FREEDOM OF SEAS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 120, 23 May 1941, Page 7

FREEDOM OF SEAS

STEPS TO PRESERVE IT

AMERICAN NAVAL UNITS

SPECIAL MISSIONS

LONDON, May 22

In a Maritime Day message to

Rear-Admiral Emory S. Land, chairman of the United States Maritime Commission, President Roosevelt ttfday expressed his confidence in the ability of shipbuilders and men of the U.S. merchant navy to assist the cause of the free peoples of the world. "Today, as never before in our history," he said, "our merchant marine is vital in our struggle for existence as a free people." He said he knew that more and faster ships would be built and manned by American seamen and that they would carry through the open waters of the seven seas implements of war which would help to destroy the menace to free peoples everywhere. NEW NAVAL ORGANISATION. Rear-Admiral C. W. Nimitz, Chief of the Navy Bureau of Navigation, declared before the Naval Committee of the House of Representatives today, that naval "task" forces might soon jbe needed to carry out special missions. He said that most of the navy now in the Pacific might be split up in order to carry out these missions. The committee afterwards unanimously approved legislation providing for the creation of vice-admirals to command these special "task" forces. It is understood that these forces may consist of a division of battleships, a wing of aircraft, a flotilla of destroyers, and a number of submarines. The nature of the missions was not disclosed.

Mr. H. L. Stimson, Secretary of State for War, told a Press conference today that, speaking as an individual, he considered the Neutrality Law a violation of America's most sacred and important tradition in foreign policy —the freedom of the seas. He added that the repeal of the law would have to be carefully considered "in connection with the United States delivering the goods to Britain.''