SUPPLIES FOR BRITAIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 April 1941, Page 6

SUPPLIES FOR BRITAIN

POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES ' PRESIDENT PUTS EMPHASIS ON PATROLS. DETAIL QUESTIONS EVADED. ißy Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day. 11.40 a.m.) WASHINGTON, April 25. After the forthright pronouncements of Colonel Knox and Mr Cordell Hull yesterday, President Roosevelt, at his Press Conference today, rather surprisingly placed emphasis on the extended use of patrol vessels rather than on convoys. Mr Roosevelt declared that American neutrality patrol vessels would operate as far into the waters of the Seven Seas as may be necessary for the defence of the American hemisphere, but said the Administration was not yet thinking of escorting convoys. The President declined to amplify his views on the convoy situation, but said that for a year and a half vessels of the neutrality patrol had been operating a thousand miles into the Atlantic from the eastern shore of Maryland. He added that the patrol would not necessarily be confined to the Atlantic. Asked exactly what was the difference between convoy and patrol, Mr Roosevelt replied: “In the first instance it is escorting merchant ships in a group to prevent an act of aggression against them. A patrol is a reconnaissance of certain areas of ocean to find out whethere there is any possible aggressor ship that might be coming into the Western Hemisphere. The President was reminded that three of his Cabinet officers yesterday had publicly expressed concern over aid to Britain and was asked how this squared with his Press conference remarks. Mr Roosevelt said he did not know. He dodged a question whether the country had anything better in mind than a- convoy system to ensure the delivery of war supplies to Britain.