快速查题-中学教师资格证试题

                                            The Neutrality of American in the Early World War II

            The establishment of the Third Reich influenced events in American history by starting a chain of events which

culminated in war between Germany and the United States. The compete destruction of democracy, the persecution of Jews,

the war on religion, the cruelty and barbarism of the Nazis, and especially the plans of Germany and her allies, Italy and

Japan, for world conquest caused great indignation in this country and brought on fear of another world war.

            While speaking out against Hitler's atrocities, the American people generally favored is out against policies and

neutrality.

              The Neutrality Acts of 1935 and 1936 prohibited trade with any belligerents or loans to them. In 1937 the President

was empowered to declare an arms embargo in wars between nations at his discretion.

American opinion began to change somewhat after President Roosevelt's “quarantine the aggressor” speech at Chicago

(1937) in which he severely criticized Hitler' s policies. Germany's seizure of Austria and the Munich Pact for the partition of

Czechoslovakia (1938) also aroused the American people.

          The conquest of Czechoslovakia in March, 1939 was another rude awakening to the menace of the Third Reich. In

August, 1939 came the shock of the Nazi-soviet Pact and in September the attack on Poland and the outbreak of European

war.

       The United States attempted to maintain neutrality in spite of sympathy for the democracies arrayed against the Third

Reich. The Neutrality Act of 1939 repealed the arms embargo and permitted “cash and carry” exports of arms to belligerent

nations. A strong national defense program was begun.

        A draft act was passed (1940) to strengthen the military services. A Lend-lease Act (1941) authorized the President to

sell, exchange, or lend materials to any country deemed necessary by him for the defense of the United States. Help was

given to Britain by exchanging certain overage destroyers for the right to establish American bases in British territory in the

Western Hemisphere. In August, 1940 President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill met and issued the Atlantic Charter

which proclaimed the kind of a world which should be established after the war.

        In December, 1941, Japan launched the unprovoked attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor. Immediately thereafter, Germany declared war on the United States.

                                                                    The Law to Keep the Oil Industry under Control

        The Norwegian Government is doing its best to keep the oil industry under control. A new law limits exploration to an area south of the southern end of the long coastline; production limits have been laid down (though these have already been

raised); and oil companies have not been allowed to employ more than a limited number of foreign workers.But the oil industry has a way of getting over such problems, and few people believe that the Government will be able to hold things back for long.As on Norwegian politician said last week: “We will soon be changed beyond all recognition.”

     Ever since the war, the Government has been carrying out a programme of development in the area north of the Arctic

Circle. During the past few years this programme has had a great deal of success: Tromso has been built up into a local

capital with a university, a large hospital and a healthy industry.But the oil industry has already started to draw people south,

and within a few years the whole northern policy could be in ruins.

    The effects of the oil industry would not be limited to the north, however. With nearly 100 percent employment, everyone

can see a situation developing in which the service industries and the tourist industry will lose more of their workers to the oil

industry. Some smaller industries might even disappear altogether when it becomes cheaper to buy goods from abroad.The

real argument over oil is its threat to the Norwegian way of life. Farmers and fishermen do not make up most of the population, but they are an important part of it, because Norwegians see in them many of the qualities that they regard with pride as

essentially Norwegian.And it is the farmers and the fishermen who are most critical of the oil industry because of the damage

that it might cause to the countryside and to the sea.