Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-10-08
Pressure
For an AEF
Increasing
Now lis General Smuts
Who Warns u. S.
By HUGH S. JOHNSON

IT WON'T be long now. Nearly
u all the straws in the wind
show the rising pressure to send
American troops overseas and
into the war.
The latest is Premier Gen. Jan
SHUTS, who says from South
Africa that our entry into the
war is inevitable and that if we
are to have a hand in the peace
we must have a hand in the
war.
"You cannot merely stand on
the side lines and cheer us on.
You must come with u.s."
General SHUTS is the great
South African leader who cap
tanned the brave fight against
Britain for Boer freedom and
then became a pillar of the en-
pire, took a leading part in the
World War l and the peace con-
ference and was leading archi-
tect of the League of Nations.
Consider that with the debate
in the House Of Commons about
the shortage of British man.
power and It's partition between
war effort and industrial effort.
Couple it with the fortnight
statements of the two leading
British generals, Wavell and
Auchinleck. that Hitler can't be
erased on the continent without
American manpower.
There is nothing far-fetched
about that assumption or pur-
pose, because spokesman for
this administration repeat 1t
with almost every passing day.
OF COURSE, there is one al
" tentative - internal ex-
plosions within the German
area, even with no great defeat
on the battle lines. completely
changing the character Of the
German government and pre-
senting an entirely new aspect
of the problem.
That is not at present likely,
but in war anything may hap
pen. almost any day:
Skip that possibility for a
moment. Does anybody suppose
that, as the hope of Allied
victory becomes more clearly
dependent on an American EX-
peditionary Force, we wouldn [
have one-and have ii regard
less of law. promises or the
wishes of the American people?
All you have TO do TO answer
that question is TO look at the
record and see how we have
been showed, cajoled and COM
mitted into underwriting about
British victory regardless of all
these supposed deterrents in a
democracy 10 one warlike move
after another.
We already have an AEF-per-
haps as much as one completely
equipped modern American divi-
sion. serving in Iceland under a
British commander-in-chief. We
didn't even consent 10 that dur
ing the World War. We accepted
unified strategical command by
Foch. but General Pershing re-
tanned tactical independence OF
command of his entire army.
THIS column is not today argu-
Il ing about the necessity or wis
dom of this inevitable trend. In
an atmosphere still loaded with
assurances that there will be no
great overseas army adventures,
it is merely trying to point out
how worthless they are and how
disappointing they are likely 10
prove TO be.
OF course. as recent army
maneuvers have shown, We are
not prepared for any such thing,
in training, equipment or leader
ship. That won't make much
difference if the pressure really
gets hot.
II will be said that we are
better prepared than were the
Greeks, the Yugoslavs, tn e
Danes or even the British up to
Dunkirk. That is true, but re-
member what happened to those
armies.
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