The American Senate and Neutrality
The fight on the arms embargo question in the United States is joined. An appeal for amendment of the existing Act was made by President Roosevelt in an admirable speech to the two Houses, in which he ascribed the same " honourable desire for peace " to supporters and opponents of the amendment equally ; admitted his regret that he had ever signed the Act ; and expressed his belief that the proposed amendments provided the best way to keep America out of war, and his conviction that America would in fact keep out of war. The Administration's amend- ments fall into two more or less distinct categories. Americans and American ships are to be kept so far as possible out of war areas and war credits are not to he granted to the belligerents. All this is aimed at avoiding entangling commitments, and is entirely acceptable to the isolationists. But with it is coupled abolition of the ban on the purchase of munitions by belligerent Powers, which the amendment would enable to buy arms in the ordinary way, provided they pay cash—or short 9o-day credits— for them and ship them in other than American bottoms. This, of course, is the battle-ground. Our Washington correspondent indicates on another page how the opposing forces are ranged. Since he wrote various computations have been published, suggesting that the Amending Bill will pass the Senate with a fair margin of safety, and the House is not likely to take a different line. It' would be idle to disguise the deep interest Great Britain and France must have in the decision of Congress, but we should have not the smallest ground for complaint if the decision were dis- appointing to us. America must shape her policy in her own way for her own reasons.
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