With Isolationism (the idea that America should attend to its own issues and avoid all foreign entanglements, especially war) prevalent throughout the U.S., the leaders of the Hollywood studios shied away from depicting or commenting on deteriorating European conditions that would lead to World War II.  But some filmmakers did embed allegorical comments on the contemporary situation in historical genres, particularly the adventure film.  Usually, films like this one are interpreted as denunciations of despotic rulers like Hitler and Mussolini and wake-up calls to spectators about the threat they pose, even to Americans.  But in this scene it seems clear that the Isolationist position is being espoused.