 1t is, indeed, most UNI
fortunate that circumstances made
inadvisable the normal procedure of
submission of the plan to Congress.
But the President certainly con-
sidered that, and it is to his
credit that he elected to assume pos
sible political penalties in order to
pursue a course he believed to be
right rather than pass the response
bility of making the decision to the
Senate, where, in all probability, a
treaty covering the same matters
would have been long delayed if not
defeated. Mr.. Roosevelt, in this
instance, has taken long look into
the future. And, in The Stars opin-
ion, the position of the United States
in turbulent world has been greatly
strengthened by the decision he has
made and acted upon.
A study of the strategic impor-
lance of the prospective chain of
naval and air bases across the two
thousand-odd miles from Newfound-
land to British Guiana, on the South
American mainland, will show con-
vincingly how the security of the
Western Hemisphere will be en-
HANGED by the Presidents deal. The
Monroe Doctrine takes on new force,
for it will be supplemented for the
first time since its PRONUNCIATION by
stationary ring of steel" in the
Atlantic Ocean of formidable de-
fensive potentialities. The psyche
logical effect of the very existence of
such outer defenses should be con-
siderable in this era of aggression on
the march, of dictators looking for
new worlds to conquer.
The proposed bases will strengthen
our Atlantic defense system in its
weakest points-the northern and
southern flanks-and will provide a
frontal outpost at Bermuda of in
calculable value In an emergency,
both as listening station and as an
intermediate supply base for war
ships and for planes. The New