ALL RESOURCES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 May 1941, Page 4

ALL RESOURCES

IN SUPPORT OF BRITISH SEAPOWER t DECLARATION OF AMERICAN POLICY. WENDELL WILLKIE DEMANDS MORE ACTION. (Bv'Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) WASHINGTON. May 8. The Secretary of the Navy. Colonel Knox, in a speech at a booksellers’ banquet', said: “All American resources are committed to the supreme purposes of ensuring that British' sea power is not destroyed. We are living in fearful danger. Our only safety is to supplement Britain’s forces because failure to maintain the bridge of ships to Britain would mean that we would eventually face an immeasurably superior combination of the Italian, German and French navies and also have to guard against Japan in the Pacific. Oceans are not bulwarks but avenues of attack.” Commentators point out that this is the first official refernce to the pos- . sibility of Germany using. the French navy. Mr Wendell Willkie, addressing a freedom rally at Madison Square Garden, said: “I care not whether you call safe delivery convoying, patrolling, aeroplane accompaniment, or what not. We want those cargoes protected at once, with less talk and more action. “There is no reason for despair. The British still control the seas and can draw on the world’s resources. Furnish Britain with the ships she needs till it hurts. Give her destroyers, and see that those ships deliver their cargoes safely to British ports." Mr Willkie telegraphed President Roosevelt urging him. as the leader of a free people, to execute their will and provide the machines and materials so sorely needed for the defence of freedom. NAVY ALWAYS READY. The speech by the Secretary for War. Mr Stimson, created a considerable flurry in Washington today. At a Press conference, the Secretary of the Navy was asked to comment on Mr Stimson's plea for immediate naval action. Colonel Knox replied that it . was a forthright, courageous and enlightening talk, animated by a high spirit of patriotism. Asked whether the navy was ready to do the job of convoying war supplies to Britain, he said: “The navy is always ready and it is readier now than ever.” Meanwhile, Senator Vandenberg en - deavoured to prove the' convoys are unnecessary by announcing that RearAdmiral Emory Land, chairman of the Maritime Commission, had informed him by letter that only eight of 205 American war supply ships had been sunk in the first three months of 1941. The House of Representatives today passed, and sent to the Senate the Biil empowering Mr Roosevelt to take over upward of 100 foreign merchant ships. The Naval Affairs Committee of the House authorised the construction of 11 major bases for naval lighter-than-air craft; as well as an undisclosed number of auxiliary facilities, at a total cost of 58,000,000 dollars. Defence officials are planning to store at least a six months’ reserve supply of food at all the nation’s strategic outposts, such as Hawaii and the Philippines, as protection against a possible blockade. The “Nichi Nichi Shimbun’’ (Tokio) says that an Osaka shipping firm has been advised from San Francisco that the United States is closing the Panama Canal within 10 days to all but limited traffic for an indefinite period. Mr Roosevelt’s secretary, Mr Stephen Early, said that he had never heard of the possibility that the Panama Canal might be closed to Japanese ships. LEAKAGE OF SHIPPING NEWS. •The Department of Justice is investigating complaints about information concerning shipments to England being disclosed to the Axis by the rela- » lions of some American insurance com- ' panics with a Swiss cartel, by means of reports required by the. insurance companies and reinsurance data sent to the Swiss companies. It is alleged that this method is also used to reveal ■ the dates of sailings and the routes of supply vessels going to England. The immigration authorities, forestalling the possibility of Fifth Column activity in the event of a crisis, have arrested two German propagandists, the heads of the Transocean news service. Manfred Zaap and Guenther Tonn.