Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-04-21
U.S.Convoys'
Protection
Is Demanded
Too Late Now TO Debate
Justice or Injustice
BY HUGH s. JOHNSON

Dl III VII % OOHhAsoO4N
EVERYBODY in Washington
IL is now discussing the ques-
ton of convoys-one more step
down the inevitable and dread
full path TO war for America.
In logic, the time for that
discussion is past. That discus
sion should have been had when
the lease-lend bill was up for
debate.
That bill and the appropri-
alton to support it put the
President in a position of re-
sponsibility and authority for
the conduct of this war by all
the enemies of Germany. 1t was
based on the theory that guns
sent to England were guns pro-
vided by us to defend our shores.
Two alternatives were then
possible. One was to give Eng
land unlimited cash or credit To
purchase munitions here. II that
had been done. we should have
had no responsibility other than
this laid to Britain to defend
America by all means short OF
war. The other alternative was
the one adopted-that we lease
lend TO any country whatever
arms we believe would most
effectively stop Hitler.
Our President must now say
where our arms shall be sent
and used to defend America"
and i'm that capacity he becomes
the generaliSSimo and admiral
iSsimO of the anti-AXis war.
4
CONGRESS has approved that.
" The time 10 debate that
has passed. As this writer said
in his testimony before the
House foreign affairs committee
on the leaSc-lend bill when the
question was raised as TO
whether conveys would create
such "diSunity" that they would
never be employed:
IF we ever get into this stu
alton and this bill Is passed and
we are embarked on this course.
disunity would weaken us In
front of the world. In that event
all l could do would he to 20 out
and hammer the hustings for
this bill I'm order To create unity.
The time for YOU to decide this
question il right now. and not to
pass this bill and then rest on
the possibility of disunity to
have II repealed afterwsrd."
Such IS Still%the case. We
haven't the fraction of the mod
ern airplaneS, artillery and tanks
we need even to train much less
to create the land army we
need for defense. OF the little
trickle that is beginning to move
off our production lines we are
sending at least half-and
think more than half-overseas.
We are also stripping our pitt
fully inadequate land defense
and our far better naval defense
OF old armament and sending
that overseas also.
HAVE always thought and
still think that all this is an
error-tragic now and perhaps
disastrous later. But the time
10 protest that policy passed
with the passage of the lease
lend bill Before that II was the
policy of the President. After
that the presidential policy was.
Overwhelmingly endorsed by th<
peoples representatives in Con
greSs. Right or wrong it was a
decision more in military and
naval strategy than a decision
in dlplOrhacy-a decision TO de-
fend America by American
weapons used overseas in British
hands even to the extent Of
Withholding from A erican
hands the weapons to defend
America everywhere.
But. wrong as that decision
seems to me, once 1t has been
made / see no worth in any ar
gument for tieing the Presidents
hands and wasting our own SUBJ
stance by permitting those bill
lions of dollars worth of Ameri-
can weapons to be sunk in the
Atlantic and rendered useless
Tor American defense either here
where l think they ought to
be-or abroad where both Con-
greSS and the President have de-
cided to send them.
His constitutional right to
convoy American ships any,
whore except zones pfeifib-
tied TO them by the Neutrality
Act is, l think, so clear that an
attempt by Congress to restrict
it directly would probably be Of
itself unconstitutional.
II would be another, and I
think the final step toward war,
but as / tried to say after en-
phaslzing this opinion in my
House committee testimony, the
time TO have thought about that
was before passing the congress
Slonal abdication of constitu-
tional powers included in the
Lease-Lend Act.
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