1940-11-14 — Page 7

And

unsevered from. their isolationist

past. Again, Senator Hiram. Johnson, who is senior Republican and so, if Wilkie won might have been head of the Senate Commit tee on Foreign Affairs, and Hamil ton Fish, who on party precedents would have become head of the - fuehrer Hitler does not

"London Bombed," "Milton's there will probably soon be some now. "We thought you'd go like House Committee on Foreign Af- now talk so much about, Church Destroyed" scream the expression of the swelling popular the Dutch and the Frenchies, fairs, are arch-isolationists. TO

headlines, but the biggest type sentiment for our fight.

they say, but we got it wrong, queries how Willkie could possi that are still the most im- was reserved for "Berlin Bomb-

and so did Hitler. Maybe you'il ed." There is no neutrality in

The British visitor now finds beat him." It is only here and by carry out the "aid for Britain" portant allies of violence, the faces as they read the war fewer commiserating glances from there you hear someone say that policy of his acceptance, speech the most formidable ene-punctilious

news, and when you turn to the new acquaintances. The average "it's time we helped you," but when there were few signs of the

correctness, of the American after the fall of France when that is said It is said with mies of order and free-leaders in most of the papers ex- pressing surprise, even indigna- dom.

tion, because the British an- nouncements and German an- nouncements of air victories and

A reminder of this is losses do not square it seems very afforded by a letter writ-odd indeed. The German com- muniques usually come out, before ten by a French officer to the British, so the day usually begins badly here with the Ger-

characteristic American emphasis. Republican party's coming into It was a tremendous relief to those line with him, his friends replied of the Republican party who were rather cynically that these leaders all for aid to England when, in

spite of JAMES BONE heads, Wilkie was so surprisingly rent and responding to events and

the bosses and party are swinging in the popular cur→ selected as the Republican cardi-would accept Willkie's full pro date for President, as he took the same stand as Roosevelt on that gramme. issue.

Any picture of the United States would not be complete that did not include some instances of discouragement.

an American, and print-man stories and claims holding did not think we had a dog's-

the front page, but as the day certainly not a bulldog's-chance. But they had to face the ap- ed in the "New York goes on and the British reports In the delectable city of Baltimore parition behind Willkie of McNary, Times." A very few words ments and corrections of the Ger- some questioning before they will Vice-Presidency,

arrive with the British achieve people are very polite and take the Republican, candidate for the who succeeded in this letter explain the man stories thes last edition is talk, but from shopmen and clerks in leaving people in doubt whe- usually the most heartening. So and mechanics I have had the ther he supported Wilkie or not

At a luncheon in Detroit, where strange behaviour of the far I have not seen any buttons same answer: that we were in on this issue, and other leaders, I found many warm friends of

with "Up England" on them, but pretty bad case,.but it is different Dewey, Taft and Vanderberg, stili Britain, Frerich

some of them working. Government in

incessantly for active intervention, the days just before its

I was placed next to one of its armistice with the Third

(leading journalists. I was an- xious at the time to clear up the -Reich, and indeed, ever

constitutional position about the since. Why was the

over-age destroyers and asked French Navy not kept be-

help on the point. Very deliber-

As the campaign in the inhos-

ately came a reply to the effect yond the reach of the'

that never since the Atlantic pitable region of North East Nazis? Why was the naval Africa develops the environmental

Ocean met the Pacific Ocean had there been a man like That Man at the White House. Anything more despicable, more dishonest, Also within this fringe more disruptive of all that was are found the farming colonists

w

4

Desert As A Factor

advantages are, for the time be-

In

By

Strategy

battle of Oran necessary ing at least, on the ride of the between erstwhile friends? defending forces. Egypt and Why has France shown a Ethiopia, strongholds of British and Italian power respectively, are willingness to capitulate cach enclosed and largely isolated to the enemies of freedom from the continental interior by in Berlin and in Tokyo,

great stretches of desert or poor Walter Fitzgerald scrubland where and yet mustered a bit-army would find it impossible-to ter capacity for resistance live on the country. So far each to the just claims of the of these strongholds has proved

an invading

received.

from Southern Italy, who, to the best, &c. It was like a page from number of about 50,000, have Dickens's caricature of a remote been planted, at tremendous ex- America. Twice again I sought to pense, in the last few years.

Routes Across The

Libyan Desert

get from my professional col- leagues the destroyer question straightened out, but each time it was the same what was the, good The narrow but comparatively of discussing any international fertile northern margin of Libya question or to expect anything to be easily defensible, if we ex- Italian rule over Ethiopia has not provides the obvious route with right to be done so long defender of its own free-cept sporadic air-raiding on both

I uch affected

strategical the most abundant supplies of situation because of the enemy's water, for an dom, Great Britain?

army moving on as the government of the United complete dependence on the home Egypt, but its maritime position States was in the hands of the

und all war material. No part of opportunity of hammering its

To quote directly from the published version:

sides.

