The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1941-09-17

| pay tilett 51biN.
President to assume the role of an
aggrieved neutral and take refuge in
the finer points of international law.
dent emphasized, was made on the
american side" of the Atlantic. (By
this definition there would also be an
American side of the Iceland forth
fications separate from the side on
which the British are encamped.)
Presumably had the attack been made
on the side of the Atlantic which the
President comedies to Europe, the
Greer would not have sought to de-
| fend itself
spite the fact that the nazis had pro-
claimed the area a war zone. Ger
many the President said, had never
notified the u S. of the establishment
of the zone. Presumably official
notification by Germany would have
protection of the sea lane to Iceland.
But since no notification was provided
and the President did not believe
what he read in the newspapers, an
act that invites total war becomes JUS
tifiable.
AS for the blockade, the President
continued, the U. S. never recognizes
blockade if it is ineffective-as neat
a rule of international law as British
seapower has written into the statute
books. Had the blockade been effec-
tive, presumably the President, who
has been doing his utmost short of
war" to break the blockade, would
have scrupulously respected it.
Defining Purposes
The destruction of nazism is a no.
BILE purpose which all civilized men
must support. Some civilized Amer
leans believe that the U. S. will have
greater strength to overcome nazism
if it avoids war abroad. Other civil
can be destroyed only if the U. S. goes
to war at once. But practically no
one believes that it is essential to
go to war at once because the nazis
have violated the rules of sea war
fare. The legalistic mahoola with
which the President sought to make
out a case in international law against
the nazis did violence to his own con-
cept of the nature of the nazi menace
and introduced a note of hypocrisy
reminiscent of a Goebbels outcry
against the treatment of Germans in
Norway
The Presidents policy, including the
of the occupation of Ice
land makes sense and achieves it's
own justification as an effort to lead
Americans into war to destroy
nazi barbarity In such a war, the
firmly behind him if he had honestly |
repudiated his campaign pledges and |
dropped the pretense that he had been |
unable to help himself because the |
nazis were violating the neutral rights
Of the U. S.
The President could have helped
himself. There is another course he
might have followed from the begin
ming had he felt that staying out of
war was more important than his
sea route to Iceland. But by now the
logic of his own policy drives
lim to war-and drives the nation
along with him whether it wants to
IL not. The Greer incident highlights
his dilemma. Regardless of who is
or why, U. S. destroyer
'inds itself the object of torpedoes let
Dose by a submarine. What else can
he Commander do but protect his
ship by dumping depth bombs?
Should the men stand idle at their
POSTS and go under? whether the
]. S. fleet should drop everything and
tart hunting the submarine is an
,ther matter.)
Faced with this fat accompli, the
eaction of Administration supporters
vas what might have been expected
Senator Bailey of North Carolina
hrugged helplessly: what can we
10 if the other fellow attacks our
hips? We are bound to attack them"
senator Connally, chairman of the
oreign relation scommittee, put it '
more hypocritically: I'VE do not want !
o become involved in the present i
var but if our ships or citizens are
ttacked we are going to defend t
hem" But what is most significant /
) the fact that at least one vigor- '
us opponent of the Presidents for f
ign policy, Senator Brooks of Illinois,
ound himself reacting the same way. t
We've got men over in Iceland" a
Brooks said Wherever the Presi- c
ent sends American troops you've i
.ot to keen the slIpply lines oman