Evening star., 1941-05-04
Shooting War Held
Close at Hand
BIZ OUen L. Scott.

this war will underlie the decisions the
American government is being forced to
make Those conclusions are drawn
from events and are not those of side
line strategists, but of hard-headed
military and naval officers whose busi-
ness it is to protect this Nation. The
conclusions are:
First, it is academic to argue about
whether the United States now is at
war. Adolf Hitler Premier MusSolinl
and Yosuke Matsuoka all openly have
declared war upon American institutions
and American rights. They declare in
strongest terms that the world cannot
exist half democratic and half totali-
tartan.
Second. the British Isles are vital to
the defense of this hemisphere. The
reason is they represent the one remain
ing base that can be used effectively to
keep Hitler bottled up in Europe on
the Atlantic side. To let those isles fall
would be a grave military and naval
error. However, should Britain be con-
quered-s not improbable develop
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settled. War merely will move into the
front yarG of the United States itself.
Third this war, in essence, is a war
for control of the seas. Hitler possesses
unrivalled land and air power. But
with land and air power alone he
cannot break out into the ocean high
ways that would take him to the riches
he requires. Britain and the United
States possess unrivslled sea and air
power. Only if Hitler succeeds in divid-
ing this country and Britain-only if
he gains mastery of the oceans can he
impose his rules and his methods upon
the world.
Fourth, since this struggle finally will
revolve around fight for mastery of
the oceans it will be very long struggle.
Sea wars are long wars as a rule-Wars
in which the loss of life is not great by
the first World War standards. Such
wars call for great national effort. In
the end the issue often is decided If
the land power can be exhausted.
x X
There is little prospect of peace,
either for the United States or any
other important nation, in the conclu-
sions of those who must shape Ameri-
can policy
The reason why peace is remote lies
in the fact that this war will decide
who is going to make the rules for
the world in the era ahead The United
States and Great Britain have made
and enforced the rules for more than
century. Those rules have been
lenient and have been applied with
relatively little showing around of other
peoples. They have encouraged the
growth of democratic institutions.
Now Hitler and his allies are challeng-
ing the British-American power. They
want % make the rules and to do the
showing around. Their formula calls
for the uradulterated use of force to
break the will of any nation that would
oppose tfem. Their methods are those
of dictatorship by master races"
Therefore, as those who must shape
American policy see it, the choice before
the United States is between fighting to
retain the rule making right or to give
up and accept the rules Hitler will make.
Against that background the military
situation is to be viewed.
The position. of Great Britain is not
good The task of guar ding an empire
scattered over the seven seas is too great
for her military and naval resources.
At home her position is too exposed to
attack and her industry is too dependent
upon imported raw materials. If Britain
is to be forced to carry on alone her
position is extremely bad. It can
become almost hopeless when and if
Hitler takes to the use of gas to create
panic in cities and to contaminate
British factories. The antidote is to
assure Hitler that every attack will be
given back with interest.
Military and naval opinion is that only
full American involvement can assure
Hitler there will be a day of reckoning,
and can save the British Isles from con-
quest.
Defeat for Britain, in the opinion of
this governments military and naval
advisers, would leave the United States
III q very EoSItiOii, OiiC
condition were met. That condition
would be the continued resistance of the
British fleet. based on the Empire and
on the United States. The question
being asked is whether that fleet
would retire to its outlying bases and
would join up with the United States
if this country had done nothing very
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British save their homeland.
With England conquered, and the
British feet immobilized, Hitler would
be in a position to start a gradual en-
circlement of the United States.
Open to him would be stepping stones
by way o. the Farce Islands, Iceland
and Greenland to Canada. Open to
him, too, would be stepping stones by
way of French West Africa and Dakar
to South America. The task of de-
Tending South America is much more
difficult for the United States than
would be Hitler's job of infiltrating into
that area, owing to the distances in
volved and to the fact that Germany
and Italy have large colonies there.
These are considerations that must
affect American policy. They suggest
the following:
First, the decisive phase of the war,
. so far as it affects England and Ger
many, is near at hand. The expecta-
ton of informed officials here seems to
be that the Germans will be able to