WILL BE CHECKED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 87, 14 April 1942, Page 5

WILL BE CHECKED

AXIS WAR ON AMERICAN

SHIPPING

MORE PROTECTION

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) (Rec. 9.30 a.m.) BOSTON, April 13.

At a Press conference after a tour of inspection of Atlantic

coastal ports, Colonel Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy, expressed satisfaction with the United States shipbuilding programme and declared that the inshore patrol had been strengthened by over 100 small craft and LOO planes. He said that by May 1 the damage inflicted on United States shipping by submarines off the east coast would be negligible. "Although we can never reach perfection in anti-submarine warfare," he said, "we have taken the necessary measures to protect shipping."

He declared that Boston, like Philadelphia, was in a perilous condition. They were the worst ports he had visited, from the standpoint of protection from fire and sabotage. Therefore both ports needed adequate protection and more patrol boats. Colonel Knox said he would shortly make a similar tour of the Pacific coast. Commenting on the war he said: -This is the greatest naval war m world history because it is so widespread. The United States Navy has never seen such responsibility as it now faces." He added: "Eventually we will beat the game." HELP FOR ENEMIES. The chairman, Senator Homer S Bone (Washington) told the committee that Congressional investigations indicated that a system of cartel and contractual agreements had made available to actual and potential enemies secrets which were vital to the defence of $he United States. He said: "These events will present a strange picture to the future historian and it is vital that we know to what extent the rights and privileges we have granted to individuals under our patent law have been abused and have brought aid and comfort to the enemy in this hour of trial."

Senator Bone asserted that the mobilisation of man-power not only invited but made imperative the mobilisation of dollars, and of every form of property right under the American flag, among which were monopoly rights under the patent system.

"That these should be made freely and fully available to the Government in its hour of peril and so not hinder or impede the war effort or add unduly to its cost seems too clear for cavil or dispute," he said.