GOOD VISIBILITY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 September 1941, Page 6

GOOD VISIBILITY

DURING SUBMARINE ATTACK ON GREER PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT STATES FACTS. CONGRESSMEN TAKE NEWS CALMLY. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 1.15 p.m.) WASHINGTON, September 5. President Roosevelt, at a Press conference, saoid the U.S.A, warship Greer was attacked more than once during daylight and in good visibility. The destroyer definitely was on the American side of the ocean and carried an identification number and the American flag. President Roosevelt indicated his approval of the Greer's action in dropping depth charges. Congressmen took the news of the attack calmly. They expressed the view that it was the type of incident to be expected. The newspapers rushed extra edir tions into the streets and radio announcers interrupted programmes to give the navy communique. The immediate reaction with most Americans was strong indignation over a brazen attack on a United States ship. Naval circles concede that the attack might have been launched by a German submarine under the impression that the Greer was British. The Greer is almost identical with the fifty destroyers transferred to If the destroyer followed the usual technique of racing at high speed along the torpedoes' wake, dropping depth charges all the way, there is a strong possibility that the submarine was destroyed or is in a damaged condition. Commenting on the attack an official spokesman in Berlin said the Wilhelmstrasse was particularly interested in a statement distributed by a British news agency, namely, that the “attack was a long-awaited incident,” so it was hardly necessary to elaborate on such a statement. Another spokesman said some American interventionists are exaggerating the importance of the happening with the object of turning it into the long-ed-for incident pf the Atlantic which would range America actively in the war beside Britain.