NEUTRALITY ACT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 September 1941, Page 5

NEUTRALITY ACT

DISCUSSION IN UNITED STATES ISOLATIONIST ATTITUDE. REPEAL EQUIVALENT TO WAR DECLARATION. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, September 25. The main topic of discussion in the United States is the possible repeal of the Neutrality Act, following the statement by Mr Stephen Early,' President Roosevelt's private . secretary, that revision of the Act was likely next week. Referring to this, the isolationist, Senator Taft, said that '’epeal of the Act would be equivalent to a declaration of war. The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Connally, announced that he was ready to sponsor an amendment of the Neutrality Act without a formal request from the President. He added that the Act was based on the illusion that the Nazis would not sink American ships if they stayed outside the combat, zones. The New York “Herald-Tribune” says the Senate isolationists admit that they could probably muster only 35 to 40 votes opposing the repeal of the Neutrality Act. Yesterday it was revealed that American naval experts had asked for an appropriation of £19,090.000 to arm United States merchant ships should events demand that they be sent to dangerous waters. The isolationist America First Committee has issued a statement denying that Mr Cnarles Lindbergh is antiSemitic. The statement said the.interventionists had injected lhe race issue into the war debate.