NEUTRALITY LAW

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 June 1939, Page 7

NEUTRALITY LAW

PROPOSALS IN UNITED STATES BOYCOTT AND OTHER POWERS. AT PRESIDENT'S DISCRETION. By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright WASHINGTON. June 13. The Foreign Relations Committee of the House of Representatives has sent to the House an American neutrality resolution bearing the Administration’s stamp. It is os- . tensibly assured of ’ sufficient support to pass the measure, which covers many pages. It provides that when the President declares that a state of hostilities exists between foreign nations Ameri can citizens cannot lawfully travel on vessels belonging to belligerents, nor can American vessels proceed through areas which the President declares outlawed. It shall be unlawful for persons within the United States to deal in the securities of belligerents or make any loans to them, under a penalty of 50.000 dollars and/or imprisonment for five years. Americans cannot personally ship goods to belligerents, and all American interests in such goods must be disposed of before leaving the United States, the resolution provides. No contributions- can be solicited in the United States for belligerents, except for medical assistance and food and clothing to relieve human suffering. The foregoing provisions do not apply to the American republics. The resolution further provides that the President should have power to de mand a bond from any vessel leaving an American port with men or munitions which might possibly be destined for transhipment to a belligerent vessel, or to intern any vessel which returns to the United States after making such transhipments. The President may prohibit or limit the entry or departure of any belligerent submarine or armed merchantman to or from a United States port.

The resolution seeks to create a national Munitions Control Board, composed of the Secretaries of State, the Treasury, War, Navy and Commerce, with which exporters and importers of munition must register and from whom they must obtain a licence before exporting munitions. The measure, with the exception of the creation of a munitions board, rests all other provisions upon the President’s discretion. He need only proclaim that any step mentioned is necessary to assure the United States’ neutrality and it becomes law. It can be rescinded in a similar manner.

NO ARMS EMBARGO ADMINISTRATION VICTORY EXPECTED. WASHINGTON, June 13. The neutrality resolution which the Foreign Relations Committee of the House of Representatives has prepared promises to arouse stiff discussion in the Congress, but with an ultimate victory for the Roosevelt Administration which sponsored it. An analysis of the resolution shows that its recommendations differ from the provisions of the existing statute principally in that no provision is made for an embargo on the export of arms or munitions, no mention is made of nations . engaged in civil strife, and the President is given broader discretion. The committee almost from the beginning of the neutrality legislation has been divided along strictly party lines. Two attempts to insert an automatic arms embargo was repulsed by solid Democratic votes at the urging of the Secretary of State, Mr Cordell Hull.