ARMY SERVICE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 August 1941, Page 4

ARMY SERVICE

EXTENSION IN UNITED STATES APPROVED BY SENATE. . ISOLATIONIST OBJECTIONS. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright). WASHINGTON, August 7. Speaking in the debate in the Senate on the Bill to extend the term of military service, Senator Hiram Johnson said that such legislation would break faith with young men whose lips were seale'd. He scoffed at the idea that national interests were imperilled and attacked M. Stalin, who, he declared, could not be trusted. Despite similar attacks by other isolationists, the Senate voted by 44 to 28 to extend by 18 months the period for which the men were originally drafted, retaining Congressional power for further extension or termination purely if circumstances warrant this. The strength of the army today is estimated at 1,532,000 officers and men. The Oil Controller, Mr Ickes, announced that four American tankers have been transferred to export aviation petrol to Russia. At the same time there would be a shortage of high octane petrol unless output was increased immediately. Despite widespread efforts to influence motorists voluntarily to curtail consumption it had actually increased in the last fortnight.': A caucus majority of Republican members of the House of Represent? tives, after a stormy session, formally condemned the Administration’s “step by step projection of the United States into a state of undeclared war.” The meeting, which was dominated by 50 leading non-interventionists, demanded the safeguarding of the ultimate power of Congress to authorise the creation of a state of war. DEFENCE WORKS STRIKE. At Kearney, New Jersey, 14,000 workers in the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry-dock Company’s plant struck at midnight on Wednesday. The strike will halt defence contracts, including six destroyers, three tankers and two cargo vessels. The Defence Mediation Board said it would recommend the Government to take over the plant if production was not resumed immediately. It is now estimated that 22,000 men engaged in the construction of cruiser destroyers and other naval craft are affected by the strike, which the union ordered because the company refused to dismiss employees who failed to pay their union dues.