Nine-Point Program

"The real stake in this war is the command of the maritime communications of the Atlantic Ocean." Last week Major George Fielding Eliot, military expert, so reasoned from the British action in seizing part of the French Fleet. The sudden U. S. agitation about the Monroe Doctrine and a realization that command of the Atlantic was vital to U. S. security confirmed this view. Alone, said Major Eliot, the U. S. Fleet cannot control the Atlantic, must therefore prolong British resistance and if possible keep the British Fleet in being. On these tenets he laid down in the New York Herald Tribune a nine-point program of immediate action:

1) "We can give the British people hope. . . . This is the greatest and most far-reaching aid we can afford the British."

2) "Make available to British warships the use of our North Atlantic bases for maintenance and repair. . . ."

3) "Organize on a grand scale efforts to evacuate the children and some of the women of the British Isles . . ."

4) "Increase in all categories not impairing our own defense, and without the present restrictions of the Neutrality Act, our material aid to Britain."

5) "Agreements ... in the event of the forced evacuation by the British Fleet of its home bases . . . not to permit the Germans access to American foodstuffs and supplies as long as they were fighting Britain. . . ."

6) "Fully manned, equipped and defended bases to make this policy goodin Greenland, Newfoundland, Bermuda, Trinidad, the Azores and the west coast of Africa. This too requires agreement with Britain as to the future defense of these localities."

7) "In agreement with Australia and New Zealand, take such steps for the maintenance of the status quo in the Western Pacific as may be possible in view of our Atlantic situation. . . ."

8) "Build our own defenses as energetically as we possibly can."

9) "Consider at this time the advisability of breaking off diplomatic relations with Germany. This would not only symbolize our attitude, but it would put us in a position to urge our Latin-American neighbors to do likewise, thus enabling us to rid ourselves of the focal points of intrigue and subversive activity. . . ."

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