The daily monitor. (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1940-1942, 1941-08-19
ATLANTIC RENDEZVOUS

Most spectacular step yet in the
rapid embodiment Of Brtish-Anericon
defense efforts is the Roosevelt
Churchill meeting. No consultation of
dictotors hos equoIled its drama or its
promise Of "a better future for the
world" The conference hos placed the
emphasis On peace proerun, and thot
is where il needs to be placed, even for
more effective prosecution Of the war.
The value of this outline for new
and free order can hardly be exogeer-
oted. Yet its full meaning will depend
on the success Of more immediate
plans for Joint defense which the leod-
ers and their advisers discussed and
which will be further developed during
Lord Beoverbrook's visit in Washing
ton.
The noturoI appeal of q foce-to-
foce meeting to both President Roose-
Welt and Prime Minister Churchill wos
irresistible. Both ore hearty men who
enjoy personal contocts, both are good
takers who get most Of their informo-
tion, make most Of their decisions in
conversation. Moreover, both men
have sense Of showmonship. They
reoIized that nothing could dromotize
the common British-Americon front
like meeting Of the heads Of the two
Governments.
Of course, the mystery and danger
of secret rendezvous on the Atlantic
only heightened the Drama And the
actual meeting Of President and Prime
Minister only synbolized O coming to-
eether of their countries which had
been progressing for many years and
hos been speeded and intensified by
the war. Indeed, the decisions of this
meeting only clarified q common
course inherent in common interests
They plainly ratified q solidarity de-
creed by Hitler when he launched his
drive for world dominion, q unity rivet-
ed ofresh by every Noz success
Two years before the war storted,
this newspaper in commenting on re-
ports Of secret Brtsh-Anericon
agreement, remarked:
The foundation stones Of q basic
AneIo-Americon agreement are no Sc
cret. One is no more occult than the
habit Of thinking in the language Of
the English Bible One is plain to all
who know the Puritan story and the
long struggle for freedom Of conscience
and of speech. There is no mystery in
q common common law, in the shared
heritoee Of sIow-grown liberties. Me-
mories, traditions, Ideals Sports,
songs, sentinents-there ore many
stones in the foundation Americans
listening to the Coronation, Britons to
President RooseveIt's inoueuroI-by
radio sharing todoys events os yester-
Days history.
The war hos helped to disclose the
secret" and hos accelerated the pro-
cess Of working out joint action which
Mr.. Churchill once described as un-
stoppoble I" At this moment four greet
questions ore OF clearly mutual inter
est: How TO meet the threat Of Nozi
seizure Of Dokor and Gibraltar through
Vichys new collaboration; how to stop
the Japanese in Indo-Chino; how to
help the Russions; how deoI with po-
tentioI Nozi peace offensive.
Though many Americans have not
awakened to their Nations reoI place
in the world. in all these questions it
hos O pressing interest. Some Of them
may mean more to it ultimately than
to Britain. Particularly for Britain and
America is the question Of control Of
the sea vitoI one. 1t is appropriate,
therefore. that this meeting should
have taken place at SEQ.
1t is to the immediate safeguarding
OF the gates Of the oceans that joint
measures ore directed. And it is to uI-
timote exercise Of international police
power beginning with British-Americon
SEQ and Dir strength thot the hope of
free mel is directed. The British
American peoce program will defect
any Nozi peoee offensive. For it is
sA~AAA - .-kS 4 L