Evening star., 1940-04-21
Hord Choice Fuces
United States
By O,Den L. Scott.


country Is being forced irresistibly toward
q choice: Whether to fulfill obligations
assumed over much Of the world or
whether to crawl into shell and watch
the rest of the world go by.
Obviously, the urge in Congress is to
crawl into shell. Congress, in turn,
reflects the popular urge The urge in
the United States, as in Scandinavia be-
fore April 8, is to be let alone and to let,
other people alone in turn. But, as the
Scandinavians found out, the choice Is
not always that simple.
This country today discovers that it
has assumed immense obligations. judged
III the light of what now is going on.
There is an obligation to defend the
open door in China, just when Japan
wants to close 1t. There is an obliga-
ton, until 1885, to defend the Philippines.
There is practical necessity, If not an
obligation, to defend the Dutch East In
dies and the British Malay States that
supply the essentials of rubber and tin.
Fulhllment Of any of these obligations, in
case of necessity, would take the armed
forces of this country far from home.
But then there are other obligations on
the other side of the wosld. There is an
obvious obligation to defend Canada.
This is relatively simple. There is the
long accepted obligation to defend all of
Latin America, and that no longer is so
simple If things should go badly with the
British in this war. The requirements Of
the Moh:oe Doctrine involve the United
States in commitments much farther
away from home than Europe is away
from this country. In Latin America are
the richest undeveloped areas of the
worls And LatirssAmerica is very poorly
prepared to defend those richeA
In the past all of this has been very
simple. The British kept feet in the
Far East that helped to keep Japan in
her place. Ths British maintaiked vest
fleet in the Atlantic that freed the Amer
ican fleet for use in the Pacific and as
sured the safety of South America as well
as Of Canada.
Now. however some very hard facts are
having to be faced.
One of these facts is that there no
longer Is absolute assurance that the
British will be able to maintain their
traditional position in the world. The
calm confidence that Britain and France
together can overcome Germany no
longer prevails in the highest quarters
of this Government. The easy assump-
tion that sea power will continue to rule
The world is giving way to very evident
uncertainty.
The second hard fact is that unless the
British fleet can continue its habitual
rule of many Of the seas of the world,
the United States is going to have an
awfully hard time fulfilling its obliga-
tions. Right now, this country has no
very decisive edge over the Japanese
Navy in modern fighting ships for the
simple reason that the Japanese started
to increase their naval strength at least
two years before the United States
started. Whereas that nation is rolling
of its big fighting vessels now, this coun-
try will be two or three more years in
completing the big ships it has laid down.
This means that so long as Japan Is in
an aggressive mood the American feet
has its hands full in the Pacific without
even thinking about the Atlantic.
But Europe's war is beginning to sug-
gest that there is third hard fact that
will need very earnest consideration. This
fact is that bombs dropped from air
planes can sink battleships, both large
and small Winston Churchill First Lord
Of the British Admiralty, has asserted
publicly that bombs dropped from British
aircraft have sunk German cruisers. #
bombs dropped from British aircraft can
sink German naval vessels, then bombs
dropped from German aircraft can sink
British naval vessels. In other words,
there is very real threat to naval
power that now must be considered
This does not mean that the battleship
is obsolete and that the United States
can stop spending billion dollars
year on its Navy. Rather, it means that
the battleship is not necessarily the un-
disputed ruler of the seas and that the
problem of nations which have wide
spread obligations to defend lands
thousands of miles from home may be
very seriously complicated.
The British are learning that fact to-
day. It might easily be the lot of the
United States to learn the same fact in
the not too distant future.
Obligations already assumed require
that the United States have a fleet in
several places at once-if there is no
assurance Of British feet to divide up
the job. This makes it imperative from
the point Of view of the United States to
have the British win in the current Euro
pean war. II the British are not going
to win-and few high military and naval
officials here give them more than
$3.50 chance unless American help is ex-
tended to them-then this country is
faced very directly with its choice.
The United States could cut loose from
the Philippines and let them fend for
themselves. This country could forget
about its rubber and tin supplies in the
Dutch East Indies and British Malay
States and turn to substitutes In event
Of British defeat the United States
could tell Australia and New Zealand to
look out for themselves. All Of those
decisions would be for the people to make.
II the decision was to pull out, the fleet
and air force Of the country could then
be devoted to defending the west coast
Of this country and defending obligations
in latin America