The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1941-03-06
THROUGH
HAZ E |.
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Hazel Brannon
Hazel Brannon

a war policy for Great Britain and
lifting the Empire out of it doldrums
into a state Of war efficiency.
Mr.. Churchill gets our vote for
being placed in the most embarrass-
ing position of the year. 1t is now
his job to get as much support for
Britain's cause as possible out of the
other countries of the world. The only
country where he can hope for any
support is America.
Congressional leaders recently
brought to light a statement Mr..
Churchill made in 1886 in an inter-
view with an American newspaper
man in which he said America
should have minded her own BUSH
ness and stayed out Of the World
War" The American press has given
ii considerable notice.
To say Mr.. Churchill was en-
barrassed would be putting it mildly.
Placed in a position to affirm or
deny the report he could do nothing
but deny it thus calling William
Griffin, publisher and editor of the
New York Enquirer, the man who
interviewed him, nothing short of a
weaver of fancy tales.
The American public should be in
terested to know that the Philadel-
phia Evening Bulletin published a
telephone interview with Mr..
Churchill in which it stated that Mr..
Churchill denied he had ever met
William Griffin and had never made
the statements about America at
tributed to him.
The American publisher, Mr.. Crit
fin, evidently did not like being
called a faker by Mr.. Churchill so he
filed a suit for one million dollars
against Britain's Prime Minister.
Mr.. Churchill lawyers denied, on
his behalf, that he had ever told the
Philadelphia newspaper any such
story. 1t seems obvious that Mr..
Churchill had himself in quite a
corner. Since the suit was instituted
in September. 1889, Mr.. Churchill
has had three sets of attorneys re-
present him but he has never de-
MED, through his attorneys, that
he participated with the American
publisher in the interview. Nor has
he denied through his attorneys that
he made the statement in question.
Highly interesting are some of
the remarks which Mr.. Churchill
made in that interview with Pub
Usher Griffin. In answer to the ques-
ton shouldn't Britain repay her war
debts Of about five billion dollars
since the u. S. helped her win the
war, the noted statesman, said:
Legally we owe this debt to the
U. S. and | agree with you that Eng
land should at once pay every penny
the u. S. claims she owes, but Eng
land should be allowed, before a
settlement is made, to deduct fifty
per cent of the cost of all the shot
and shell she fired at the Germans
from the time America declared war
in the Spring of 1917 until she &C
tually put troops in the front lines
a year later"
When asked how much that deduc-
ton would amount to he replied
"About four billion nine hundred
million dollars" Publisher Griffin
then remarked that if the war debts
were settled on that basis the U. s.
would almost owe Great Britain
money. Whereupon Mr.. Churchill
stated that the u. S. did W Eng
land money, because if the debt
settlement was a fair one, then Eng
land should be paid interest on the
amount that she should be allowed
to deduct from the war debt from
the time she expended the money
until the final statement.
1t is easy enough to see why Eng
land. a tiny island kingdom only
e4,a79 square miles in area n
with only 46,213,169 population, can
control and exploit an area 1889
I13 square miles over the world and
decide the destinies OF 504,2ls'zoS
people in those areas
The only stupid thing she has ever
done was way back in l776 when she
permitted the new world colonies TO
sign a declaration of independence.
Perhaps even then her great lea
ders knew that house bill 1776 would
bring us back into the fold as one o.
her colonies.
= y y
Gratitude seems to be an unknown
quantity to the British. When PUP
Usher Griffin remarked that had the
u. S. stayed out of the war England
would have lost and the British En-
pire would have been broken up ana
would probably be ruled by Berlin
Then is when Mr.. Churchill made
his famous and oft-quoted reply. he
said that he could see now that AM
erica's entry in the war had been a
great mistake:
america should have minded her