AMERICA AND GERMANY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16965, 29 March 1917, Page 5

AMERICA AND GERMANY

LEGISLATIVE ACTION.

TO DECLARE A STATE OF WAR.

Australian and N.Z. Cablo Association. WASHINGTON, March 27. The House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee is preparing a resolution, for presentation to the new Congress (which, is to meet next Wednesday) declaring that the time has arrived when the United States must vindicate her honour and rights, declaring that a state of war with Germany exists through German acts, and giving the President power to act. The resolution will also authorise an increase in the army and navy. GERMANS UNDER SURVEILLANCE. WIDE PKECAUTIONS. ' NEW YORK, March 27. The newspaper Nation states that wide precautions are being taken, following upon the realisation of the necessity to prevent bomb plots and pro-German outrages in the event of a declaration of war. Local governments, as well as the Federal authorities, throughout the United States are co-operating with the police force. In New York, Chicago, St. Louis, and other cities with large German populations an exhaustive canvass is being made to ascertain the addresses, occupations, sympathies, and possible activities of Ger-man-Americans. The authorities also have under surveillance all German restaurants and clubs, for the purpose of familiarising themselves with their probable operations in the event of war. The New York police have worked out elaborate details to meet the emergency. Many sections of New York are almost exclusively German in population, and these are' under particularly close surveillance, the police being i equipped with machine guns and motor lorries in case of emergency. Members of Cabinet realise the need for rigid precautions in preventing plotting. j Their first step was the decision to call J out the National Guard to protect public I works.

Many leading German-Americans are openly ' proclaiming their loyalty to America and signing a loyalty pledge. The members of one German club refused to sign it, asserting that it was unnecessary, and there was much comment on this action.

The nation's precautions are known to the pro-Germans, and are causing them intense uneasiness. The kno%vledge of the authorities' intention to inflict extreme penalties for plotting is thought likely to have a deterrent effect. The newspapers point.out that the' firmest policy is the only way to prevent outrages. Meanwhile a remarkable rush for nationalisation papers continues, and pamphlets explaining how to become an American citizen are being sold in the streets like -wildfire.