AMERICA ACTS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 288, 17 September 1941, Page 5

AMERICA ACTS

CARGOES FOR EMPIRE PORTS. SHIPS PERMITTED TO TRADE. THE CONVOYS TO ICELAND. (United Press Association —Copyright.) LONDON, September IG. The United States has followed np Mr Roosevelt’s speech last Thursday wifh action. From to-day lease-lond cargoes are to have American protection from tho American Continent to the waters of Iceland and from now on XTnited States ships will be permitted to carry war supplies and passengers to large areas of the British Etnpire from which they were barred under previous interpretation of the United States Neutrality' Act. In his speech at- Milwaukee Colonel Frank Knox (Secretary for the Navy) said this was the American answer to Hitler’s challenge to sink every United States ship bearing cargoes for the Allies. Hitler and ’ Mussolini would lose the battle of the Atlantic unless they acted swiftly. Since the United States had occupied Iceland, the Nazis had lost their grip on the Atlantic and tho defeat of Britain was impossible. If the Axis leaders decided on an all-out campaign, they would add the United States Navy to their foes. The action of the Nazis during the last few days left no doubt as to what they intended to do. The United States State Department yesterday announced that henceforth United States ships will be permitted to carry war supplies and passengers to large areas of the British Empire from which they were barred under previous interpretations of the Neutrality Act. The department said the new decision was based on the opinion of the United States Attorney-General (Mr Francis Biddle). Officials declined to define precisely tho areas which the new interpretation will open up to American shipping, but they expressed the opinion that Aden, Egypt, Malaya, the Straits Settlements, Hong Kong, British Borneo, British East Africa, British Somaliland, and the Sudan would be involved. The department said the decision was based on Mr Biddle’s opinion that the term United Kingdom in the Neutrality Act applies only to England, Whies, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Mr Roosevelt used the term United Kingdom in proclaiming on November 4, 1939, that .a state of war existed between Germany on the one hand and “France, Poland, the United Kingdom, India, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa on the other.” The “New York Herald-Tribune’s” Washington correspondent says that tho State Department’s neutrality ruling permits American ships to carry arms and ammunition to such places on tlie West African coast as Gambia, which is a natural offset to Dakar. The building up of Freetown, Sierra Leone, as a naval threat to Dakar could also bo accomplished. The correspondent says that one of the most interesting parts of the department’s opinion lias to do with the Isle of Man, which is not legally part of the United Kingdom. Thus, if the President lifted the proclamation of a combat zone around England, American ships would be enabled to discharge munitions at the Isle of Man.