Mr. Cordell Hull's Declarations
The attitude of the United States on the war and post-war problems has never been declared as plainly and emphatically as it was by Mr. Cordell Hull, the Secretary of State, in his broadcast address on Sunday. His declaration, like every authoritative statement made in the United States recently, demonstrates the complete identity of British and American aspirations, particularly regarding economic and commercial relationships after the war. Everything that Mr. Cordell Hull said about them—and about German ambitions—could have been said by Mr. Churchill or Lord Halifax. "The safety of our nation and of every free nation is in mortal danger "— " the purpose of the aggressor" is to "secure control of the seas," a control which is "essential to the programme of world- domination "—these words of Mr. Cordell Hull contain the whole British thesis with regard to the war. On the subject of the Vichy Government, Mr. Hull spoke more drastically than Mr. Churchill has done. There is, perhaps, some con- solation for the new and great danger with which the policy pursued by Vichy threatens the British Empire, in the fact that this policy is doing almost as much as the actions of Germany are doing to draw the United States into ever closer association with Great Britain. Both President Roosevelt and Mr. Cordell Hull have made it clear that by coming under the control of the Axis the French Empire is a menace to the United States. M. Henri Haye, the French Ambassador, informed Mr. Cordell Hull that France would resist any attempt to take over part of her Empire, e.g., the occu- pation of Martinique—a clear demonstration of the tension between Vichy and Washington. President Roosevelt's clear indication that even Dakar must not be allowed to pass into the hands of the enemy shows that American naval action may not be confined to the western Atlantic or to convoying.
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