AID VICTORY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 193, 16 August 1941, Page 8

AID VICTORY

DEMOCRACIES' AIMS

Close Secrecy Preserved At Roosevelt's Request

United Press Association.—.Copyright

Rec. 1 p.m.

LONDON, Aug. 15

The Australian Minister of the Army, Mr. P. C. Spender, referring to the Roosevelt-Churchill declaration, said in Melbourne: "It is a statement of profound importance and will have a vital bearing on future events." The Minister of the Navy, Mr. W. M. Hughes, said: "The declaration demonstrates that the two great English-speaking democracies are marching side by side and that their alliance is no passing phase, but will continue until victory is achieved." Japan Says "Big Statement" Viscount Ishii, spokesman for the Japanese Cabinet Bureau of Information, said: "It is such a big statement that we must first study the points. Therefore, we cannot comment to-day." ■ It- was disclosed from the White House in Washington to-day that at' least one of the* conferences 1 between President Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill took place on board the new British battleship Prince of Wales. Photographs of the President and the Prime Minister which were issued showed them on board the battleship, and bore the caption: "Taken after church services." It was dated August 10. Anotner picture showed Mr. Churchill and Mr. Roosevelt with senior British and American military and naval chiefs on board the United States cruiser Augusta. Mr. Churchill and Mr.. Roosevelt had never me before, but they were accustomed to call each other Winston and Franklin over the Atlantic telephone. Mr. Churchill took not only a plentiful supply of cigars, but a number of British films to meet Mr. Roosevelt's passion for the cinema.

Strict Censorship Maintained Explaining why the statement by the deputy-Prime Minister, Mr. C. R. Attlee, surprised Britain, although the American public had been read-' ing about the meeting since August 12, the London Daily Mail says Mr. Roosevelt, who proposed the visit, personally requested that no mention of it should be made in British newspapers. Quotations from American papers were cabled all over the world, and certainly were in possession of the Germans, but Mr. Roosevelt insisted that there should be no' official statement until after the meeting, because he was anxious about Mr.. Churchill's safety. Mr. Roosevelt. realised that if the Germans knew about Mr. Churchill's journey across the Atlantic they would do their utmost to attack him. The British Government acceded to Mr. Roosevelt's urgent request, but extracts from the uncensored American newspapers began to arrive in Britain on August 12. A decision had then to be made whether the British papers should publish the quotations, but it was decided to maintain the censorship, in the first place because the reprinting of the reports would tend to confirm for the Germans that there was actually a meeting, and in the second place enemy agents would then have a good chance of picking up something valuable from persons knowing something of Mr. Churchill's journey- _. „ *