CLOSING GAPS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 181, 2 August 1941, Page 7

CLOSING GAPS

BLOCKADE OF AXIS London Welcomes New Move By U.S.A. U.P.A. and British Wiredess. Rec. 11.30 a.m. LONDON, Aug. 1. It is announced in Washington that President Roosevelt has created an Economic Defence Board, headed by the Vice-President, Mr. Henry A. Wallace, to direct economic defence activities. This is regarded as a step to tighten up the economic war against the Axis. It is believed that the board will maintain contact with the British Ministry of Economic Warfare. The members will include the Secretary of State, Mr. Cordell Hull; the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Henry Morgenthau; the Secretary of War, Mr. H. L. Stimson; the Secretary of the Navy, Colonel W. F. Knox; the Secretary of Agriculture, Mr. Claude Wickard; the Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Jesse Jones; and the SolicitorGeneral, Mr. Francis Biddle. The board -will advise the President on measures to be taken to co-ordinate the policies and actions of various departments and agencies, and to develop integrated economic defence plans and ensure their execution. The establishment of the board is warmly welcomed by economic warfare authorities in London, who point out that American help for the Allies now leads over the whole field of economic warfare against the Axis. The object of economic defence was originally to conserve supplies of important war materials needed for American armament, but it now includes export control, designed to prevent those materials reaching the Axis Powers. Three Important Measures Other steps are, first, freezing the assets of continental Europeans, Japanese and Chinese, second, the publication of a black list of LatinAmerican nationals trading with Axis interests, and, third, the control of shipping, designed to acquire ships for the United States and deny them to Axis traders. The importance of these measures is shown by the composition of the board appointed to supervise them which includes the most prominent members of the United States Cabinet. It is now stated officially that there is very little danger of any goods which are subject to control "at the source" reaching the Germans. Two months ago a dangerous gap was closed by the extension of the United States control system to the Philippines, which had been exporting abnormally large quantities of copra, coconut oil and chrome to Japan from where they could reach Germany across Russia. Parallel with this control system are the new export controls which have been set up in Brazil, Mexico Peru and Chile, and some of these countries have prohibited the export of certain war materials outside the Western Hemisphere. It is authoritatively stated that the only substantial leak in the blockade system now is by the Italian air line from South America via unoccupied French territory to German-occupied Europe. This line can carry only small, but valuable, cargoes. It is reported that President Roosevelt has nominated Mr. Lincoln MacVeagh as Minister to Iceland.

The Senate has approved the appointment of Senator Tom Connally as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, in succession to Senator Walter F. George, who has become