SUMMARY
 
      
 
 
During the nineteenth century it was Britain's control of 
      the sea which enabled the peoples of the Low Countries, the Baltic 
      littoral, and of North and South America to develop unhindered 
      their own institutions, and which permitted minor European powers 
      such as Portugal and Holland to maintain colonial empires.
 
      
 
 
It is this system which is now under attack. Should the British 
      Empire disintegrate as a result of war, or by a slow but equally 
      effective undermining of its essential bases, the consequences 
      to the United States must be most serious.
 
      
 
 
Great Britain no longer occupies its former predominant position 
      in Europe, where it could maintain a balance of power. Britain 
      and France are now subject to a simultaneous pressure on three 
      vital fronts. The effectiveness of blockade has been seriously 
      diminished by the German control of the Danubian Basin and the 
      growth of air power has rendered the Untied Kingdom very vulnerable 
      to direct attack.
 
      
 
 
Can the United States afford to run the risk of seeing Britain 
      and France defeated by the totalitarian regimes? The result of 
      such a defeat would be the disintegration of the last bulwarks 
      of democracy in Europe