HELIUM BAN

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 241, 8 July 1938, Page 8

HELIUM BAN

American Decision

REBUFF TO GERMANY President Roosevelt recently ignored the opinion of his highest military advisers and allowed Harold Ickes, Secretary of Interior, single-handed to deny sale of helium to Germany, without which the new airship LZ-130 must remain a lifeless hulk in its hangar in Germany.

Action was made public in the form of a White House announcement that President Roosevelt is without legal power to override the judgment of any single member of the six-man board which was authorised by Congress to pass on the question of sale of helium gas abroad. By so doing, the President washed his hands of the matter and left it up to Mr. Ickes alone to deny Germany the helium it is so anxious to have to resume a trans-Atlantic service with airships. It was explained at the White House that the Helium Act requires a unanimous approval by all six members of a Government board. It was Learned in other quarters that the other five members of the board had voted in favour of selling the necessary. helium to Germany. It was also learned that within half an hour previous to the White House announcement. President Roosevelt had heard from General Malin Craig, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, and Admiral William D. Leahy, a definitive opinion that in their judgments the sale of helium to Germany would not give Germany a weapon of any military importance. The announcement was made after a conference with the President, attended by Solicitor-General Robert H. Jackson, Mr.'lckes, Admiral Leahy and General Craig.

There is n o doubt among informed observers in Washington that domestic politics played the major role in this outcome. Mr. Ickes is < reported to have political ambitions in the future, which undoubtedly would be furthered by such a decision, calculated to appeal to groups unsympathetic to Germany. Mr. Ickes is expected t® obtain whatever political benefit accrues from keeping Germany’s big new airship at borne, and its swastika emblems out of the skies. So far as the official announcement is concerned, the denial of helium to Germany is indefinite. In the words of Stephen T. Early, White House Press Secretary, it was decided that the sale of helium to Germany is prohibited until all members of the helium board agree that the sale would not be of military importance. The decision is viewed among airship enthusiasts in Washington as a serious blow to the further development of lighter-than-air transportation. American interests had counted on successful operation of the LZ-130 to build up interest for revival of an American iighter-than-air industry.