Evening star., 1941-09-14

The fracas in which the destroyer
Greer had an encounter with German
submarine has brought things to final
issue. A shooting war with the Reich is
In immediate prospect, as a result of
President RooSevelt'S fortnight radio
warning that our military and naval
forces henceforth will shoot first at
Axis raiders. And the last hope that
we may sit on the fence and confine
our activities to helping the Allies is
rapidly fading.
There are two fundamental reasons
guiding administration leaders in their
policy of physical intervention:
l. The Germans are breathing heav-
fly since the fiaSco of their Russian ad-
venture Of the three powers which
form the AxiS-Germany, Italy and
Japan-only Germany is considered a
fighting power. The other two are just
tagging along. The German armies have
been checked for the first time since the
outbreak of the war. In Russia-despite
the large territory they have conquered
the Wehrmacht has met with defeat. 1t
is now definitely established by the high
est military authorities in Washington
that the Soviet armies, while yielding
important objectives here and there. are
by no means destroyed. Their spirit is
unbroken. In fact, according to the
latest reports, the morale of the three
armies fighting from Odessa to the Arctic
Circle is better than that of the invader
Nazis Grimly Determined.
Germany still has plenty of fight left
In her. According to reports from the
Reich, the setbacks suffered by the
Wehrmacht are making the rank and
file of the population more determined
to carry on the fight. While few
months ago the war-weary civilians
might have welcomed peace based on
military victories, now the same civil
ians behind the lines want the struggle
continued because they remember Ver-
sailles. They are being told-and also
know it instinctively-that under the
present conditions another peace would
be even harsher than Versailles. And
there is enough national awareness in
the Reich to reject such an idea.
Although the Reich is in an infinitely
weaker strategic position in the Mediter-
ranean and elsewhere than it was year
ago-because England is stronger and
Russia is an active enemy-there is no
doubt that the German high command
will make tremendous effort to offset
the Russian faseo by a brilliant vic
tory somewhere between Libya and
1raq. Britain is well prepared, but her
navy has been weakened by severe losses
and needs the help of American memo
war to take care of the North Atlantic
while her main feet is policing the
Mediterranean.
Japan has become in the last 10 days
a minor concern for the American Navy.
Naval strategists now feel that they can
spare a large number of cruisers, de-
stroyers and aircraft for the Atlantic
without jeopardizing our vital interests
in the Pacific. These will take care of
the long conveys which are being rushed
almost daily to Britain and to the Middle
East. Whether the safety of these con-
voys-regardless of the flag they fly
means actual war with the Reich now
seems to be comparatively unimportant
The Greer incident with its conse-
quences-that shippers of American war
ships actually have been ordered to
shoot first and explain later-must in
evitably bring us into active war with
the Axis
Long War Expensive.
2. Those who look at the rapidly in
creasing national expenditure which
must necessarily increase by leaps and
bounds are consulting the military and
naval strategists They are being told
that from the financial point of view our
participation in the war will in the end
prove much cheaper than the present
acknowledgement state. The calculations
are not difficult to understand. The Axis
powers as long as they have to fight only
Britain and Russia can prolong the war
for an almost indefinite time. They can
switch from offensive to defensive tactics.