Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy - Ludwig von Mises ...

U.S. International Policy: 1933–1940 25
aff airs of the Netherlands Indies or any alteration of their status
quo by other than peaceful processes.” 45
British procurement of military supplies from the United
States in that election year was precarious. FDR wanted to help,
but the American public did not fully approve of the administration’s
partiality for the British and French. Since Roosevelt was
anxious to avoid arousing the opposition of the voters who wished
the United States to remain neutral, the administration’s non-neutral
agreements had to be made in secrecy.
Th is was the dilemma that was continuously in the mind of the
president and of the Secretary of the Treasury. Th e Anglo-
French Co-ordinating Committee was thus made aware that in
the then state of American public opinion the Administration
could not give the Allies all the help it would wish to give. 46
Th e assistance Morgenthau could give the British fl uctuated with
public opinion.
European War Impacts Asian Situation
At this time, the Battle of Britain was in full force over
England with German planes fl ying hundreds of sorties almost
nightly over London, British airfi elds and airplane factories. She
was also losing ships to German submarine attacks in the Atlantic
faster than they could be replaced. Her situation was desperate;
she had no ships to spare for the defense of Singapore and could
not aff ord to expand the war into the Far East. So when pressured
by Japan to close the Burma Road, she agreed. Th us, the main
route by which China’s Nationalist Army had been able to receive
war materiel was closed for three months from July 18, 1940 to
October 18, 1940.
45 Department of State, Peace and War, pp. 515–16.
46 Hall, North American Supply, p. 92.