SHOOTING SOON FORECAST

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 299, 15 September 1941, Page 7

SHOOTING SOON FORECAST

United States Navy ANOTHER SHIP SUNK (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Received Sept. 14, 7.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, Sept. 13. The commandant of the New York Naval District, Admiral Adolphus Andrews, in a speech at the New York Yacht Club, said: “We should take off our hats to the British Navy. It is a great organization, with noble traditions. We are with them and hope to do more for them soon.” Admiral Andrews forecast shooting in the Atlantic very soon, adding that every American officer ought to be proud to be there to take it and give -it back in good measure. The State Department in Washington announced that the Americanowned steamer, Montana, flying the Panama flag, was torpedoed and sunk while on her way from the United States to Iceland. The crew of 26 is believed to have taken to the lifeboats. She had no Americans on board. Like the Sessa, the Montana was formerly a Danish ship, and was taken over by the Maritime Commission re-, cently.' She carried a cargo of lumber for the Iceland Government. American Defence Waters. The United States had not officially notified the German Government of the waters it considered it necessary to patrol for the protection of American interests, said the Secretary of State, Mr. Hull, at his Press conference yesterday. But Germany also had not officially informed the United States which waters she wished to prohibit to shipping carrying aid to Britain. “The defensive waters in which American warships will shoot first will be determined by Germany’s action,” Mr. Hull’ said, He indicated that United States naval operations would cover any area on which depended the safety of the Western Hemisphere. “There is, in the Axis movement,” he said, “a world force which has the purpose of conquering continents and seas as far as they can be reached.” Rear-Admiral Yates Stirling, former United States Chief of Naval Operations, considers President Roosevelt’s order to the fleet to shoot at sight covers the Pacific as well as the Atlantic Ocean.

The order would probably involve limited patrol of the routes from America to Australia and from Australia to Singapore, India and Africa, he said. American forces would work in the closest co-operation with Britain and her Allies, which meant that United States ships would use British and Allied bases. Virtual War Declaration. The general opinion in the United States is that the President’s speech was virtually a declaration of war. The “New York Post,” in an editorial, while praising the speech and admiring its restraint and. correctness, nevertheless contends that the President 'should go further. “We ask for instant action to destroy the Nazi menace once and for all,” says the newspaper. “It remains for the American people, if they share the President’s moral judgment against the Nazi system, to impress their views upon him. “We urge them to do this, so that we can free the President to act as we want him to het, by arming him with the expressed will of the majority.” The White House announced that of 1600 messages received ] overnight on the President’s speech, only 150 were critical. Trial of Nazi Agents. German spies secured plans and photographs of a new American bomb early in 1941, it was disclosed at the trial of Nazi agents in New York. It was also disclosed that though the spy leaders in Hamburg boasted in March, 1940, that Germany had already secured the Norden bomb-sight, the Gestapo, in September, 1940, asked spies to discover more about it, indicating the truth of the contention of United States army experts that the Germans did not know enough about the Norden instrument to duplicate it. Shortwave messages from the Gestapo station to what the Germans fondly imagined was a spy station on Long Island, but which the Federal Bureau of Investigation supervised, revealed many German requests for information concerning United States ship movements, aeroplane production, and other defence secrets. FREIGHTER BOMBED IN SUEZ AREA (Received September 14, 9.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, September 13. The State Department announces that another American freighter, the Arkansas, was hit by bombs in the Suez area during the heavy air raid on Thursday night. The ship was damaged. There were no casualties.