Evening star., 1941-02-01
By theAssociated Press.

| BY Lne ASSOCldteQ HIcoS.
The text of the minority report
of the House Foreign Affairs Com
mittee on the lease-lend bill fol-
lows:
We are for all aid to Britain
short of war and short of sacriflc-
ing our own defense and our own
freedom. The British in their
valiant struggle, which has aroused
our deepest sympathy, need planes,
guns and war material.
We are for this objective without
delay. We believe this objective
can be accomplished without grant,
ing enormous power to the Presi-
dent, which the founders of the
Republic wisely decreed should re-
main with Congress as the rep
resentatives of the people. II there
| is any delay in reaching this OBJ
jective it would be caused by this
unprecedented bid for presidential
power.
2 Billions in Credit Favored.
We would willingly support
STRAIGHTFORWARD bill which would
grant Britain s2,000,00o,000 worth
of credit.
This would eliminate the step
giving the President absolute power
over every concern in this country
manufacturing war materials. This
would not permit him to be the
director of the war in England, a
position which is fraught with
greater danger to the American
people. If we assume the direction
of the war we underwrite the sue
cess of the war. The ultimate re-
suit must be the American people
will pay the full costs of the war,
and that means we will be obli-
gated to put our material resources
and our men into the struggle.
Granting credits which England
needs will fully meet the situation
of today, and it will lessen ma
terially the likelihood of our going
into the war. Our naval and mill
tary experts agree that our nation
is in no danger of attack; that
with our vast resources and geo.
graphical position our situation is
not comparable to that of nations OF
continental Europe.
Too Much Power in Peacetime.
This power requested is too much
to give any man at a time when
the country is at peace. AS Secre-
tary Cordell Hull once said: This
is too much power for a bad man
to have or for good man to want"
What is needed:
We have been given two reasons
for new laws: l. Britain is running
short, not of money, not of assets,
but of dollar exchange; 2, we
need to coordinate British pro-
curement with our own defense
efforts.
What this bill does not do:
This bill does not provide dollar
exchange for Britain and is not
our defense efforts.
This bill will not provide any
additional war supplies for aid to
Britain within the go or 80 days
of her alleged crisis unless the
President uses the power provided
to dispose of part of our arms or
our Navy, which he and his cabinet
officers have specifically denied they
could spare.
Conveying Not Prohibited.
There has been much talk of
restrictive" committee amend
ments. The amendments adopted
do not prohibit our conveying mer-
chantmen, do not require our Army
or Navy officers to determine our
own defense needs, do not place a
constitutional two-year limitation
on the life of the bill.
What this bill does:
Using the slogan of laid to Brit
ain" and under the title Of PRO
noting defense" this bill gives the
President unlimited, unprecedented
and unpredictable powers-literally
to seize anything in this country
and to give it to any other country
without limit in law. He may sell
or give away our Navy, our planes,
our arms, our secrets and use any
proceeds from such sales for SINH
lar purposes; he need come to
Congress only for appropriations to
restore our Navy, our planes, our
arms.
John Bassett Moore, world-fa-
nous authority on international and
constitutional law, says: 1.-THE pend
ing bill assumes to transfer the
war making power from the Con-
gress, where the Constitution lodges
it, to the Executive -. The tide
of totalitarianism in government
has not only reached our
shores but has gone far to destroy
constitutional barriers, which. once