DEATH OF COL. KNOX

Grey River Argus, 1 May 1944, Page 5

DEATH OF COL. KNOX

U.S.A. NAVY SECRETARY Tributes to His Memory WASHINGTON, April 28. The death has occurred of Colonel Frank Knox, Secretary of. the'United States Navy since 1940. He had been ill for about a week, - and died of heart failure. Colonel Knox was in robust health until an attack of influenza, several weeks ago, from which he was recuperating when his fatal illness developed. He became ill after he attended a funeral in New Hampshire of a former business partner. The gravity of his illness was not immediately made known by the Navy Department, which merely said that he was suffering from gastro intestinal trouble. The Under-Secretary of the U.S. Navy (Mr James J. Forrestal), who becomes Secretary of the Navy, following the death of Colonel. Frank Knox, has addressed a message to all navy personnel ashore and afloat throughout the world, ordering flags to be flown at half-mast and recounting Colonel Knox’s military and civilian career.

The Senate and the House of Representatives immediately went into recess. Senator Allen Barkley said that the nation had suffered a deplorable loss because of the magnificent manner in which Colonel Knox had done his job. Colonel Knox was born on January 1, 1874, in .Boston, where his father had an oyster market. The father lost his saving in a lobstercanning venture and went west in 1881 to open a grocery store in Grand Rapids, in the northern State of Michigan. When he was 11, Frank Knox began helping his parents by working after school hours. He was in Roosevelt’s Rough Riders in the Spanish-American war. In the last war he saw action at St. Mihiel and in the Meuse-Argonne with the 303rd Ammunition Train of the 78th Division. He engaged in small-town journalism until 1927, when Mr William Randolph Hearst put him in charge of his Boston newspapers. He was soon made general manager of all the Hearst properties. In December, 1930, he left Mr Hearst to become publisher of the Chicago “Daily News.” Repeatedly offered the Navy Secretaryship bv President Robsevelt, Colonel Knox, a Republican and anti-New Dealer, accepted when another Republican, Mr Henry L. Stimson, agreed to become Secretary of War in 1940.

N.Z. SYMPATHY. P.A. WELLINGTON, April 30. Instructions have been given for all flags on Government buildings to be flown at half-mast on Monday as a mark of respect to the memory of Colonel Knox, Secretary of the United States Navy. Local authorities and other public bodies are invited to fly flags half-mast on their buildings.. The following message has been sent by the Acting-Prime Minister, Hon. D. G. Sullivan, to the New Zealand Minister in Washington: “We have learned with deep regret of the death of Colonel Knox, who during his term of office gave such signal service, not only to the United' States, but to all members of the United Nations. Will, you please convey to the President and to Colonel Knox’s family the sympathy of thejGovernment and people of New Zealand.”