4

throughout the

Italy's Weak Points

the

permit Ethiopia has been too recent to sert. Between the oases stretch said openly that the

ment.

and

two main the

of the enormous distances invol- thern ved. From the main Italian would be from Jaghbub to Siwa,

and their rapid victory over the miles wide between the Libyan blockade by Britain, and

the teeth of a relentless.naval |proximately 500 miles.

the

President's

In this war, as in those of the country for reinforcements of men would give the British flest full most unparalleled. lot of crooks Because some French-

past which have involved the Italian Africa - produces, even in lines of communication. Conse- and bunglers who ever disgraced, men were more ready to Mediterranean Basin, the Lower time of peace, sufficient food and quently the enemy's strategy docs &c., &c. It is a not negligible.

other commodities for the re- not rule out one or two alter part of tho Nile Valley offers. take whatever

richest sident European

well-to-do Middle comfort

population; vir-native routes farther south, in the West and the East which thinks territorial prize. A victorious tually everything must be brought desert proper and outside the like that, although most would the Nazis would allow Power would not merely gain across the Mediterranean, and range of naval guns,

not express it so naively. Every them, even at the price of control of the only land in North particularly is this true of petrol,

coal, and manufactured goods. of All routes to the Nile are de-thing That Man does, they say, is East Africa capable--because of all types. The Italian Empire was pendent upon the liberty and self-respect,

oases which tainted; there is a double motive adequate water supplies-of in-until 1936 an empire of desert occur but rarely throughout the behind what seem his most sen than to continue to stand tense cultivation

only, and the annexation of sandy and waterless Libyan De-sible acts. Many senators have with whatever remaining entire year, but would also do

of any important vast areas of sand-dune a terrain approval of the course charted for. power they had against a minate the canal-and-sea route agricultural or industrial develop which provides the hardest pos- the refuge ship American Legion predatory and tyrannical to the Indian Ocean, thereby

sible going for an army, and, be--it turned out that the American cause the going would be slow, naval experts had approved the -foe. This is the answer to strangling the British sea-way to Italy finds that her air fleet water would have to be carried course-was deliberately done by

the President so that cannot solve her geographical In the cases of

the ship be found in the French the Far East.

and the re problem. Transport 'planes are routes the distances between the should be sunk officer's letter.

of little use for the carriage of oases are excessive for a large, ugees killed and that, as a result, heavy military equipment in view heavily equipped army. The nor-the United States would enter the

war! most feasible way Fortunately the enemy's posi- tion is weakened by the wide bases on the coast of Libya to just inside the desert frontier of It must be realised that there is separation from each other of the Addis Ababa, capital of Italian Egypt, and then on by various nothing in British politics in mo- The two thoughts that might two groups of Italian colonies,

| East Africa, nearly 2,000 miles possible tracks to reach the Niledern times that helps us to un- have made it possible to resign and the

have to be traversed. Add to this | downstream from Assiut. · The derstand the bitterness and sus- Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, the dimculties ourselves to the catastrophe, !

of transporting distance from the Libyan frontierpicion among the majority of the good will of the Germans interposes a wedge nearly 900 supplies from Italy to Libya in to the Nile by this route is ap-business Americans against Pre

But some of sident Roosevelt. English, both seem to be with- and Ethiopian frontiers. More-reinforcement. of armies in Italian

these critics, unlike my Detroit out foundation.

Another route, at the outset friend, put the fight against Hitler over, the recent extension of East Africa is seen to be a vir-mote difficult because less. ac and the protection of democracy tual impossibility. Ethiopia is cessible than the first from the first. An anti-New Dealer in besleged, and its Italian garrison maritime bases of Libya, is pro- Cleveland, for instance, wrote to will be starved out unless Mus- vided with fewer cases, so that me before the Republican' Con-

the waterless stretches are longer.vention to say that if his party; cording French disap-to-day. The French offi-solini is able to conquer Egypt. If it were used by an Italian put up a candidate with the slight- pointment with the way cer's letter discloses the Meanwhile the attack

as seems rather unlikely, est suspicion of isolationism he' things have gone since moral bankruptcy to Nile Valley hangs fire, and the the great Kufara group of oases, and thousands of Republicans the German occupation

which this temptation can aclay is attributable to the diffi- formerly the headquarters of the would "hold their noses and vote

culties which geography imposes, powerful Senussi confederation, for Roosevelt.". of France. It speaks of bring one not only to Given the British Navy's supre- and 500 miles from the Libyan

the Eastern Mediter- coast, would provide the starting- Another body of opinion that is current "systematic pill- the surrender of one's own macy in

ranean which is now assured point. From there the nearest equally unsatisfactory to us is a age and the reviving rights but to a willing- the Italian army in Libya, cer- Egyptian onsis within Egypt is quickly decreasing group which hope of most of the now ness, no, an eagerness, to tainly not less than a quarter of a Dakhla, over 400 miles away, and thinks that aid to Britain may be million strong, cannot be regularly this distance would be virtually throwing away good weapons, for disillusioned French peo- see other defenders of supplied from Italy. Its very size Impossible except for a lightly we may not be able to hold out

a burden. Being intended armed ralding force..

long. This argument has been ple that they will "be lib-those rights quickly de-is

used about the destroyers. "Shów mainly for offensive action, it is erated.

**feated. The Axis may too large for garrison purposes. Our argument has considered us you can hold Hifler," they say. boast a new ally, but the only, yet as soon as it moves only the physical difficulties con-It is being admitted by some of The French are not post holds no such das-castwards towards Egypt its pro- ironting an Italian offensive ads them now that Britain is holding blems of supply are multiplied. venture. We have not taken into him, but the slogan sugrested for alone in having harbour-gers as those voiced by a

account the strength of the Anglo- this group is "It's too early to help ed moral enemies within. friend of free men in is irrcclaimable

Much the greater part of Libya Egyptian defending forces. Yet Britam all it's too late to help desert, and its that strength is likely to growBritain." It is still too soon to Individuals everywhere France who has seen an-vast size on the map must not de- until by Its vory counter-offensive say whether the swing of public have to face the tempta- other sort of ally take ceive us as to its small economic power the Italian attempt would opinion which one seems to dis- tion to escape the trial over his own country for there is concentrated within the overseas and trans-desert. com- United States taking some little that confronts free men aggressors.

The italics. explain so much. This is a letter- re-

on the army,

the

value.. Italian military power be doomed, even if the enemy's cern everywhere. towards

narrow-Mediterranean-fringe munications

more secure risk in her aid to Britain has yet where a mall winter rainfall, is than they actually are.

reached a sticking-point."

were