Evening star., 1945-01-20
Strain Of War Seen
Affecting Churchill
Misses Point of u. S. Criticism
on Power Politics." Says Writer
By David Laurence

BY David Laurence
Prime Minister Churchill is appar-
emily beginning to show some of the
effects of the war strain His latest
speech indicates not only O. certain
amount of irritation over what has been
said in the United States, but it also
may indicate that, with all the vast
sources of information which the British
may have in this country, their officials
are inclined to do too much wishful
thinking, and evaluate information from
America on the basis of what some of
their ardent friends and champions tell
them rather than what is really disin-
terested public opinion here
Certainly it seems that Mr.. Churchill
has completely missed the point about
American criticisms of what is COM
monty called power politics" In his
speech. Mr.. Churchill-says:
THE expression power politics has
lately been used in criticism against us
in some quarters. I would anxiously have
asked the question, What are power
politics?' I know some of our friends
across the water so well that am sure
I can always speak frankly without
causing offense.
rs having navy twice as big as
anybody else's in the world power poll
tics? Is having the largest air force in
the world with bases in every part of
the world power politics? Is having all
the gold in the world power politics?
If SO we are certainly not guilty of this
offense. 1 am very sorry to say that
they are luxuries far away from U.s."
Impression on Americans.
The foregoing might create the i'm
preston on American readers that the
United States deliberately built up the
biggest Navy and Army and Air Force in
the world in order to accomplish some
purpose connected with our owns COM
merce or trade or political objectives in
this world. Yet Mr., Churchill should
know, above all other things, that when
We did the same thing in the World
War in building up our Army, Navy and
Air Force to an unprecedented size, we
Immediately thereafter went back to
peacetime basis, and nobody can point
to a single square foot of land an
nexed, either directly or indirectly, to
the territories of the United States as
consequence of the World War.
When the United States made its
pledge last time that it did not want
to annex any territory, it kept that
pledge But Great Britain obtained a
mandate" covering all the German
;,, oyod other
territories in the world which have
since been practically annexed to the
British Empire. The misuse of that
power of mandate is an example of
power politics" Will it happen again?
Furthermore, the American people 90
not like to see alliances between gov
ernment and private business such as
have called forth the criticism of i'm
| perialism' This is a term the British
! do not understand because they believe
in using the power of their government
/ in a political and diplomatic sense to ex-
/ tend their trade and comperce, whereas,
| in the United States, undelsthe New Deal
| particularly, the tendency is to scuttle
foreign investments and keep the Ameri-
Cdll navy vi All ! vi SC ~ OAAA DSiiAS
used as tool of commq qfcial interests.
Mr. Churchill quotes Spproviugly Pres
ident Roosevelts definition OF power
politics" and says that the British are
in agreement with it. That definition,
expressed in the Presidents annual mes
sage to Congress recently, is as follows:
In the future world She misuse of
power, as implied in the term of
power politics, must not h controlling
factor in international r~.ations. That
is the heart of the principles to which
we have subscribed. We cannot deny
that power is a factor in world politics
any more than we can deny its existence
as a factor in national politics. But in
democratic world, as in a democratic
nation, power must be linked with re-
sponsibility and obliged to defend and
! justify itself within the framework of
| the general good
| Definition and Practice.
! But is Mr.. Roosevelt's definition and
! British practice the same? The British
| policy in Greece was to some extent
aimed at the maintenance of the royal
J AouIilN dIiu lllS Dlll1Sll pOllSS III
| Italy had similar characteristics. Eng
land has confessed to a desire for a
| sphere of influence" in the Mediter-
| ranean. and it is often sarcastically
| flung back at Americans that the United
| States has similar sphere of influence"
! in Latin America.
I The truth is that the United States
Government has never at any time had
or asked for special-preference posi-
ton in the matter of trade with any
country in South or Central America
Likewise, the famous open door policy"
which has been Americas traditional
position toward trade in the Far East
has always been based upon equal op-
portunity for all and special preference
for none. This is far cry from the
British conception of sphere of inf1u-
ence."
+ 1t might have occurred to Mr. Church.
i'll, too, that the United States does not
today possess the biggest Army Navy
or Air Force because of any premedita-
ton. The fact that the British did not
oulld up their navy, army or air force
to meet the German threat from 1888
| to 1899, and the fact that France failed
likewise has placed upon this country
| the burden of becoming the arsenal of
| democracy"
1t seems passing strange that the
Prime Minister who begged America to
| help save Britain is now limiting that
perhaps all this was done in order to