America Uneasy Public opinion in the United States is considerably
im- pressed by President Roosevelt's declaration that the whole of the next Budget must be reconsidered in the light of the new requirements for national defence. The question naturally arises, Defence of what and against whom ? The answer to the second part of that is, against the totalitarian States, primarily Germany and Japan ; and to the first, of South America rather than of the soil of the United States, which could hardly be seriously menaced. Recent events in Europe have convinced America that she is less isolated than she believed, and though the defeat of the democracies at Munich undoubtedly damaged them in American eyes, the danger represented by a dictator who backs his demands by mobilisation and a threat to march has more than counter- balanced that. There is, moreover, abundant evidence of Nazi activity in Latin America—the Brazilian Government has just requested the recall of the German Ambassador on that account—and a spy-trial in which the German Govern- ment is openly arraigned is in progress in New York. There are no signs that the United States contemplates or would consent to any form of active co-operation with the European democracies at this moment, but none the less she is clearly resolved to put herself in a position in which her co-operation, if circumstances ever necessitated it, would be rapid and effective.
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