NEUTRALITY LAW

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 50, 1 March 1937, Page 8

NEUTRALITY LAW

ACTION BY AMERICA

Intercepted shipment of aeroplanes

(From "The Post's" Representative.) NEW YORK, January 14. President Roosevelt's first act, after his re-election, was to secure the passage, through both Houses of Congress, of legislation designed to buttress the neutrality law, passed a year ago, which failed.to take cognisance of civil war. v' . . Two hours before the amending legislation was passed, a shipment of war aeroplane* and other equipment was held up by the Government, but was allowed to proceed. ■ The Federal authorities recognised, as the shipper of these aeroplanes, the Soviet Amtorg Trading Corporation, which caused the United States Government a^good deal of worry some years ago. 'Under its new name, "Vimalert," it has for some time past been purchasing* second-h<nd aeroplanes and shipping them from American ports. The shipment intercepted by the President was valued at 3,000,000 dollars. . . * A former vice-president of Amtorg testified before a committee of : the House of Representatives that an individual named Makhnikovsky, associated with Vimalert, was in charge 61 the purchase and repair of American aeroplanes for use by the Soviet. He had obtained from the U.S. War Department drawings of the ' changes made in aeroplane motors during recent years. When questioned closely as to how. these drawings had been obtained^ the witness admitted that they had been purchased by Makhnikovsky. He further identified Makhnikovsky as the head of the Soviet espionage system in America. It is reported in Washington, that Madrid Communist papers openly refer to the United States as an ally, because of the shipment of aeroplanes, and Berlin newspapers have made the same charge, i The State Department, after a full investigation, 'was forced to admit that the sale of the. aeroplanes was within the law, but the President anticipated the approval of Congress in halting the shipments. ; . ,\. The Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce of America assured the President that it had fully co-operated with the Government in seeing that its products were not exported abroad, contrary to the spirit of the neutrality law, in spite of, the fact that manufacturers affiliated with the chamber had been' offered huge profits to do so. ; ■.. In aviation circles, Vimalert is pictured as the country's largest buyer and seller-of second-hand aeroplanes, :with unlimited funds' available. ••' It specialises in buying surplus aeroplanes sold by the United States Army. Unlike the navy, the army does not require that its material shall not be sold to a foreign Government. One recent purchase was for 700 engines and parts, designed for military aeroplanes. Vimalert has now seven large warehouses. An official of Vimalert admitted that 1500 men are now employed, repairing and reconditioning aeroplanes ordered by the Spanish Government.