The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 1941. THE FRIENDLY HAND AT SEA

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 182, 30 April 1941, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 1941. THE FRIENDLY HAND AT SEA

the course of his review of the war situation Mr. Chui chill threw some light on the implications of President Roosevelt’s previous references to the United States Neutrality Patrol in the Atlantic and other waters adjacent to the Western Hemisphere, and a message from Washington published yesterday added further enlightenment. This is a very much bigger thing than was at first apparent from the President’s remarks, and fully justifies the British Prime Minister s warm appreciation of what he described as tremendous decisions on the part of the American Administration and people. As Mr. Churchill explained:

The American fleet and flying-boats have been ordered to patrol the wide waters of the Western Hemisphere and warn peaceful shipping of all nations outside the combat zone of the presence ot lurking U-boats or cruisers belonging to the two aggressive nations. We British will, .therefore, begin to concentrate our. protecting forces far more upon the routes nearer home and take a far heavier toll of the U-boats there.

The value of this decision to the British Navy and Merchant Service, to say nothing of the shipping of other nations plying the seas infested by enemy raiders, must obviously be immense. President Roosevelt mentioned that vessels of the United States Neutrality Patrol for a year and a half had been operating 1000 miles out into the Atlantic, but it is evident from Mr. Churchill’s reference to “tremendous decisions recently taken,” that the patrol has now been given a new character and a considerably enlarged scale of duties. In fact, within certain defined areas reaching far out to sea both in the Atlantic and the Pacific the United States Navy is now carrying out reconnaissance work. Enemy raiders will not only be shadowed but their locality reported. Official opinion in Washington, according to report, is that “these tactics involve risks,” but, it is added, the issue of peace or war with the United States rests on any decision by Germany and Italy to “make something of it.” _ As the new position stands—it is pregnant with future possibilities—it means a most welcome easement to, the British Navy over practically onethird of the Atlantic crossing in regard to escort duties, and most valuable assistance to the Navy’s hunting craft. Quite definitely it will impose a handicap on the enemy’s raiding activities both in the Atlantic and the Pacific, for Mr, Roosevelt has clearly stated that the patrol will operate in the “Sev,en Seas” if necessary. For this friendly hand at sea the British people will be profoundly grateful, for it may have .a ponderable influence on the course of that crucial struggle in the war at sea that has come to be known as the Battle of the Atlantic.