Evening star., 1940-12-22
Aid to Britoin Held
Negligible
By OWen L. Scott.

and more of the opinion that American
help and American encouragement is en-
abling the British to stand off Adolf Hit
Ter with one hand, to restrain Japan
with gesture and to lick Italy with the
other hand.
Actually, little investigation discloses,
the real aid that the United States is
giving to Britain-over and above ordi-
nary cash business-adds up to next to
nothing. President Roosevelt now pro-
poses to change this situation by loan of
war materiel. but until Congress acts the
situation stands. The United States like
any trader will sell to the British on its
own terms. The amazing fact is, how.
ever, that the terms required of Britain
are more stringent than terms required
Of Japan-an avowed enemy of this Ma
tion-or Of Russia, or of most other ma
tions.
There is no law that requires Japan or
Russia to pay cash for oil or copper or
machinery or other war goods purchased
in the United States. American ships
that are forbidden to carry American
goods to Canada or to England are per-
mitted to carry war goods to Japan even
though those goods may turn up on the
business end of war machine pointed
at American warships or American SOL
diers
This country is lending money to Mexi-
cans and Brazilians and Peruvians and
others who have defaulted on past loans
and whose ability to meet interest and
principal payments on present loans is
at least uncertain. Yet this coun-
try refuses to lend money to Canadians
who never defaulted, or to the British,
who are prepared to put up collateral
that would assure against loss, so long
as they have any collateral left to put up.
Great Britain came over here to buy
airplanes so that she could try harder to
resist the attacks of the greatest air
power in the world. For long time the
only planes the British were permitted
to buy were obsolete planes-planes that
the American Army and Navy decided
were no good in modern war Now
howl has gone up when the British DO
litely limited that these secondhand
American planes could not lick the Ger
mans. Britain now is permitted to buy
new planes, but American industry is
able to turn out these planes in such
small quantity that only trickle reaches
| England.
Fifty overage American destroyers-
destroyers that once had been relegated
to the junk pile-are being turned over
to Britain and will prove of the very
greatest Importance. Still England paid
for those destroyers in sites for naval
bases that are worth several times so
destroyerS to the American Navy. This
aid was not a handout or even a big
hearted gesture.
Then there are other situations as well
that suggest need for changing popular
conceptions
In this country some very important
people are saying quietly, and at least
one big businessman is saying publicly.
| that the United States should be firm
and deny aid to Britain Then, when
Germany strikes as she is preparing to
strike in the spring. the British will be
defeated. the war can end and a deal can
be made with Hitler that will avoid the
necessity of adding further to the public
debt to create arms on the scale that
would be necessary if, by chance, aid to
Britain should lead to war The feeling
OF this important group seems to be that
Hitler isn't so bad If you just get to
know him
Likewise, in this country is a group
that is very much excited about having
America feed the hungry Spaniards and
the hungry French, Dutch, Belgian and
Scandinavian people who are either Al
lies OF or who were captured by Hitler.
BY feeding these people the United
States would relieve the Germans of that
necessity and obligation But nobody
seems to be showing any concern about
finding ways to feed the British whose
food ships are being sunk by Hitler's sub
marines and bombers. The British are
asked to let food ships go through to
Hitler's Europe. Hitler is not being asked
to let food ships go through to England
When these things and others are
added up they reveal situation that
might readily cause the British to ask
just what is this aid" that Americans
keep talking about so energetically. The
fact seems to be that the British are so
desperately in need of real aid that thev
apparently hesitate to mention the sub
ject for fear that the United States might
refuse to let them have anything, even
when paying cash and using their own
ships to carry the goods they buy.
OF course, the reason the United States
is treating Great Britain somewhat like
an outcast is because of the British re-
neging on loans advanced in the last
war. There continues to be a feeling
that this country was gypped at that
time and there still Is an apparent ma
tional determination not to get gypped
again.
This time, however, the situation is
turning out to be wholly different.
Great Britain is prepared to put up all
OF her investments as collateral in order
to get funds with which to pay for Amer,
ican goods. Her people are standing in
the actual firing line and are taking
punishment that no other people has
taken. Her workers and her Industrial
lists are carrying on under fire. They are
seeing their homes and their factories
and their merchant marine battered and
| destroyed. The prospect of defeating
| Hitler single-handed is dim at best.