Evening star., 1941-02-26
An Issue Takes Shape

made in America for Britain, are
piling up on our docks for lack Of
shipping to transport them across the
Atlantic is of more than ordinary
interest, for it directs attention to
what promises soon to become the
most vital question of our relation
to the war.
AS the picture shapes up at this
time, it seems probable that Ger
many's counterblockade is going to
take a rising toll of British shipping
at a time when England's need of
merchant vessels will be greatest.
There is no reason to doubt that Hit
Ter meant what he said Monday when
he promised that the Reich would
launch an intensified submarine and
air drive this spring in a supreme
effort to cut Britain's vital sea COM
munications. The long-heralded at
tempt to invade the British Isles may
or may not materialize, but STEP
ping up of the counterblockade IS as
certain as anything can be. And it
is equally certain that this intensifi-
cation of Nazi effort will come at
time when the production of Amer
ica's plane factories will be just be-
ginning to hit its stride. If planes
are piling up on the docks for lack of
ships now at the rate of from fifty to
one hundred a month, there is GER
tainly no ground for optimism in
anticipating what the situation in
this respect will be four or six months
hence.
All too obviously, or so it seems, the
inexorable preSSureS of war are shap-
ing fateful choice for the people of
the United States-a choice between
letting our program of effective aid
to Britain be nullif1ed by the in
creasing inability of Englands
harassed merchant marine to trans
port the short-range planes and
other instruments of war to the scene
of combat, or of supplying the means
Of transportation from our own re-
sources.
1t is evident from the arguments
advanced in the Senate by those who
are fatty opposed to the lease lend
bill that. should the need arise, they
would prefer taking the first of these
choices. Their position in opposition
to the bill, which is described by it's
supporters as an essential part of the
aid-to-Britain program, seems to be
based on several premiseS-that pas
sage of the measure would be a step
toward war and not toward peace;
that the British are not fighting "our
war; that We have no vital interest
in British victory and that in ex-
tending assistance to them we should
do nothing that might tend to in
volve us in the conflict. In the light
OF the emerging realities of the war,
such as the mounting difficulty of
getting material to the British, the
conclusion seems inescapable that
these opponents of the bill, although
their sympathies may be with the
British, are ready to resign them
selves to German victory if the
alternative is a course of action
which, in their judgment, involves
new risks of American involvement
in the war or further depletion of
our existing defense facilities.
The position of these opponents,
and they should be distinguished
from those who advocate certain
amendments which would not de-
stroy the bills effectiveness, may be
defensible in logic if their premises
are valid, but they are premises
which, from all available evidence,
have been rejected by the great ma
jority of the American people. Our
foreign policy, with overwhelming
public support, has rested on the as
sumption that we should give all
necessary aid to the British because
We are vitally, concerned in prevent
ing their defeat by the totalitarian
powers, and that the dangers to us
OF a totalitarian victory outweigh
the dangers inherent in a course
designed to extend all-out aid to