ROOSEVELT'S STEP TOWARD COALITION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 146, 21 June 1940, Page 7

ROOSEVELT'S STEP TOWARD COALITION.

NEW MINISTERS. Republican Secretaries For Navy And War. POST FOR MR. H. L. STIMSON. United Press Association.—Oopyrigfot. (Received 10 a.m.) WASHINGTON, June 20. President Roosevelt has taken action to form a Coalition Cabinet, submitting to the Senate nominations of two Republicans, Colonel Frank Knox, as Secretary of the Navy, and Mr. Henry L. Stimson, as Secretary of War. Simultaneously, the White House announced that Mr. Harry H. Woodring, Secretary of War, had resigned, his resignation to become effective on the Senate's confirmation of his successor's nomination. It is added that Mr. Woodring's letter of resignation is so personal that it is not being published. Mr. Roosevelt's letter accepting Mr. Woodring's resignation stated: "It is of course a defensive programme, not aimed at intervention in world affairs jyhtch are no concern of the American hemisphere." The resignation of Mr. Charles Edison, Secretary of the Navy, becomes effective on June 24. Mr. Edison is Democratic | nominee as Governor of New Jersey.

Henry Lewis Stimson was born in New York City in 1867. He was trained as a legal advocate, and in President Taft's Cabinet he was Secretary for War from 1911 to 1913. He served in the Great War as a lieutenant-colonel of artillery, being eventually promoted colonel. He came into prominence in 1927 by hie masterly handling of the Nicaragua trouble, persuading the insurgents under General Monoada to lay down their arms and settle the dispute by popular vote. So pleased was President Coolidge with Mr. Stimsou's work that he appointed him in 1928 as Gover-nor-General of the Phillipines, where his administration won general approval.

When President Hoover took office in 1929 he recalled Mr. Stimson, who had long been one of his closest friends, to take up the important post of Secretary of State. In that capacity he represented the United States at the London Naval Disarmament Conference in 1930 when the Three-Power agreement was concluded. Next year he took part in the Seven-Power Conference in London and also visited Rome and Berlin, where he had conversations with Mussolini and Hitler. In 1932 he attended the Disarmament Conference at Geneva. He gave up office when Mr. Hoover wan s-ucxieeded as President by Mr. Roosevelt in 1933. Described as "not much of a politician," Mr. Stimson's strength lies in his skill, patience and resource in handling knotty problems. Publisher of the "Chicago Daily News," Colonel Frank Knox, the United States new Secretary for the Navy, has a military title that is no mere courtesy affair —he has seen active service in two wars. After graduation from Alma College, Michigan, he joined up with Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders, and when his country came into the Great War he enlisted as a private. He went away as a major, however, and fought in France with the artillery of the seventyeighth Division. His first newspaper job was as a reporter in Grand Rapids after he came back from the Spanish-American War, but he soon swung to the business side. After gaining control of several papers, Hearst took him to Boston, and a year later promoted him to general managership of the entire Hearst system—a post reputed to have made him the most highly-paid newspaper executive in America. About five years ago he took over the "Daily News."

Colonel Knox, who is sixty-six, has been a prominent Republican for many years, and was a leading figure iu the affairs of the party in the IWJ6 Presidential election.