NEUTRALITY ISSUE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 113, 14 May 1940, Page 8

NEUTRALITY ISSUE

CONTROVERSY LIKELY

HELP FOR ALLIES

EXTENSION OF CREDITS

(Received May 14, noon.)

WASHINGTON, May 13.

Mr. A. L. Bulwinkel has introduced a Bill in the House of Representatives to suspend the restrictions under the neutrality law to permit the extension of American credits to European belligerents for the purchase of nonmilitary goods.

This is presumably the forerunner of a series of proposals which are expected to precipitate a national controversy concerning direct financial and economic help for the Allies. The Secretary of State, Mr. Cordell Hull, has adopted a cautious attitude towards a suggestion by Argentina that the American countries should confer immediately with a view to "realistic" revision of the neutrality status of countries in the Western Hemisphere.

Mr. Hull said that he had not yet received the text of the communique issued by the Argentine Foreign Minister, Senor Cahtilo, but indicated that he would study it in detail before taking a definite stand on the issue. "BASED ON REALITY." A communique issued in Buenos Aires by the Argentine Foreign Office advocated revision of the neutrality policy adopted under the Declaration of Panama and the development of an attitude among the American republics "based on reality." It contended that the. "belligerent countries do not respect the will of neutrals and neutrals are unable to ob- ! tain respect for their neutrality. Neutrality was ' created to preserve sovereignty but, under present condiItions, it does not protect it. In view lof this it is a mere fiction and must be replaced within the reality of the moment in which we live." A message from Panama City states that the Foreign Secretary of the Panama Republic, Senor Garay, said that contact was being made with all the American countries to learn if they wish to make a united protest against the German invasion of the Low Countries and Luxemburg.