NAVAL MISSION TO EUROPE

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24960, 22 August 1946, Page 5

NAVAL MISSION TO EUROPE

LINK SEEN WITH U.S. DIPLOMACY COMING MANOEUVRES IN MEDITERRANEAN (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) NEW YORK, August 21. “Whatever the purpose of Admiral Marc Mitscher’s and Vice-Admiral Forrest Sherman’s mission to Europe, which the United States Navy has termed ‘a routine inspection tour,’ the fact is that the approaching Mediterranean manoeuvres can serve to demonstrate that United States naval might is on hand to back up American diplomatic declarations,” says the Associated Press correspondent in Washington. “Those declarations themselves appear to be taking on a tougher tone, reflecting the attitude in some Washington quarters That the time has come for the United States to mark a line beyond which it will not go in compromising on established principles.”

A Washington report says that the United States chiefs of staff and the British and American Combined Chiefs of Staff—the top level Army, Navy, and Air Force planners who directed the war strategy from Washington—are reported to be giving intensive study to the Jugoslav incidents as part of what is regarded as a generally unsatisfactory situation in Europe. The Washington correspondent of the “New York Times” says: “The military and naval men are frankly stumped by the action of the Jugoslavs in attacking American transports. but do not intend to be stampeded into acts that might lead to war. Contrasting with the Jugoslav and Russian conduct in harassing American aeroplanes which have strayed from their course, it is pointed out that Russian aeroplanes have habitually deviated from their prescribed course in Japan and Germany without being attacked by American fighters.”