Couldn't keep my eye
on the ball to-day!"
“Never mind, you can tell
this whisky blindfold”
THE CHINA MAIL, MAY 28, 1940.
WHAT AMERICA IS
THINKING NOW
The Americans recognise it that America could afford to face the
as "total War." The entire top half of the front pages of the afternoon papers on my desk are filled with headlines -big, black, urgent, alarm- ed.
possibility of a German defeat of the Allies and was in a position to defend its democracy against any assault by any possible combination of victorious totalitarian Powers, or on the thesis herself to be so isolated in a hostile
that America could not afford to allow
world but must
prepare to
against such isolation.
* ✡
insure
Again, as in the first War Crisis Days, bulletins are breaking into the radio pro- The first thesis has been rejected. It was rejected months ago by Pre- grammes: Boys outside are sident Roosevelt and his advisers. He shouting "War Extra," could not then say what he was doing against the rattle of the Ele-as plainly as he doubtless wished to vated and the ragged sounds say it, because the American people, of New York's traffic.
My colleague in Washington phones, at erratic intervals: "The lid's blown off." He says: "The President's been up all night. . He's still talking to Hull and Welles and the rest."
✡
*
✡
Comment and reaction come in. A Senator says: "We must keep our shirt on," and adds the helpless cliche of the last six months-"It's not our war." A Congressman hopefully talks of a quick German defeat. find
Another says: "If they overrun Europe; they'll be here next-we must spend millions of re-arming."
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The millions of gallons of finest Scotch whisky matured and maturing ensure that the quality of White Horse never varies.
WHITE HORSE
WHISKY
Unhappy confused talk-and angry talk. "Nothing save honour and shame stood in Hitler's way." "The invasion touches the very depths of infamy."
And the American people — the wives in the suburbs, the farmers and working folk in the cities, the house-
storekeepers and little folk away out in the West are hearing and reading and talking, and wondering what it is going to mean for them.
*
**
*
There's not much time at this mo- ment for subtlety. The British must be asking. Will America come in now? If the question means: Will the
expeditionary force and send it to Europe, will it send the Navy or the Air Force, will it fight?
Sole Agents for South China: JARDINE MATHESON AND COMPANY LTD. United States declare war, raise an
REGIMENTAL BADGE BROOCHES. "SECOND TO NONE IN THE ORIENT”
THE
H.K.V.D.C. BADGE BROOCH
GOLD & ENAMEL
Obtainable at
"
" FÀLCONERS
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TELEPHONE
EAT AT
Jimmy's Kitchen
INEXPENSIVE SATISFYING
Bringing Up Father
THERE GOES SENATOR. KENNY DRINKALOTT-YOU RUN AHEAD AND FOLLOW HIM-AND IF YOLJ GET A CHANCE - SPEAK TO HIM-
ILL FOLLOW YOU-
YOU ALWAYS DQ-
1 SUPPOSE HE'S ON HIS WAY TO THE CAPITOL- I WONDER IF HES. GONNA WALK ALL THE WAY?
22143
The answer may be "no," or not for some time, or not right away, But if it means: Will America help the Al- lies to defeat Germany, the answer I now think is "yes," for this is Total War and America is in it.
Will the British people remember that this is a nation of brave immi- grants from Europe who came across the Atlantic and faced all manner of] dangers and hardships, and worked gigantically to build up a new con- tinent where they could live in peace? Will, the British remember that the American people have always, all through their history, been trying to isolate themselves from Europe's wars, that their present policy is utterly consistent with their policy from the very beginning, and that, if they are now faced with the knowledge that world forces have been too much for them, and they have failed to win what they have, struggled after So long, it is reason for sympathy and understanding, not for rejoicing.
United States policy had, from the first, to be based either on the thesis
JIGGS!
-By- Robert Waithman
for
showing the effect not only of the his- toric belief in, and the prayer isolation, but also of twenty years of intense propaganda against any sort of involvement in Europe, were utter- ly in the dark (as, for so long, the British people were) on the nature of the peril that was creeping upon them.
President Roosevelt, knowing what the American people did not know and could only know when they had found it out for themselves, has been right-right when he asked for the re- peal of the Arms Embargo which Con- gress refused until the war had begun; right when, in the phrase: "Methods
short of war," he outlined the means
the United States would have to adopt to help to insure against a German victory and, most of all, right in re- cognising that the majority of the American people would soon reach a point of wanting him to do what he was doing ahead of them. դ.
.
America is in the war because, in Total War, she must be either in or out and she can't afford to be out.
This realisation is not general among the people. It is being deli- berately delayed by the leaders of both the dominant political parties. The Presidential election has to be fought in November this year, and neither of the parties is willing to ad- dress the people plainly and honestly because of the risk that they would be labelled "War Party," if they did.
So there exists now what Walter Lippman has just called "The Ameri- can Black-out"-the state (not so very dissimilar from the state which pre- vailed in England under Mr. Baldwin). in which the true understanding their position is being withheld from the people.
of
But since the Allied defeat in Nor- way they have been finding out for themselves and now, after to-day, the process of discovery will be accelerat- ed in spite of political silence, in spite of the election. The American people will discover why President Roosevelt has put the American Army's own newest aeroplanes at the disposal of the Allies, why he sent Ambassador Phillips to see Mussolini, why he has worked like a beaver in the last six months at methods short of war.
By George McManus
H