US. CARGO SHIPS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 92, 19 April 1941, Page 10

US. CARGO SHIPS

TRANSFER TO BRITAIN

FOUR IMMEDIATELY

NAVAL MATERIAL

WASHINGTON, April 17._

The Maritime Commission announced the acquisition of four American cargo ships for immediate transfer to Britain. These ships will sail under the British flag and will be manned by British officers and crews. The Secretary of the Navy, Colonel ICnox,' told a Senatorial Committee investigating defence that 128,000,000 dollars' worth of naval material had been shipped to Britain by April 14. He added that plans were completed to deliver an additional 272,000,000 dollars' worth. NEW YORK, April 18. The military expert of the "New York Times," after making a survey, telegraphs from Washington that the country's shortage of. modern anti-air-craft guns is still serious. INSUFFICIENT GUNS. Almost a year after the German blitzkrieg began, the navy has not sufficient guns of the,desired types to equip all its combatant ships, much less merchantmen. The army has not enough equipment to protect half the principal cities on the eastern seaboard or the field armies. . If the navy should be ordered in the near future to take up convoy duties the shortage, particularly _of guns roughly equivalent to the British pom-poms, would probably handicap the efficient protection of such convoys. This urgent need has been recognised with growing force in the past few months, and nearly all possible sources are now being tapped. A thousand guns are on order. The problem of building up the United States anti-aircraft strength is complicated by the fact that similar weapons are being produced for Britain, who. needs every such gun which can be spared. The Army Chief of Staff, General Marshall, announced that 500,000 civilians are being enrolled as volunteer observers in a national network to give warning against aerial invaders. FREEDOM OF PRESS. President Roosevelt told the American Society of Newspaper Editors that there would be no Government control of news excepting that .involving vital military information. Mr. Roosevelt said free speech was the undisputed possession of the Press, radio, and motion pictures. The defence production chief, Mr. Knudsen, stated that the automobile industry had agreed to a 20 per cent, reduction in car output, which would involve a million cars. V ; In a, speech to a conference of United Service organisations, Mr. William L. Batt, Deputy-Director of Defence Production, said that a 7,000,000,000-dollar war aid fund was just the start of help that the United States would eventually have to furnish Britain. He issued a .warning that the "honeymoon is over," and summoned" the nation to awaken to the seriousness of the task that confronts it.