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> Unpredictable Senator Key Pittman of Nevada, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, handed reporters a statement that advised the British Government to abandon the British Isles to Hitler. Said he: "It is no secret that Great Britain is totally unprepared for defense and that nothing the United States has to give can do more than delay the result. Churchill's statement, 'We will never surrender' and that if any portions of the British Isles are subjugated 'we will fight from the New World with our navy,' if carried out and carried out immediately, will end Hitler's ambition for world conquest. It is to be hoped that this plan will not be too long delayed by futile encouragement to fight on. It is conclusively evident that Congress will not authorize intervention in the European war."
> But if Britain had no encouragement to "fight on," would the British Fleet be reassuringly moved to New World bases? From London, Alfred Duff Cooper's Ministry of Information issued a reply that was like a polite grinding of teeth:
"It would be a poor gesture of thanks to America after the aid given if the British people, with their 45,000,000 population, were calmly to lay down their arms without a fight—in any case, Great Britain is determined to carry the struggle through to a victorious end."
Lord Lothian had already answered Key Pittman. Because it contains a clear statement of the case that is the cornerstone of U. S.-British relations, TIME here reprints the key sentences of Lord Lothian's speech to a Yale alumni luncheon fortnight ago:
"The outcome of this grim struggle will affect you almost as much as it will affect us. For if Hitler gets our fleet, or destroys it, the whole foundation on which the security of both our countries has rested for 120 years will have disappeared. . . . Let me be blunt. . From letters which I receive, and from articles and letters in the press, it is clear that many people in the United States believe that somehow or other, even if Great Britain is invaded and overrun, the British Navy will cross the Atlantic and still be available through Canada or otherwise, as part of your own defensive system. I hope you are not building on that expectation. If you are . . . you have been building on an illusion."
His argument: European bases, such as Gibraltar, are just as essential to Atlantic security as are ships. As long as they remain in the hands of powers that respect the Monroe Doctrine, "no hostile ships, except for a few submarines and raiders, could get into the Atlantic at all." Second: "It is an illusion for people to believe that in the end the British Navy will pass easily to you. We in Britain shall certainly fight to the end to defend our country . . . [but] quite apart from the difficulties that would arise, if you were neutral, of handing over a fleet designed to protect the British Commonwealth to a power which could not use it for that belligerent purpose, there would be little left over for you. ... I am not concerned today to attempt to tell you what you should do in this grave matter. That is your business. But I am concerned that if and when the crisis arises you should not be able to turn on me and say 'Why did you not warn us about these facts? . . .'