Evening star., 1942-03-23
"UniOn Now" Author ADplauds
Australia's Choice Of Macarthur.

OuuOn nv" hutHOI hUpA0uuS
Australia's Choice Of Macarthur.
To the Editor of The Star.
The Australians have done great
thing. They deserve we'll of mankind,
and not only of us Americans. Certainly
they have paid us high compliment in
paying a rare one to Gen. Macarthur.
History is dusty with examples proving
how and why small nations distrust
large ones. But what example is Aus
tralia following? Here is nation
asking one that is much more populous
for its most aggressive general-freely
entrusting to him all that it holds
dearest, the honor of its flag, the safety
of its home soil, the lives and liberties
of its people.
We speak the same language? That
heightenS, not lessons, the significance
of this invitation. True, common
language tends to unite people-if they
are Germans, italians, Poles, Russians.
But the English-speaking world is pecu-
liar. Within it one finds. many who
are more prejudiced against uniting with
those who speak English than with those
who don't. AS one has been urging the
democracies to form powerful union OF
the free, whether or not with common
language, can testify to the existence
of this prejudice.
Australia asked for Macarthur at a
time when the civil war that began in
ITS was being continued on both sides
of the British American ocean in q
gallant whispering campaign, with Pearl
other places arming each with new
arguments for not trusting the other.
Australia acted at a time when still
older civil war-one that began 1000
years ago between two islands of the
coast of Europeans continuing to
spread even worse suspicion and division
among those who are exposed to the
quarrelsome propensities of the worlds
freest language. Fire is small nation,
too. 1t is threatened by Axis invasion
no less than Australia. It's conquest
could be far more dangerous to the
whole cause of human freedom. The
Irish have much closer ties with us
than the Australians have, and much
more reason to trust us. 1t was in
America that Eamon de Valera raised
the 100000 Irish Republican loan
which made possible Fires indepen-
dence- to cite but one item. Yet has
Fire exhibited any disposition to entrust
the defense of its land and liberty to
Macarthur, or to any American army,
air or naval officer?
What a sensation it would be for all
the world, how it would astound the
Nazis and confound them in their
schemes to outfank our Atlantic Magi-
not Line by suddenly invading Fire.
how it would inspire all the free and
oppressed peoples everywhere on earth
with new faith and courage-if the
people of Fire showed the faith in us
that the Australians do.
mention all this to draw no invidious
comparisons, but simply to show that
the fact we speak the same language
as the Australians makes their action
not less remarkable, but more.
Australia deserves the best of us and,
repeat, it deserves well of all mankind
For when posterity tells of the barbaric
superstitions from which this world
revolutionary war freed the human
species, it will say that the Australians
slew one of the worst-the pernicious
practice of selecting commanders on a
basis not of individual merit but of
national pride, stalking everything on
the accident of where the man happened
to have been born.
Posterity will relate that for genera
tions free men stupidity suffered inexpe-
rienced or incompetent generalShip-
with all the risk and loss of liberty and
life this involved-rather than entrust
to a foreigner the supreme command
over them on their home soil, even
though they knew he was superior in
military merit, and was not only an
ally but personally devoted to their own
principles. Posterity will say that the
Australians had the courage. vision and
common sense to set in 1942 q new
example which gradually broke down
everywhere this nationalistic prejudice
to which mankind had sacrificed 80
many lives and liberties.
That is, posterity will say this II we
Americans now show in turn our own
common sense, vision and courage, and
justify the faith the Australians have
shown In us. Who says We can't, or
won't? I say We can, and will.
CLARENCE K. STREET.