Bombers for Britain?

WAR & PEACE

No man has a keener feeling for the popular mood than Franklin Roosevelt. His dramatic destroyer-bases deal was received with cheers that drowned out criticism of the secret and questionable method by which it was carried out. Last week signs were not lacking that once again the President might be planning a coup to be justified later by expediency.

Before Franklin Roosevelt makes a bold stroke, he likes to know how it will hit the U. S. Last week various unofficial feelers poked the U. S. in the ribs. Playing on its one theme, William Allen White's Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies crusaded up & down the land. In Chicago it held a mass meeting of 14,000 people, to whom Admiral William H. Standley (U. S. N. retired) declared: "We should throw more and more ships, air planes, munitions . . . into democracy's fight against Hitlerism." The White Com mittee, which pounded home the idea of sending 50 destroyers to help England on the seas, last week proposed sending 25 Army Boeing Flying Fortresses, mighty bombers with a 3,000-mile cruising radius, to help England in the air.

In the Senate. Oklahoma's silver-tongued Josh Lee, who had urged the destroyer deal, and often says what Frank lin Roosevelt wants spoken, cried again: "England's critical need is not for men but for ships, planes and supplies. . . . There fore, I call upon the President to make available to England . . . flying fortresses, bombers, fighting planes and warships." Wailed Isolationist Senator Bennett Clark of Missouri: "If the British ask the President they will get the flying fortresses . . . and almost anything else they want."

It seemed last week that the U. S. was almost ready to give England "anything else they want." Polling the nation, Dr. George Gallup found that 52% of U. S. citizens now favored helping England win, even at the risk of getting into the war.

At week's end, Secretary of War Stimson hinted that "diplomatic steps" were being taken to assure adequate defense for the "southern anchor" of the new Atlantic defense line. Rumors flew that negotiations with The Netherlands Gov ernment in London were under way for base sites in Dutch Guiana. Curagao. It looked as if President Roosevelt might be getting ready to step from the wings with an announcement.

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