Newspapers / Hot Off the Hoover … / Oct. 1, 1943, edition 1 / Page 13
Part of Hot Off the Hoover Rail / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
Hoover Rail Dear Sirs; Have been reading the papers lately and would like to protest, as a soldier, a- gainst the hotheaded and cocksure Anti-British spirit now grovdng in this country. It seems to have started vdth the Globe-trotting of five Senators who, on their return, have been howling because Britians War Budget is 21 billions of dollars, while ours is over 100 billions and because oil is being produced on British possessions in the Far East, ivhich they feel is not being properly utilized in the V/ar Effort, Curtiss fighter pLanes have been delivei'ed to Turkey with British labels pasted over American labels, and last, but not least, many Araericans feel disillusioned because Churchill has said that he "did not talce'office to preside over the liquidation of the British empire". It is obvious that relations between the two countries are -not perfect rnd never will be. V7e have different methods of doing business and different ideas about many things, but to let these differences interfere with the prosecution of the War and the formation of a just peace is silly. It is worse than silly - It is asinine, • One of the most ticklish points is Lendlease. Some of our people expect pajment, cash in full, some, partial payment in intangibles, like trade concessions and bases, and some argue that we are merely pulling our load in the x’jar and should expect no re~ payment. It is hard to determine what is just, but an interesting side-light is fur nished by t.n incident that happened in the last war between the French ?iid the United Strteo, They wanted to charge us with transportation of /anerican troops in France, We indignantly refused to pay, sajdng that we were fi^^iting this war for France, as ;vell as ourselves, and that they should be glad to transport us as a just contribution to the war effort. Our position then, is En.'^.iand’s position now, ?jid one must admit it is not without merit, . • As to the differences in our War Budgets, several factors must be considered, one is that England's population is only million against our 130 million, a ratio of three to one. Also our Service Men and War Workers make about two and one half tir.es as much as Englaiids. Of course things cost about twice as much over here, but still Britain is diverting as large a percentage of income and manpower to the ria.r effort as wo are. In fact their n?.npower mobilization goes farther, with a greater percentage of men in the armed forces, and their women registered and liable between ccrtain ages, to draft, in both the services and industry. As to the oil situation, every tanicer must be fully utilized, ?nd the shortest and best protected route to- the European battle-front has been from the East Coast of the United States. Hovjever, plans arc under v/ay to use a greater proportion of the oil pi>oduced by Britain's possessions. As regards the Curtiss Fighter planes with British labels, the most that can be charged is a little overworlcing of the trading instinct. Lendlease is to be distrib uted by the most convenient means, Britain'had quite a few Curtiss P-/pO's, v/hich, Trvliile good against Japs or Italian fighters, and unprotected bombers, are not up to snuff against Geniian fighters. So it v;as natural that after the fall of Italy, these pL.mcs would be distributed to Turkey under Lendlease rather thaii bring more from the United States, And in a v/ay the label v;as correct since the P-/.0'c have long been in British hands -?jnd are .supposedly British property. Even so, it is improbable that the Turks do not !now that the Curtiss fighters were made ori, i:.*ally in the United States, ■ ' ' . • Many people express rerret And polite indignation, because Churchill does not propose to liquidate the British Empire. Tfell I, for one, would hate to see Britain with no overseas bases or sources of supply. Think v/hat-'a predicament the "ti^it little isles" would have been in, in '39 and 'A-0 \vith no African bases and no access to men f:nd supplies overseas. I'Vhere would the Fi’ee French have fou^^t without Brit- » ain's African possessions? Vi/here ivould Rommel be today? However, since this country is being controlled more and more by bureaucrats, visionarys' end men \dth "Leftist" ideas, who would distribute our money and goods haphazardly over the world - perhaps the Senators did us a sei^ice by waking us up. Tlie State Departments give-away attitude coupled vdth promises of future American bounty, which we cani^ot possibly fulfil will put us in bad with small countries the (Continued on next page)
Hot Off the Hoover Rail
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Oct. 1, 1943, edition 1
13
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75