AMERICAN FLEET"

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24792, 17 December 1941, Page 7

AMERICAN FLEET"

PACIFIC SQUADRON PEARL HARBOUR LOSSES TOTAL OF SEVEN VESSELS WASHINGTON, Dec. 14. The Secretary of the Navy, Colonel Frank Knox, who visited Hawaii, has arrived. He visited White House. It is reported that he discussed with President Roosevelt, Lord Halifax and the Under-secretary of the Navy, Mr James V. Forrestal. the problem of supreme allied unified command. Giving the first details of, the damage caused by the Japanese in their raid on Pearl Harbour. Colonel Knox revealed that the battleship Arizona was sunk, together with the training ship Utah, three destroyers and two other smaller vessels. Serious damage was caused to the battleship Oklahoma, which was already being repaired. Commenting on Colonel Knox's statement, the New York Times says the news was' heart-warming, and doubly Jeassurinig, America still had a navy in the Pacific capable of carrying the battle tq Japan. The New York Herald-Tribune was more emphatic in pointing out. that the most important fact was that the first Japanese attack failed. The loss of the Arizona was serious, but the reduction in the fighting power was no greater than the Japanese had already suffered in retribution.