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From Socialist Appeal, Vol. IV No. 19, 11 May 1940, pp. 1 & 3.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
Rooseveltian secret diplomacy is working overtime at the job of preparing the entry of this country into the war.
Most of this activity never reaches the public prints. Some of it does and then only in the form of meager announcements and fulsome denials.
Most recent development of this kind was Roosevelt’s exchange last week with Mussolini. William Phillips, the U.S. ambassador in Rome, called on Ciano, the foreign minister, and later had a personal talk with Mussolini himself. On Friday this was paralleled here by an unusual interview between Roosevelt and Prince Colonna, the Italian ambassador at Washington.
To curious newspapermen at a press conference the next day, President Roosevelt said he was trying to prevent extension of the European conflict.
“That was all that he felt it was appropriate to reveal at this time,” added the New York Times account. But if any doubt were present as to the nature of the American move, the jubilation in the French press over it the next day cleared that up.
Just what did Phillips tell Mussolini and what did Roosevelt tell Colonna? Did they merely warn, as the papers would have it, that Italian entry would mean extension of the U.S. embargo to the Mediterranean? Or did they serve solemn notice on the Duce that his entry on Germany’s side would hasten American entry on the side of the Allies? Is Roosevelt playing with the lives of American youth in order to serve the ends of the jigsaw diplomatic games of his French and British friends?
Another recent glimpse of what is going on behind’ the scenes was vouchsafed to the people when W.L. Mackenzie King, the Canadian premier, paid what was called a “private” visit to Roosevelt, at Warm Springs and again at the White House. Roosevelt said he had a nice “social call” and then, according to the Herald Tribune, “he winked, as though to convey the idea that more than a nice social talk had taken place.”
Behind this heavy humor apparently lay also consultations that forebode 111 for the future. The Herald Tribune gave the following details of this “social” meeting:
“The United States and Canada are beginning to talk over their common defense problems in the light of the war in Europe and Asia. One important step toward improving these defenses is likely to be an early start toward construction of the much-discussed, long-delayed international highway through Canada to link Canada with its Alaska territory ... From other sources It was learned that the two men had discussed the grave world crisis in relation to the pledge given by President Roosevelt in a speech at Kingston, Ontario, in August 1938.”
That speech was Roosevelt’s famous pledge that the U.S. “will not stand idly by if domination of Canadian soil is threatened by any other empire.”
It is interesting to note that the Tribune headlined this story: “Highway would be vital for troops if Russia or Japan should attack.” There was no mention of this little detail in the body of the story. Like the projected fortifications of the Aleutian islands, close both to Russia and Japan, the proposed highway would be no less important “if the United States should attack Russia or Japan.”
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