THE EXPANDING HEMISPHERE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24715, 18 September 1941, Page 6

THE EXPANDING HEMISPHERE

The ruling of the United States State Department upon the limits beyond which American shipping may not, by the terms of the Neutrality Act, conduct operations with belligerent nations is somewhat indefinite —and, it must be concluded, deliberately so. There is, it appears, a decided reluctance in official circles to state explicitly the areas that have become open to United States ships under a new definition of the scope of the Act, but there is every indication that the interpretation is being made upon a broader basis than was previously understood. Ships of American register arc still forbidden to enter the waters of the " United

Kingdom "-—a description of the British Isles which of itself leaves the Isle of Man, so to speak, " within bounds " —but it is stated by usually well-informed newspapers that the prohibition will exclude the west coast of Africa, and other vital South Atlantic ports, and apparently the whole of the Far Eastern area around the Malay Archipelago. There has at no time been any hindrance upon United States shipping communications with Australia and New Zealand, and the Red Sea and Soviet Pacific coast have remained open to American vessels in spite of their proximity to actual belligerent operations. Coincidently with this legal broadening of the range of the activities of United Stales merchant shipping, President Roosevelt's recent announcement of the instructions to the navy to clear American waters of Axis shipping raiders has extended again the scope of his expanding Western Hemisphere. Ampli : fying Mr Roosevelt's statement, which was in general terms, Colonel Knox, the Secretary of the Navy, has said that the United States Navy has orders to "capture or destroy by every means at its disposal" raiders encountered between the American Continent and Iceland. This licence alone would enable an active, or " shooting," patrol over a very great part of the Atlantic, only vaguely bounded by the previous limits of the neutrality patrol. But there is every reason for believing that Pacific waters are included in the instruction. The report from London of a dramatic search by the United States Navy over a wide Pacific area for three German raiders suggests that the Administration at Washington is co-operating with the British in ridding of hostile craft waters in which Anglo-American interests are concerned. There would, in fact, be a lack of logic in any order, designed for the protection of American shores, which excluded from the navy's attention routes so vital as that by which essential supplies must be brought to the United States from the East Indies, or the routes by which American aid is being sent to Russia, to the Far East, or to the British dominions of the South Pacific, or which provide communication between the United States and the naval and air bases in the Pacific. The actual extent of the charter now possessed by the United States Navy on patrol, and especially on belligerent patrol, against predatory Axis vessels, may remain for a long time without exact definition. For reasons that are no doubt politically sound Mr Roosevelt appears to be reluctant to approach Congress with a request for the repeal of the Neutrality Act, and he is at least morally bound not to involve the navy in hostilities without specific Congressional authorisation. All developments point, however, to a determination on his part, which will have the endorsement of the American people, to make a reality of the furnishing of aid to the fighting democracies, whatever the risks involved, and to insist upon retention by the United States of- freedom of the seas.