Imperial Valley Press

Retired General Favors U.S. War

BERKELEY, Calif., Jan. —Maj. Gen. David P. Barrows, retired, professor of political science at the University of California, said in a statement today that the United States should enter the war in support of Britain in the interests of regularizing this country's position and preventing possible defeat of the British.

The general said he was convinced that the measures short of war taken by the United States will not be sufficient to enable England to defeat the Axis powers. He said he equally was convinced that the measures we have already taken have changed our status from a neutral to a belligerent power and that there is everything to be gained by congress formally recognizing immediately our real status and authorizing the president to use the nation's armed forces.

"To make my position clear," General Barrows said, "it will first be necessary to clear up just what are 'measures short of war,' and what is neutrality.

"These steps short of war, as given by the textbooks of 40 years ago are coercive acts applied to one state by another but not possessing the qualities of belligerency.

"They are such steps as breaking off diplomatic relations, imposition of embargoes, blockade of ports, including such 'peaceful blockade' measures as the sinking of ships, the shelling of forts and the taking of life.

"As a definition for neutrality I will state the measures short of war for this country in the present war are the measures permissible to a neutral state as defined 150 years ago by our statesmen and clarified by our best scholars since then.

"Under these laws of neutrality it is an unneutral act for the government of a nation not at war to sell or deliver arms and vessels of war to another nation engaged in hostilities. Our diplomacy has always recognized such an act as being one of belligerency. Yet, this we have already done."