SAFETY ZONE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 November 1939, Page 6

SAFETY ZONE

ESTABLISHED ROUND AMERICAN REPUBLICS. The safety zone established around the Western Hemisphere, designed io insulate the 21 American Republics against the shock of European hostilities, ranges from about 300 to some 1,200 land miles off the coasts of North and South America. The zone begins at Passamaquoddy Bay at the United States-Canadian Border in the Atlantic with a line running slightly eastward and then south about 600 miles off Boston, 750 miles off New York, 950 miles off Washington, and 1,200 miles off Miami. It takes in the Caribbean area and Panama Canal approaches, and then extends out in the South Atlantic some 800 miles off Rio de Janeiro, and about 1,100 miles off Buonos Aires, thence around the tip of South America, where it is about 300 miles off the coast. Starting northward in the Pacific, the line ranges from about S5O miles off the coast on the south-western tip of South America, includes the Galapagos Islands 730 miles off the coast of Ecuador and Guadelupe Island, about 200 miles off the coast of Southern California, runs about 500 miles west of Los Angeles. 400 miles west of San Francisco, and 600 miles west of the United States at Seattle. It joins the United States-Canadian border in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. » Scepticism as the wisdom and feasibility of a Western Hemisphere “safety belt" characterised British reaction to the neutrality declaration adopted by the inter-American Neutrality Conference in Panama. (The zone was designed to cushion 21 American nations from the European war by keeping their shipping free from hindrance and barring belli-

gerent action within the prescribed area.) The Manchester “Guardian” was the only newspaper to treat the action editorially. There was no official comment. A first impression in responsible British circles was one of serious doubt that the Americas could enforce such a policy in the huge sea area included. and that any force exerted in police action would raise grave issues. The “Guardian” inferential!} 7 raised the question of whether such a “safety belt" would be compatible with Great Britain’s own war interests from a naval standpoint. The editorial concluded: —"If in these great (sea) tracts, so hard to oversee, raiders, or submarines should still hide, should destroy, and not be discovered, could she (Britain) resist the call to defend her shipping with her own warships—that is to say. of course, if the American States did not enforce their edict?”