QUICK ACTION IN FAR EAST IS DEMANDED BY ALUMNI GROUP

Germany dominates the continent.... Japan is on the point, of establishing herself as the dominant power in the Far East," is the premise on which 16 alumni in a letter printed by the Alumni bulletin base their demand for action by the U.S. in the Far East.

The letter argues that "The only method of dealing with the totalitarian powers is to act before they act and thwart them before they have nourished themselves by conquest into a condition of irresistible strength."

In order to stop Japan's expansion in the Far East, the 16 alumni made three specific proposals of action: (1) "We must deprive Japan of raw Materials which she must have to wage effective war.... Moreover there should be an embargo on imports from Japan";

(2)"We should give all possible aid to China. This means granting substantially unlimited credits to the Chiang Kat-Shek government."

(3)"We should arrange with Great Britain to share or assume control of the Singapore Naval Base and other British bases in the East, so far as this is practicable from the point of view of sound strategy."

If Japan is able to accomplish her immediate objectives of winning the Chinese war and acquiring undisputed away in the South Pacific, then economic control of South America, by the Axis powers would be a "probability," and "history has shown that economic domination merges by imperceptible degrees into political domination," the letter states.

In this event "our foreign trade would be substantially eliminated" and "enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine would become an impossibility." The alumni questioned if it would be "too imaginative to suggest that ultimately we should have to fight?"

They did not blame the administration for its previous inactivity, since the American people believed in the "protective power of the seas" and "had a rather vague conviction that somehow or other the kind of wickedness we have been observing would not long prevail."

However, the letter continued the country, "is now awake" and has learned that "a belief in the power of appeasement is a life in a feel's paradise."

"The nation is in a mood for vigorous action. It is prepared to follow, and it is eager to be led."