Evening star., 1941-09-07
US. Cooperation With Britain
Declared Essential After War
Presidents Dismissal of Negotiated Peace Idea
Is Viewed as Pledging Collaboration
In Peacetime Readjustment
By Felix Morley.
By Felix NJ Moriey.

y
members of the British Commonwealth
of Nations. The other movement, official
but much less advertised, is that con-
tinuous, detailed, informal, executive CO.
operation which is being steadily and
rapidly developed under the elastic sane
ton of the lease-lend law.
Development Summarized.
The extent to which Anglo American
integration Of executive action is already
developed has recently been summarized
for the first time in a pamphlet issued
by the National Planning Association
entitled United States Cooperation
With British Nations" This pamphlet
is both a brief survey of the present
dovetailing of British and American ex-
ecutive agencies and an appraisal of the
long-range implications of the trend.
1t can be unreservedly recommended to
all whose interest goes deeper than the
average commentary on war develop
ments.
The British Supply Council in North
America, which now employs in the
neighborhood of 1000 persons in this
country, is in reality an overseas extern
sion of the British government operat-
ing here in close cooperation with the
executive arm of our Federal Govern
ment.
Its activities have so overshadowed
those of the British Embassy, and have
cut through the conventional pattern
of diplomatic relations at so many
points as to make the continued pres
ence of a British Ambassador in the
United States scarcely necessary for
other than social and secondary pur-
poses.
Governmental contacts between the
two nations are no longer limited, as in
normal times, to arrangements between
Embassy and State Department officials
Direct, daily and continuous contact IS
established between the various technical
agencies of the British Supply Council
and the appropriate board, commission
or bureau of the United States Govern
ment.
For all practical purposes Of wartime
collaboration, Union Now is already
here 1t might be more permanent, but
could scarcely at the moment be made
more complete, by establishment of the
cumbersome Federal Union Parliament
which Clarence STREET. envisages.
/ Room for improvement.
/ This does not mean that the continu-
Gus executive cooperation now function
] Lz& he Crro
Britain has as yet reached either max
imum efficiency or final development.
On the British side the organization
both in Washington and New Yor-
seems fairly well stabilized. But on th1
| American side there has been much mo-C
confusion and muddling.
1t is hoped that this situation will tc
improved, and that British-American
| technical cooperation will become
steadily more efficient as a result Of the
new Supply Priorities and ALLEGATION
Board created by executive order on Au-
| gust 28 AS one reporter significantly
said, this new controlling agency will be
roughly comparable to the British Min
istry of Supply" The more exact the
comparison the more routine will be that
continuous executive cooperation with
Great Britain which has now become a
major policy of the administration.
Daily developments, such as the nam
ing of John D. Biggers, president of
Libby Owens Ford Glass Co.. as another
Minister to London for technical pur-
poses, attest the energy and speed with
which the program of continuous execu-
tive cooperation with Great Britain is
being pushed. There is no question
of the political significance of the de-
velopment. The only question is whether
all this is to be merely for the duration"
1t is important, in that connection, to
realize that the genius of British states
manship has always centered in the
severely practical solution of specific
problems, maintaining improvisations
which work well and discarding those
which fail to meet the test.
The British Commonwealth of Nations
has no written constitution. no common
Parliament, no formally unified direction
of foreign policy. But the Common.
wealth is unquestionably united and its
unity is made effective primarily through
a well-established network of technical
executive contacts.
1t is certainly suggestive that this
identical type of cooperation should now
be developing so rapidly between Great
Britain, the elf-governing Dominions
and the United States.