NEWS OF THE WEEK
,WE have worked to avoid shooting. But shooting has started." Thus President Roosevelt in his Navy Day speech on Monday, in which he declared that Americans have taken their battle-stations to defend the " freedom of the seas" challenged by Hitler in his repeated attacks on United States vessels. Hence- forward the American Navy shoots at sight when it encounters Nazi warships. It is the logic of events, the force of the evidence of Nazi designs against the western world, that has brought America to the point where she now stands, though Mr. Roosevelt was able to divulge a plan affording yet more damning evidence of German projects in America—Hitler's secret map of South and Central America as he proposes to reorganise it. The President will not be disturbed by the silly charge of " dictator " brought against him by the official Italian news agency, for if ever a democratic statesman moved prudently, keeping his finger on the pulse of public opinion, refusing to go beyond it, though leading with eloquent interpretations and warnings, it has been Mr. Roosevelt during all the fateful months of awakenment. He has reason to be gratified by the reception given to his speech in the American Press and the angry comments of Berlin and Tokyo. One Japanese newspaper described it as " the equivalent of a declaration of war against Germany." It is at least true that the American Navy is now in action against the German pirates, and President Roosevelt now feels himself strong enough to put the whole force of his advocacy behind the removal of the restrictions on American shipping in war zones. If Congress, as is now probable, accepts this more drastic revision of the Neutrality Act, the. United States will then be doing everything on the side of the Allies which her present state of preparedness makes possible.
