WEST INDIES BASES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 238, 5 September 1940, Page 7

WEST INDIES BASES.

EXAMINATION OF SITES. TRANSFER OF DESTROYERS. NEW YORK, Sept. 4. , Tho Republican presidential candidate (Mr Wendell Willkie) gives general approval to the transfer of the destroyers to Britain, but criticises the way in which the deal was carried out. He said: “The country will undoubtedly approve the new bases and the assistance to Britain, but it is regrettable that the President has not deemed it necessary to secure the approval of Congress beforehand. Isolationists in Congress allege that the transfer is an act of war.

President Roosevelt announced the location of the bases as follows :

Newfoundland. —On the south shore, which includes the Avalon Peninsula, on which St. Johns is located. Bermuda. —East coast. Bahamas. —Eastern side, near Crooked Island; Passaq. Jamaica. —South shore (the British base is on the south shore at Kingston). St. Lucia.—Western shore. Trinidad. —Gulf of Paria. Antigua.—Only harboui, British Guiana. —Fifty miles from Georgetown. The United States Navy Department announces that Admiral H. R. Stark (Chief of Naval Operations) has certified that the destroyers are not essential for the defence of the United States.

The American Under-Secretary for the Navy (Mr J. V. Forrestal) announced that a first group, consisting of eight destroyers, at present at Boston, will be ready for 'Britain on Friday. They will be sailed to Canada by American crews, and there he taken over by British crews. It is understood the destroyers will be turned over fully armed and equipped, and ready for action.

Mr Forrestal announced that a board of army and navy experts is leaving to-day for Bermuda to examine the sites for the American naval and air bases.