THE UNITED STATES AND MUNICH
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—I have recently returned to England after a visit of seven weeks to the United States, part of which I spent in driving across the country from San Francisco to Virginia. I was therefore specially interested in the letter from Mr. Philip Noakes which appeared in your issue of January 6th.
My experience certainly confirms Mr. Noakes's opinion that " our stock on the other side of the Atlantic has slumped since Munich." The hostile minority, whose cry has always been that British policy was one of selfish opportunism devoid of any moral basis, now turns round in triumph with " We told you so "; and the forces working for isolation in America are correspondingly strengthened. The friendly majority is, I think, honestly bewildered. They cannot believe that a policy which appears to consist of a series of one-sided concessions is capable of achieving any satisfactory peace. Nor can they share the confidence in the good intentions of Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini which is implicit in Mr. Chamberlain's public utterances.
I was in New York on the night of Mr. Eden's speech and heard it broadcast. It seemed to me significant that the passage which received the warmest applause was that in which the speaker reasserted the belief of the British people in their democratic principles and their determination to fight, if necessary, to preserve them. There was relief in that applause —relief at having some direct evidence of British vigour to set off against the long record of British weakness. This impres- sion was confirmed by remarks which I heard from individual Americans afterwards.
Most of us would probably agree with Mr. Noakes in think- ing that American opinion has frequently been inconsistent in its criticism of British policy. But he is surely a little sweep- ing in his charges. Some Americans may have believed in the past that " the dictators' bluff could and should be called by all or any democracies other than the United States." But they are rapidly ceasing to believe it now. If every American were determined to remain inactive, President Roosevelt would scarcely have delivered the recent vigorous message to Con- gress in which he suggested revision of the United States neutrality legislation coupled with economic action against aggressors. Can we say that the present British Government has gone one-tenth as far?
Mr. Noakes also represents Americans as believing that " America cannot join Great Britain or any other democracies in anything like a League of Nations or Collective Security System because through these entanglements the risk of war would be too great to justify to the American people." But surely that question does not arise today. Was it not Mr. Chamberlain himself who administered the coup de grace to " collective security " by describing it as a hopeless myth, at any rate for a long time to come? And is a transaction such as the Munich Agreement likely to encourage a belief in the collective system among the American people?
My own conclusion is that a rapid and profound change of opinion has recently occurred in America, and that the ordinary American is becoming intensely aware of his country's vital concern with world affairs. The enormous moral effect of the Nazi persecution of the Jews has perhaps been the primary cause; but this has been given sharp practical point by the revelation of German and Italian manoeuvres in South America, which has instilled into even the most isolationist American a most salutary sense of insecurity. Far from ignor- ing, as Mr. Noakes implies, the progress of German and Italian penetration in South America, the Americans talk about it all the time. During my visit the papers were full of long reports on the subject.
Mr. Noakes ends his letter by describing the Americans as " political asses." I will end mine by saying how depressing it is to return to England and find so little of the effort towards understanding which is needed on both sides if we are to achieve that co-operation with America which must always be a cardinal aim of our policy.--Yours faithfully,
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