Evening star., 1941-05-11
America Must Specialize
on Aid to Britain
By OaDen L. Scott.

| effort.
Certainty of the need for increased
| effort depends on whether Great Britain
| falls. If the British Isles are conquered,
then the size and the speed of armament
must be increased farther than if she
| stands to serve as a bulwark against
| Adolf Hitler These are conclusions of
| officials who are charged with the task
| Of planning ahead.
The situation today, as they see it, is
| this:
The American people, by their effort.
soon will be turning $1,000 100000 a
| month into the upbuilding of their Army
| and Navy and into aid for Britain The
British people, although only one-third
| as numerous as the Americans, are like
wise turning 81 900, 900 900 a month into
armament. This combined effort equals
the effort of Germany, but does not
equal the effort of Germany plus the
effort of conquered people who are being
forced to work for Germany.
AS matters now stand the United
States and Britain together-if they
could pool their effort and bring it to
bear on a single objective-would be
approaching equality with Hitler in cur
rent production.
But the United States is trying to
arm itself while aiding Britain AS
result only a fraction of this countrys
armament effort-actually, about one
fifth of its being diverted to British
aid This aid is amounting TO less than
5000 900 600 month at the present time,
when arms that are exported are trans
lated into dollars.
Furthermore, the British effort is at
It's peak and is tending to decline owing
to concentrated air attack on British
industries and owing to the fact that in
sufficient raw materials are being re-
ceived by the British to keep all their
factories busy. Shipping losses are the
reason.
The result is that, with the United
States on the sidelines. Great Britain
is continuing to decline in strength rela-
tive to her enemy.
At that point another calculation
enters.
If the British are conquered the United
States will need to match alone the
productive resources that Hitler has
available to him in all of Europe. A
production battle of this kind, if con-
Quoted in terms of automobiles or radios
or in peacetime steel products would be
a walkaway for the United States But
it would be carried on in terms of tanks
and aircraft and battleships. This coun-
try is just getting geared up to that type
Of competition.
To match Hitler on those terms would
require the United States to measure
her armament effort in terms of at least
$1,000 100000 a month plus the effort
that would be needed to match anything
Hitler would gain through acquisition
of the British war industry. 1t also
would be necessary to match the strength
he acquires from the armament prodacts
turned out by the factories of France,
Czecho-Slovakia, Belgium and Poland.
This would be no easy task. 1t might
mean that the United States would be
forced by circumstances to devote as
much as s36 5000 100000 a year-or more
than one-third of the Nations total
effort-to defense Now little more than
one-tenth of the Nations effort is being
devoted to that purpose. Both Germany
and Great Britain are directing more
than half their total national effort to
the same purpose.
Certainly, the task of opposing Hitler
is to be mammoth in its proportions.
Just for illustration: Hitler starts his
race with the United States possessed
of 260 divisions of troops, fully trained,
armed and experienced in battle. This
country today possesses not a single
division of fully armed and fully trained
troops. It's much the same story in the
air.
If the problem were that of building
an Army larger and stronger than Hit
ler's the solution of it might seem hope
less. The larger proportion of the Ger
man nations effort for eight years has
gone into building that army and air
force. But that's not the problem from
the American point of view. Where
Hitler has spent his time and effort on
his army, the United States is putting
her principal time and effort on her
Navy
Hitler will end up with a vast and
powerful army that can beat any army
in Europe or Asia-So long as that army
can be supplied. The United States will
end up with a Navy and air force that
can keep Hitler bottled up in the con-
fines of his continental area, where he
can be made increasingly uncomfortable
trying to live with conquered peoples and
with insufficient resources to provide
his people with what they've been told
are to be the fruits of victory.
*x*
The task in any event is immense
and cannot be avoided, regardless of the
outcome of the battle of Britain.
If that battle should 60 against the
British and if Hitler should gain the CO.
operation of Britain, through use of
force or otherwise, in using her fleet,
then the United States would have i'm
mediate need for the Army now being
built. That Army is designed to deal
with the situation that would result
from British defeat, involving either Cd
destruction of the British main fleet or
(2) acquisition of that feet by Hitler to
add to the Japanese, German, French
and Italian fleets that then could be
massed for attack on the United States.
The result is that the armament effort
of this country is just the beginning.
1o;I