BRITISH B&1BASSY, WASHINGTON, D. C March Lipth> 1939 287 My Lord, Z have the honour to inform lour Lordship r7" that the bill referred to in paragraph 4 of Mr. Mallet's despatch No. 214 s of February 10th, authorising the expenditure of ^358,000,000 on the Amy wee passed by the senate on March 7th by 77 Votes to 8. This bill provides for 423,750,000 being spent on improving the defences of the Canal Zone and $34,500,000 on placing educational orders with the American armaments firms. The remaining $300,000,000 is to be devoted to increasing the number of military aircraft. The House had fixed 5500 aa the limit to which the total number of aircraft might be expanded - thus permitting an increase over present figures of approximately 3000 - but as explained in paragraph 7 of my despatch fto* 263 S of March 2nd the Senate Military Affairs Committee recommended that this figure be increased to 6000. The main interest in the Senate debate centred on whether or not this recommendation would be adopted, since it was generally admitted that there would be little serious opposition to the bill as a whole. In the end the senate decided to increase the limit to 6000 by 54 votes to 38. The Senate also added an amendment to the bill limiting the profits of the manufacturers of the military aircraft to be acquired to 10& The bill has now/ The Right Honourable The Viscount Halifax, K.G • 9 etc RC L : VALM :.PRHM : T)H MW returned to ittft House for consideration of the Senate's amendments* 2. The debate on the Till! in the Senate lasted for seven days and consisted in the main of a somewhat desultory discussion on foreign affairs. Very few of the speakers attempted to deny that the Administration's rearmament plans wars Justified in principle - though as indicated above several Individuals were doubtful of the necessity of increasing the maximum figure from 5500 aircraft to 6000 - and the main concern of the Senators was to attack or defend the President's foreign policy. 3. The arguments advanced by the opposition followed familiar lines. Senator Yandonberg opened the attack on February 38th by complaining of the absence of any clear indication as to what the Administration's foreign policy really was and warned his hearers that if the object of increasing the armed forces of the United States was to use them in order to enable this country to act as the arbiter of the world, there was a grave danger that this country might find itself involved in war. It was> he asserted, the height of folly to imagine that the United States could "thrust themselves into foreign quarrels and mould alien destiny by methods 'short of war**. There was no such thing "as a partial Interference in the quarrels of other nations which can dependably stop 'short of war'". Senator Vandenberg was naturally supported by the inveterate Isolationists Senators Nye, Johnson and Clark of Missouri. Senator Nye while renewing hie attack on the recent supply of aircraft to the French Government went •0/ so far as to declare that the United States Government by encouraging the democracies to stand up to the dictatorships was running the risk of incurring the responsibility for any war that might break out * a statement far which ha was hotly attacked by the Democrat Senator Lucas who denounced it as likely to "do more to drag this nation into the zone of war hysteria than any utterance made by a responsible man in public life", senator Johnson warned the country against the attempts which ho alleged were now being made by "insidious propaganda" to induce the United States to intervene In matters which did not concern them and declared that America must have no commitments or understandings by which *we might be taken into the vortex of war or by which we could be taken into the controversies of Kurope"• Senator Clark took much the same tine and denounced the Administration's desire to rearm in order, as ho put it* to "brandish our fists in the faces of other nations and thumb our noses at any other power in the world"* 4. On the other hand the bill was warmly defended by many speakers on the Government side and also by some Republicans* Senator Austin of Vermont, for example• reminded tho Senators that whether they liked it or not, tho United States were "inextricably mixed up with world polities" but said that ho failed to aeo anything in the bill to indicate* as tho isolationists insinuated, that the President was about to embark on a policy of aotive intervention in European affaire. He for his part was satisfied that tho Administration's rearmament plans were Justified* Senator/ Senator Log en, a Democrat, went much farther and after arguing that the present neutrality legislation should be emended since In hie view it served to encourage the dictator states In their campaign against the democracies, declared that if he were responsible for directing the foreign policy of the country* he would furnish the United Kingdom and France with everything they needed for a defensive war* Several ether speakers supported the bill on its merits and indicated that they thought the feare of the isolationist group greatly exaggerated, 5« Finally winding up for the Administration on March 7th Senator Barkley made a general defence of the President*s foreign policy, which ha declared was a policy inspired both by the desire for peace and by the desire to defend and protect democracy. The United States had no desire to intervene in Europe or in Asia but "when by the confluence of influences and the convergence of authority and tendencies, our own democracy, our civilisation, not only within the bounds of the United states but within the Western Hemisphere are endangered, the American people are not so cowardly or supine as to take no note of these circumstances and te defend the rights and traditions of our people and our Ration" * He reminded the Senate that the defeat ef the United Kingdom or France at the hands of some other European power might well vitally affect the defence of tills country end that suoh a possibility could not be disregarded in considering the matter of American rearmament• But the President, he declared, had no intention ef dragging the country into war* on the/ the contrary It was his policy to pursue a course "which would not only preserve peace in the western Heni sphere, but may asks some contribution to the preservation of peace in other parts of the world*** 6. This long debate on foreign policy has naturally resuscitated public interest in the neutrality legislation and has led to speculation as to the President's intentions in the natter. During the soars* of the Senate discussion, twelve Senators, including Messrs* Rye, Champ Clark and La follstts, tabled a resolution, more or less on the lines of the Ludlow Resolution, providing that save in the ease of an attack on the United States, war should only ho declared after aueh a course had been approved by a national referendum. Mr. Cordell Ball lost no time in condemning this proposal on constitutional grounds in an official statement released by the State Department and the "Washington Times-Herald", the "Philadelphia inquirer" and the °2few York Time©1' all supported his action* The last paper however suggested that the notion of the twelve senators showed the necessity of the Government "clarifying In simple terms" its whole foreign policy. 7* A somewhat similar demand for a clarification of the Government1 a foreign policy was contained in a letter addressed to the "New York Times" on March 6th by Mr* Stlmson, the former Secretary of State* A copy of this letter is enclosed herein from which it will bo seen that Mr* Stimson Called for a policy "of farsighted affirmative action"* Mr* Stimson made it elear that in his opinion it was impossible for the/ TIT^s flBU e^auas *M% uf sjtbjjb uSfaaoj no o^uqap Suox aq% UT* PTP IT s» Buxpxauxoa «Jta%*ax eqq. jo uonaaxxautf aqx •paq.aoddne Axi0****19*? 8T £8?TO& uBteaoj aAx^xsod pus aAT^enr^tjje aaora a «zoj aaxd sxq 's^uemnSjs sxq q^XJfc eaj9s aaq^aSo^x® aaa<5ad aqq. 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