LONG DEBATE

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 140, 10 March 1941, Page 8

LONG DEBATE

Many Amendments

Defeated

PRESIDENT’S POWERS

Sending Of Troops Outside West Hemisphere

(Received March 9, 10 p.m.)

WASHINGTON, March 8.

The final vote on the Lease and Lend Bill was delayed when Senator Nye rose to make his fourth set speech against the Bill, v having already spoken for 11 hours. From the right 1 side of the House came cries of, “Vote! Vote!” Angered, Senator Nye suggested that the policemen, who are assigned to quieten the Senate galleries, should be assigned to the Senate floor. He said that if he had the physical stamina to engage in a one-man filibuster and thought it would defeat the Bill, he would undertake the task cheerfully.

Senator Barkley’s amendment to include farm produce in defence materials. which could be transferred abroad, was adopted on the voices. Senator Barkley said the 1,300,000,000 dollar limitation on defence stocks which could be sent abroad would not apply to farm products. Senator James Davis’s amendment, authorizing the President to use private agencies to test defence materials was unanimously accepted. Senator Taft’s amendment forbidding the use of American ports to British warships needing repairs, was shouted down.

Senators debated far into the night on Friday, as Administration forces successfully repelled successive amendments, most of which were designed to restrict the President’s power to send troops outsi'de the ’ Western Hemisphere or to order the navy to convoy shipments to Britain or to any point within the zone the President proclaimed as a combat zone. Isolationists made their biggest fight on the proposal to limit the President’s power in regard to troopship movements outside’ the Western Hemisphere. Compromise Accepted.

Senate accepted by 65 votes to 24 the Administration’s compromise version of Senator Ellender’s amendment, providing that nothing in the Bill shall change existing laws relating to the movement of American armed forces. The administration won the first major test on the Bill, when the Senate rejected an amendment requiring congressional consent for American armed forces to deliver or convoy war supplies to Europe. Opponents and supporters alike turned against Senator O’Mahoney’s amendment. Later Senator Taft submitted the original version of Senator Ellender’s proposal which was also defeated by 51 votes to 38. The biggest threat to the Administrations position came at the night session, when Senate rejected by 45 votes to 3G Senator Vandenberg’s amendment which would have required the heads of armed forces to certify war materials as “not essential’’ to the nation’s defence before they could be transferred to a foreign government. An amendment by Senator Johnson to prohibit tlie use of future appropriations to maintain military forces outside the Western Hemisphere was also defeated. The vote this time was 56 to 35. Public Opinion. A Gallup survey asked men between the ages of 21 and 29 whether they favoured the Aid Bill, to which 55 per cent, replied Yes, 24 per cent. No, 10 per cent, gave qualified answers, and 11 per cent, expressed no opinion. Dr. Gallup points out that sentiment in the older age groups is likewise predominantly in favour of the Bill. The assistant chief of naval operations advised the Mouse Navy Committee to approve the construction of 200,000 tons more naval auxiliaries, lie said that they would be needed regardless of proposals in the Aid Bill. He also said that the navy would have to take over ships of the Maritime Commission if by any chance the navy were to hand over tankers and other craft to a foreign Bower. Tlie British Ambassador to Washington, Lord Halifax, and the Australian Minister, Mr. Casey, yesterday conferred for an hour with Mr. Cordell Hull, United States Secretary of State. They discussed Europe and the Far East, and afterward Lord Halifax said, "I think we are in very common agreement about the value of the facts and the information we had.” Lord Halifax also stated that his official information showed that the German claims of British sinkings in February were three times greater than the actual figures.