USE OF U.S. NAVY ADVOCATED

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23323, 8 May 1941, Page 9

USE OF U.S. NAVY ADVOCATED

American Supplies For Britain

BROADCAST BY WAR SECRETARY

(united PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT.) (Received May 7,11 p.m.) LONDON, May 7. The United States Secretary of War (Mr H. L. Stimson), in a nationwide broadcast address, advocated the use of the United States Navy to safeguard shipments of supplies to Britain. He warned Germany that the United States would not flinch and would not permit these munitions to be sunk in the Atlantic. Mr Stimson’s speech is hailed in the United States newspapers as a turning point in the nation’s history. The “New York Herald-Tributte” says the next two or three weeks are likely to be the most critical the United States has ever faced. The newspaper says America has reached the end of counting on Britain to save her. “Let us have a show-down with Hitler,” the newspaper says, “while it is still possible to have a show-down with the advantage on ( our side.” The “New York Times” warns Anierica against making the mistake of other democracies—the mistake of too little and too late. Miss Dorothy Thompson, the well-known columnist, says Mr Roosevelt is now facing the biggest decision any statesman has had to make for his fellow men, and she urges the nation to rally round him. Mr Stimson, in his speech, said: “We have taken our place definitely behind the warring democracies against the aggressors. The world is facing a great crisis. All our efforts must be turned towards the defence of the nation’s safety. • “The men under the leadership of Hitler propose to establish a world order in which they will be the masters and all other people the slaves. This so-called new order is openly hostile to us and is steadily encircling the Western World. “Advance agents are busy in the southern republics building strategic air lines across vital portions of the continent and creeping towards Panama. Armed forces are threatening West Africa and looking for a jumping off place within easy reach of the Brazil coast. Propagandists are vigorously active here. They now arrogantly confront the world, including ourselves. The alternative is abject surrender or uncompromising forceful resistance.”

"For more than 100 years the control of the Atlantic has been exercised by the British Fleet. .This tradition has been accepted by us as a dominant factor in the ocean defence'on which our safety and mode of life depend. "To-day the situation is gravely threatened. The British Isles have been a fortress against any despotic approach to our shores. If the British fall the fleet, if it survived, would not have an adequate base for continued.operations. Britain’s great shipyards would pass into the hands of the aggrrtsor nations, thus becoming seven times larger than, ours. Under such conditions our fleet would be unable to protect the western hemisphere from the overwhelming sea power then confronting it. We have only just begun to build out our defences. Time is an essential factor. "To-day the wide-flung forces of the British Navy are threatened in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Those thinly spread forces alone are securing us at the present time. Britain’s life lines are threatened. The Nazi high-water mark in destroying shipping is at hand. We can successfully meet this most dangerous threat. We have a naval instrument prepared and ready for such an emergency right now. It is within our power to use that instrument to turn ,the tide of darkness back from the Atlantic, and thus gain a means to preclude the Nazis for ever from attaining their fell purpose.

glorious history. Supplementing th* efforts of the British Navy, it can secure all the oceans surrounding our Continent and check the onward rise of the tide of Nazism until the defences- of the democracies are completed, and permanently confine the malign forces until the tide of freedom rises again. “On the other handTif otlr navy's assistance is withheld until the power of the British Fleet and nation iS broken, its power of execution would shrink to impotence. If we allow the present strategic moment to pass 6ur navy merely becomes a secondary instead of a decisive winning power in the world conflict. Is it conceivable that the American people would allow this to happen in the face of Congressional provision of billions of dollars for munitions? Shall we now flinch and permit these munitions to be sunk in the Atlantic? Our entire history does not. show a precedent for such a supposition. The President has said that we must not allow the steps already taken to become ineffective. "I do not minimise the danger. It is an occasion for grave seriousness but not gloom. I have studied the military potency of the Axis Powers and I do not underestimate their power. Provided we act with promptness anda united spirit, I have full faith in the outcome. Unless we are ready to sacrifice, and if need be, to die for the conviction that the freedom of America must be saved, that freedom cannot be preserved.” Colonel Knox told the House Naval Committee that it was critically important now for the navy to have a landing force ready to operate.

“It is our navy which secures the sea for the delivery of munitions tq Britain. It will render as great a service to our country and the preservation of American freedom as in all its