Sunday, February 9, 1941

THE HOUSE APPROVES LEND-LEASE. By nearly a hundred votes, too. Last night’s large margin of victory, 260 to 165, will of course be seen as a big victory for President Roosevelt, but ironically it serves as another example -- as if we needed one more -- of how ham-handed the Administration and the Democratic House leadership have been in pushing this legislation. That’s because, according to Robert C. Albright’s article in Friday’s Washington Post, a decent number of those "yea" votes came at the last minute, as the result of a common-sense amendment that the President’s men hadn’t counted on and initially tried to swat down --

"The House...unexpectedly overrode its leadership, 148 to 141, to reserve for Congress the right to terminate at will President Roosevelt’s proposed powers to lend or lease arms. The supposed Administration defeat was immediately capitalized by the Democratic forces as an answer to charges of ‘dictatorship.’ Caught napping by the amendment, leaders first studied means to remove it from the bill. But that effort was abandoned last night when it became apparent that the change was winning G.O.P. votes for the aid-England bill. ‘I wish I had thought of it myself,’ said one Administration spokesman."

Really fills one with confidence that the White House sees national unity as a high priority, doesn’t it? The President could have cut the legs out from under the isolationists weeks ago if he’d offered as amendment like this in response to the widespread skepticism provoked by his original, sweeping lend-lease proposal. But he did little except heckle the opposition, with the apparent assurance that the Democratic leaders could successfully put across a partisan bill -- not minding that we are in a national crisis, and this is one of the most important measures ever considered by Congress. The Administration did have a stroke of sanity yesterday, when they agreed to a compromise amendment that limited to about $1,300,000,000 the amount of existing U.S. military equipment that could be transferred to Britain under lend-lease. Here’s hoping they show further signs of wising up as the Senate debate goes forward.

A STUNNING BRITISH VICTORY AT BENGAZI. If you happened to be strolling through the North African deserts this week-end, you might have seen a flash of light speed by -- the British army. According to the Associated Press, the armored formation of British troops who conquered Bengazi yesterday drove 150 miles westward in only thirty hours. They destroyed sixty Italian tanks in fighting south of the city and captured a large number of prisoners, including an army commander and several other senior officers. The A.P. says a numerically-superior formations of Italians tried to cut through a British cordon in the Bengazi area, but the attempt ended in "disaster." So now, Britain has effectively taken control of all of eastern Libya, though there are still pockets of Italian resistance to be mopped up, in Cyranaica and at Jarajub on the Egyptian border, as well as probably at oases here and there.

Anyone who listens to war news on the radio is probably immune to words such as "stunning" and "spectacular" by now. But the superlatives seem justified this time, especially if the British continue their march westward. Bengazi itself is a big, big fish -- the biggest base taken by the British in their North African offensive, a city with a peacetime population of over 50,000 and described by the A.P. as "one of the gems of the Italian Empire." And while this in itself is great news, I’m even more excited by what might be yet to come. The A.P. dispatch makes it sound like a complete British victory in Libya might not be far off -- "Between Bengazi and Tripoli -- 500 miles by road to the west -- there are only a few inconsequential coastal towns. The British expect the Italians to fall back to that ancient city with whatever men can survive to make their next, and, perhaps, last stand." Sounds promising.

BENGAZI -- "A STARTLING CONQUEST." Hanson W. Baldwin’s analysis in yesterday’s New York Times makes it clear just how much the Tommies have accomplished so far in their eight-week North African campaign, why the victory at Bengazi is so significant, and what opportunities it offers for the fighting ahead --

"Marshal Rodolpho Graziani’s Libyan armies have lost about 114,000 men (killed, captured, or wounded), or almost half their strength, and the British have fought and marched 490 miles beyond their railhead at Matruh in Egypt. Here is a ‘blitz’ campaign that rivals the speedy German victories in Poland and the West. The tactics of the North African triumph were leaves taken from the German book of war. The British have waged a campaign of mobility. Since the attack on Sidi Barrani, seventy miles inside Egypt and high-water mark of the Italian invasion, they have seized the initiative and held it, giving the harried enemy little time to reorganize....The capture of Bangazi is of military importance not only as the climax of a swift military campaign but also because it plants the Union Jack on the easily defensible line of the Gulf of Sidra, gives the British control of all roads and desert tracks that lead toward the Egyptian frontier and puts under British hands ports and air fields that will strengthen their control of the Mediterranean area."

Mr. Baldwin cautions that "distance and terrain and the tremendous problem of supply rather than the Italian opposition are now the chief obstacles to a further British advance." But if they can overcome these problems (and they should, since Royal Navy ships can now bring supplies to their desert army through Bengazi’s port), they can exploit their triumph by continuing westward, or in one of two other ways -- "They may take the long, hard road toward Tripoli and complete domination of Italian North Africa with perhaps a greater reward in a rapproachment with the French North African Armies. They may detach some of their forces to press the campaign in Italian East Africa or they may send more troops to Greece, perhaps risking bringing Germany down."

Personally, I hope Britain continues to press the Libyan attack, at full strength. The remaining Italian forces in Ethiopia and Eritrea are outnumbered, lack air support, and are too remote to have a meaningful impact on the war -- they could be left to subdue at a later date. But a new British drive that chased the reeling Italians completely out of North Africa would have an electric effect on the morale of every Briton, not to mention every anti-Axis citizen, diplomat, and soldier in Europe now looking for a reason to hope that the Nazis, too, can one day be chased out of the lands they’ve crushed.