AMERICA IN ARMS
By ERWIN D. CANHAM
By Air Mail. AMERICA is now drinking its share of the bitter tea brewed in these words: " Too little and too late." We, too, are having a slow start. Or, rather, the disadvantages of treacherous surprise, of geography and of less than first-class army and navy planning are now giving us our moments of remorse—and of determination. Perhaps our military and naval balance may improve before this article reaches England ; perhaps the Japanese submarines sinking tankers and shelling lifeboats— very unskilfully—off the coast of California will have paid a big toll. Perhaps we shall have relieved Wake Island. Perhaps our Pacific Fleet will score a genuine and big success against the Japanese. Perhaps our situation in the Philippines will not be so desperate.
But these things are far from certain. Rather we all realise that we may face a long struggle, and it may be a bitter, desperate road back across the Pacific to the Philippines, Hong Kong and Singapore. Indeed, the treading of that sea-highway may have to wait until Hitler is beaten. For, much as we would like to teach the Japanese a speedy lesson, we are not going to make the mistake of helping Hitler out into the Atlantic. There is now no perceptible demand in Congress or among the people to weaken our Atlantic efforts in the least, although we hope desperately that enough ships and supplies may be spared to save Singapore and the Philippines. We know that Europe is more important. And this knowledge is probably the saving feature of the entire world-situation. It should keep us from possibly suicidal selfishness.
Until we are able to make a better showing against the Japanese, however, we shall not feel very well. We are like the sleepy giant who has not yet got his right arm free, but is being hurt rather badly by a pestiferous little fellow. These wounds cannot destroy us, while Britain stands, but they can sting us into furious action. That is the stage we are about to reach. just at this moment we are still somewhat dazed by the sudden attack, we have not realised the meaning of the defeats we have suffered, and there is too much of " business as usual," simply because the authorities have not quite organised the machinery of war-effort. But the American people are ready to do any- thing they are called upon to do. There are abundant signs that the call will not be long in coming. Priority-shortages of materials are already cutting deep into all non-essential busi- nesses, big and little. We are spending astronomical sums daily on the war. We have passed legislation for registration and conscription which could lead to an ultimate army of 40,000,000 men. These are our reservoirs of strength, and we have just begun to fight. As long as Britain' and Russia stand there is possibility of defeat, but the assurance of ultimate victory ba on America's vast resources.
This genuine assurance of victory may, of course, expedi the result beyond the material factors. But Americans are counting on good fortune any longer. They are ready for t worst surprises, and are prepared to meet them with Ca cold, furious determination. The very best in the Ameri character seems to be coming steadily to the surface. EI when we thought that the larger part of our fleet had be sunk at Pearl Harbour, there was no trace of defeatism amo us, no sign of panic. Nobody suggested the magnitude of sacrifice before us, nobody counted the cost. When the Pace and Atlantic coasts had air-raid alarms, with semi-official mat ments of the presence of enemy planes (false reports along Atlantic, apparently false along the Pacific), no appreciable p of the citizenry in our great, relatively unprotected cities show the least alarm. They set about learning how to behave und. bombardment. The news of the loss of great ships and bra men brought no dismay or discouragement, but a calm unity, thronging of the naval recruiting-stations, and a sense of civil obligation. In many cases, fathers and sons volunteered I naval service side by side on the days when naval losses we announced.
As far as we can see, 99 out of too of the formerly disside elements have come patriotically and zealously into the unifi national effort. Considerable numbers of enemy-aliens ha been rounded up, and other groups suspected of subversi connexions have been arrested. But many aliens, and in pa titular our native-born Japanese, are seeking in many touch) ways to prove their devotion to our democracy. If this freed' for which we are fighting has any meaning we must believe and all the evidence would persuade us. to believe—in the since truth of these outpourings. So far, no provable instance enemy-instigated sabotage has been announced. " We're sure. said the editor of the New Yorker magazine, " that a lot of ye unpleasant things still lie ahead of us, but we doubt if anythi can be much more unpleasant than the uncertainty, frustrati' and bitterness that lay between Munich and Manila. On whole we'd say we feel much better now."
Indeed, the nation does feel better. We were thrilled at t Churchill visit. Not at its diplomatic aspects ; none of believe much in agreements and formulas any more. But are deeply interested in efficient military action. We realise t a united battle-plan is of supreme value, that productive effL must be allocated to the best advantage, and that our strength v lie in our ability to co-ordinate. America wants to know t we are actually producing the goods, that they get to the la places and are used to best advantage by able military m• sensibly directed. We have had enough of fumbling ; we ho the time is not far away when—as in Libya—the Allied fort• can fight with an equality of weapons. We will support an. thing that will do away with false confidence—the false co fidence that led to the catastrophe at Pearl Harbour and in so of our other losses, as well as at Hong Kong and Singapore. V(' know, of course, that not simply false confidence but she• physical inability to provide better fighting-forces was a ba. cause. But we wish now to arise above this physical inabili: and if our man-power and material resources will not provi the answer we will demand explanations. In short, American mood is in readiness for all the sacrifices that required, if only they lead to results.
Many times during the last two years these dispatches ha speculated upon and analysed possible ways of American en' into the war. But not in their most sanguine hypotheses they outline a method which could have been so n and proper as the way it happened. I never believed we wo enter by way of an " incident." But Pearl Harbour was mu' more than an incident. It was a blow at our vitals. Had Japanese struck at the Philippines some of those who for y have urged us to give up the islands might have spoken But the covert stab-in-the-back united America as it has so een united in modern times—certainly much more effectively an in 1917-18. And then Hitler, by declaring war on us, ompleted the job. No cosmic puppeteer, looking out for the terests of free men in this world of peril, could have managed ur entrance into the war with greater fitness. Nothing could ave done the Axis cause more harm in the long run than their ethod of provoking our entry. Japan could not have com- itted hara-kiri with more effectiveness. Every detail, from anila to Berlin, served to arouse, unify, infuriate and steel mericans. "Aid to Britain" automatically passes from the nguage. In defending ourselves we fight humanity's battle ay. We are prepared for whatever lies ahead.
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