Evening star., 1940-01-21
loose Talk Of u. ).
Participating in War
Attacked by Eliot

Naval and Air Assistance
To Allies Declared to
Involve Big Obstacles
BY MAI. GEORGE FIELDING
ELIOT.
There is q good deal Of loose
talk going around about eventual
American participation in the pres
ent war by all means short of the
actual dispatch of an expeditionary
army to France: that is, by naval,
aerial, economic and financial
means. I call this sort of thing
"loose talk" advisedly, because it
Is plain that unless its originators
are either ignorant or dishonest,
they have failed to think their
proposition through.
Let us see what would be involved
In American participation in the
way under the conditions suggested:
A-Naval participation. Before we
begin any examination of what
naval help we could afford the
allies in European waters, we must
ask one very important question:
Will it be to our interests, will it
be to the interests of the allies, to
have our Navy become, to any ex-
tent, involved in Atlantic opera
tions while the Far Eastern situa-
tion remains as confused and un-
certain as it now is? To put the
question even more plainly, can we
or the allies afford to leave Japan
the unrestrained master of the
Western Pacific?
There is unrest in India while so
much of the army is now out of
the country. There is the possibility
Of religious trouble there and in
Palestine spreading through the
Moslem world. There are the rich
oil fields and rubber islands of the
Dutch East Indies, surrounding the
Philippines, commanding Singapore,
standing astride the main lines of
communication between Europe and
the Far East. There are our own
hostages to fortune in that area.
the Philippines and Frances Indo-
China. There is China herself,
where Japan still maintains her
struggle with the Chinese govern
ment and army which apparently
does not know when it is beaten.
Finally, there is Japan herself,
where signs are beginning to be
apparent of a return to a more
moderate policy, of an attempt to
establish better relations with the
United States and Great Britain,
of return to sanity to which the
efforts of our State Department
have been turned during long years
Of negotiation and labor.
Force Still Final Arbiter.
No one can doubt that the absorp-
ton of a great part of our naval
strength in Europe would pull the
main prop from under this pain
fully erected structure just as it
seems nearing completion for (as
we have just had exemplified in the
sudden domination of Russian pres
tige and the weakening of Russian
policy everywhere by reason of her
military failures in Finland) force is
still the final arbiter in modern in
ternational relations, and even
though not employed, it must be
present.
Again to be specific, the Japanese
(the military party in particularly
will not come to what we and the
British might consider 4 "reasona-
BILE" solution of the Far Eastern
fiddle-because to them that would
mean abandoning many of their
present objectives-unless they feel
that no other course Is open to
them without undue risk. The un-
due risk, In the last analysis, is
the presence in the Pacific Of a su-
perior naval force which might, un-
der certain circumstances, become
q hostile force. There is only one
such force there now, or likely to
be there for some time to come.
The United States fleet, Unless
we and the allies are prepared to
abandon the Pacific to Japan, and to
abandon Japan to her militarists at
this crucial moment, it is both use
less and dangerous to talk about
naval help for the allies in Europe.
Besides what could such help
amount to? Reinforcing the con-
voy system and anti-submarine
patrol, making American bottoms
again available for war-zone traffic,
perhaps providing counter for any
italian cockiness Dor nof the COM
pletion of new battleships this
year-these would hardly COM
pensate the allies for the abandon
ment of the Far East with its un-
foreseeable consequences.
There is, however. one further
possibility, that the American
Navy might provide a sufficient ad-
dition of offensive striking power to
justify in the minds of the British
naval staff an attempt to break into
the Baltic-that project so dear to
the heart of "Jacky" Fisher in the
last war, now revived in discussion
by the precarious situation of
Scandinavia.
But the American people might
wish to know whether they had con-
structed the strongest fleet and
trained the best naval personnel
In the world to fling against the
perils of mine, torpedo, airplane