Evening star., 1941-03-10

jay &. HAYDEN. 81 against it.
The treaty failed because it required
a two-thirds vote, and if the same
had applied to the lease bill it would
have failed Sixty votes were cast
for it and 81 against-two short Of
a two-thirds majority.
The reason the latter measure
marks the end Of isolation" is not
that the Senate has undergone a
change Of heart. It is that the
lease-lend machinery, now set in
motion, is calculated so to involve
United States relationships with
Great Britain and its dominions,
China, Greece and probably other
nations that not even the Senate
can find a way to disentangle them.
The United States already has
occupied British soil-in Canada
and the West Indies-under the de-
stroyer-naval base agreement. It
may go farther with this regard
possibly all the way to Singapore.
American merchant ships, II not
given to the British outright, may
replace British ships on Asiatic and
South American trade routes. Such
a merger of merchant marines
scarcely can be accomplished with
out far-reaChing agreements related
to after-war commerce. British
overseas dominions- Canada, Aus
tralia, New Zealand and South
AfriCa-are bound to become more
dependent financially on the United
States as the war proceeds.
Wanted Three cornered Alliance.
Added to this is the inevitability
of continued American British al
lance to maintain peace when pres
ent wars are ended. What the French
and British really wanted at the
Paris Peace Conference was a three
COrnered British French American
alliance to guarantee a new world
order. President Wilson objected TO
this because he believed it was de-
signed to make France militarily
dominant over all its neighbors on
the European continent and TO pre-
serve British control of the seas.
Wilson's conception was an inter-
national organization in which all
nations. viCtors and vanquished and
neutrals alike, would share.
Premier ClemenCeau Of France in
sisted to the end that the League Of
Nations would not work. He accept
ed it only after President Wilson and
Premier Lloyd George had signed an
agreement, pledging their nations to
come TO the aid Of France if she
ever again should be attacked by
Germany. The PRONUNCIATION Of this
side alliance was one of the main
excuses for Senate rejection of the
whole work Of the peace conference.
France in these circumstances had
no choice except to attempt to build
up a new alliance Of European ma
tions strong enough to hold Ger
many in leash.
Democracies SucCumb.
Whether ClemcnCeau was right,
in 1920, in his belief that the League
of Nations could not succeed as q
guarantor of world peace few people
will dissent from this opinion as ap-
piled to the present-day world Not
only France, but all other demo-
cratic nations in Europe have sue
cumbed. Only Nazi Germany and
Communist Russia are left as poten-
tial rulers Of that continent. Japan,
in the Far East. definitely has
moved out Of the democratic orbit.
There is just one visible force on
which a future peace can be
predicated, and this is the combined
naval. air and economic power OF
the United States and the British
Empire. This will be 50 if Germany
is defeated and even more so if Ger
many should conquer the British
Isles. In the latter event Britain
would have to retreat to Canada.
The United States certainly would
become an active participant in the
war. and so probably would Japan.
1t is impossible to conceive of a con-
dition which will permit the United
States ever again to retire into an
isolationist shell.