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The President, and the Secretary of the Navy joining in with him, made a violent defense of the great capacity of our over-age destroyers. They were first class. There was nothing second hand about then. They would be of inestimable value. I think they were. I think they were a good deal better than second hand myself. I think that it was partly very competent political strategy to represent them as being out-moded and over-aged so that people wouldn't think that we were reaching down into our pockets for our best things to give to the British.

None of this ever shocked me. Personally, I thought from the beginning that we ought to help the British. I regard the British—I did then, and I do now—as the defenders of civilization, to whom we are deeply indebted for the protection of our own civilization, not only for its birth, breeding and infant protection, but for all the basic political protections like the Magna Charta, the Bill of Rights, and all that sort of thing. They sprang out of English experience and English genius, and we inherited those things and took them over almost without a thought. They have become a part and parcel of our lives, and I think there is a very deep sympathy in our cultures. It's impossible to overlook it. We have always read the same books, read the same