NAVAL-EXPANSION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 142, 16 May 1940, Page 9

NAVAL - EXPANSION.

Received Ma.v 16, 12.30 p.m. WASHINGTON, May 15. The Senate Naval Affairs Committee has issued a statement urging the passage of the Vinson‘Bill authorising an II per cent expansion of the navy, also the fortification of Guam. It stated tha{ the United States is without power or means to police the world, but does have the power to keep others from bringing the war to the Western Hemisphere. “We should make every effort to preserve peace in the Far East. We can, if we must, defeat Japan, but the effort required would be enormous. At present, due to a lack of naval bases in the area, a Far-Eastern war could be undertaken only in coni unction with England, France and Holland,” adds the report. Scripps-Howard newspapers propose editorially that the United States, alone or co-operating with the Latin Americas, purchase British, French and Dutch possessions in the Western Hemisphere to enable the Allies to finance war purchases in the United States, simultaneously strengthening American defences.