Evening star., 1941-12-29
AnqIo-Americun Unity

LII COllCIuUlllS Ills IIleIIlOTdDle dQ-
dress to the Congress of the United
States, Winston Churchill gave ex-
preston to an eloquent appeal for
Anglo-American unity both now
and in the future.
The Prime Minister based his
appeal upon two main contentious,
neither of which is open to dispute.
First, he said. the calamity of an
other world war has been visited
upon the English-speaking peoples
because they failed during the past
quarter century to unite in the COM
mon effort which could easily have
prevented the conflict The oppor-
tunity for peace was forfeited. As
Mr.. Churchill put it: The chance
has passed. 1t is gone" But the
future remains to be dealt with Out
of the unity Of military action which
will be forged in the common war
effort, Mr.. Churchill cOntended, there
must come some feasible arrange
ment for joint maintenance of peace
after the victory is won.
1T is not given to us to peer into
the mysteries Of the future" he said.
"Still I avow my hope and faith, sure
and inviolate, that in the days to
come the British and American peo-
pie will for their own safety and for
the good of all walk together in
majesty, in justice and in peace"
There Is significance, however, in
the fact that Mr. Churchill, while
using specific language to discuss the
mistakes of the past and the neces-
sity for complete unity of action in
prosecuting the war, saw fit to out
line his program for the future only
in the broadest terms 1t should not
be supposed that this vagueness with
regard to the second proposition i'm
plies any belief on Mr.. Churchill's
part that it is of minor importance,
that it is one of those pleasing gen.
eralities which can be raised now for
goodwill purposes only to be con-
veniently shelved after the war is
over. Quite the contrary is the case.
But it does suggest. nevertheless, that
the Prime Minister believes in deal
ing with first things first, that in his
judgment our immediate task Is the
winning of the war and that the
maintenance of the united effort
essential to that end should not be
put in jeopardy by the introduction
at this time of any specific plan for
a postwar political union of the
United States and Great Britain.
This, certainly, is the opinion en-
tertained by many Americans whose
breadth of vision has been abund-
antly demonstrated in the past. One
of these, Senator George of Georgia,
who favored the League of Nations
after the last war and who gave
active support to the Presidents for
eign policies during his service as
chairman of the Foreign Relations
Committee, has expressed this senti-
ment in few words. It is well, he
said. that consideration be given to
what should be done at the end of
the war. But, he added. our great
objective today is to win the war and
to bend every energy we have to that
end. There should be no confusion
of thought which would interfere in
any way with that"
When wishful thinking is put aside,
it can hardly be doubted that any
specific plan for outright political
union between Great Britain and the
United States would be productive of
lengthy debate and extended contro-
verSy. 1t would provide the Axis
propagandists with a convenient
weapon for weakening the joint war
effort by playing upon all of the old
animosities. suspicious and jealous
les. Clearly, it would seem, political
union is problem for the future-a
future in which the mistakes of the
past will neither be forgotten nor
repeated.