The Wilmington morning star., 1940-11-10
Bruce Cations
In Washington
Star-News Washington Correspondent

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WASHINGTON - Technically, the United
States government has not made any secret
commitments or agreements with any other
nation.
Actually, though, some of the most vital
steps in U. S. foreign policy have been taken
behind closed doors, with the results unveiled
to the public only after everything was settled.
The process started before the present war
began and has continued Town through the re-
cent summer. Unless all Washington gossip is
cockeyed, it is still going on in the form of
conversations" regarding possible joint ac-
ton by the United States and England in the
Far East.
First tip-off came early in 1889, when a
new Douglas bomber designed for the U. S.
Army crashed on a test flight in California
with a representative of the French air minis
try aboard.
This stirred a row in Congress and led to
the discovery that the administration had
made new-model American military planes
available for purchase by the French.
Legally, the whole business was simply a
commercial transaction. Practically, as a
number of congressman pointed out at the
time, it constituted a highly important deci-
sion affecting American foreign policy. Months
before the war began, it committed this gov
eminent to a stand which was to be of vital
importance after the war broke out.
That the implications of the whole affair
were understood at the time is shown by the
fact that the President felt obliged to call in
members of the Senate Military Affairs Com
mittee for a 'confidentiap' interview.
DESTROYER DEAL
KEPT SECRE
More than a year later came the famous
deal by which SO average U. S. destroyers
were traded to Great Britain for naval and
air base sites.
This deal had been on the fire for months.
So many rumors and tips were circulating
about it that it hardly came as a surprise.
yet the White House denied fatty that any
negotiations of the kind were being made only
a few weeks before the deal was consum-
mated.
When it was finally announced, it was pre-
sented to the Congress as an accomplished
fact, not as a treaty requiring Senate ~ratifica-
ton.
The country generally accepted the swap
as a good one. But the fact remains that it
was one of the most momentous steps ever
taken by an American government, and that
it was completed before the government would
even admit that it was being considered.
U. S.-CANADIAN
DEFENSE BOARD
Last August came a third move of the same
characterization of a joint U. S.-Canadian
defense board, coupled with the initiation Of
talks by the general staffs of the United
States and Canadian armies.
Announcement of this step came after Presi.
dent Roosevelt and Prime Minister Mackenzie
King had held a two-day conference near o.
densburg, N. Y. 1t was stated that the joint
board was authorized Ito consider in the
broad sense the defense of the north half OF
the western hemisphere"
Here, again, the general sentiment of the
country undoubtedly approved of the move.
Yet the agreement morally, at least, com
mitted the United States to active collabora-
ton with a belligerent nation and marked a
fundamenta change in it's foreign policy-and
nobody outside of the administration knew
about it until it was presented as an accom-
plished fact.