Seek Better Relations Between Britain, U.S.

Northern Advocate, 31 January 1940, Page 5

Seek Better Relations Between Britain, U.S.

(Received 2 p.m.)

WASHINGTON, January 30

The Secretary for State (Mr Cordell Hull) and the British Ambassador (the -Marquess of Lothian) conferred, after which Mr Hull expressed the hope that there would be an improvement in relations between Britain and America. The conference touched on the British restrictions on imports of United States tobacco .and on contraband control. Lord Lothian, in a statement, said the British Government was considering the establishment of a control point at St. John, New Brunswick. Examination Base. Earlier advice stated: An announcement can be expected in a few days, says the Ottawa correspondent of Hie “New York Times,” of an Anglo Canadian plan to make St. John, New Brunswick—which is outside the war zone defined by the American Neutrality Act —an examination point for United States ships en route to European neutral ports. This will eliminate what, from the American point of view, is the most objectionable feature of the British contraband control, namely, the fore, ing of American ships Into port in the war zone, where they are forbidden to go under the Neutrality Act.

Anxious to Please United States.

It is understood that Britain regards the matter as the least defensible feature of the blockade against which the United States has protested, and therefore she is anxious immediately to placate American resentment by providing facilities for quick examinations.

The correspondent says the announcement only awaits an expression of opinion from the United States Government.