NEUTRALITY ISSUE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 1, 1 July 1939, Page 9

NEUTRALITY ISSUE

BATTLE IN U.S.A.

ADMINISTRATION LOSES FIRST ROUND

REVISION BY HOUSE

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyriaht.) WASHINGTON, June 30. The Administration in the House of Representatives tonight lost by two votes the first important battle on. the revision of the Neutrality Act. The well-disciplined Republican organisation forced the reinstatement of the modified arms embargo in the Bloom Bill. An amendment by Mr. J. M. Vorys (Republican, Ohio) which was approved, would, however, permit the sale of aeroplanes to combatants, and would ban only lethal weapons. The voting was 159 to 157. After a session of 13 hours the House adjourned at midnight. The Democratic leaders are certain that they can reverse the decision when the Bill comes up for its third reading tomorrow. The only other important changes made in the measure would give Congress as well as the President the authority to declare that a state of war exists and would eliminate the section permitting the President to prevent American ships entering combat zones. CRUX OF THE ISSUE. The embargo question is the crux of the neutrality issue. Mr. Roosevelt and thje State Department consider the automatic embargo provided under the present law impracticable, and want the President to have a free hand in handling the international situation. The Bloom Bill retains the body of the present neutrality law, but replaces the embargo clause with one permitting the export ot all commodities, arms, included, to all belligerents on the cash-and-carry basis. The Opposition contended /throughout the debate today that this would tend to make the law unneutral. Mr. Vorys's amendment is similar to the present embargo, except that it excludes "anna and ammunition," and not "arms, ammunition, and implements of war." The latter pro.ved difficult to define. iMr. Vorys claimed that arms and ammunition covered lethal weapons and provided' the sort of embargo the American people thought they now had. Mr. Hamilton Fish (Republican, New York) urged 9 the acceptance of, the amendment as a ■ compromise. ' He said that the amendment would exempt from the embargo everything except lethal weapons. He mentioned specifically oil, trucks, and aeroplanes. As soon as the amendment was carried the Democrat leaders began rounding *up absentee members, confident that they can reverse the vote. NO INTERNATIONAL LAW. Mr. J. A. Shanley, (Democrat, Connecticut) protested that no man living could draw the line between arms, and materials, which might be construed as munitions. Questioning the existence of any international law, £he House by 195 votes to 68 voted out a proposal to repeal the entire Neutrality Act and "throw the United States back on international law."1 , ; An amendment by Mr. Harold Copley (Democrat, North Carolina) prohibiting Americans from travelling on neutral ships carrying munitions in war-time was voted out by 136 to 32. Mr. Cooley said his proposal would •prevent "another Lusitania incident" The House also voted out by 65 votes to 47 an attempt to place an arms embargo on any nation defaulting in its Great War debts., A provision was approved imposing a 90-day limit on the extension of the short-term credits to foreign nations named in a Presidential proclamation finding that a state of war exists.