FLEET SENT TO PACIFIC

Southland Times, Issue 23794, 17 April 1939, Page 7

FLEET SENT TO PACIFIC

* q AMERICA’S SUDDEN DECISION POSSIBLE CHECK TO JAPANESE PLANS OFFICIAL EXPLANATION ■ REFUSED (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received April 16, 7.40 p.m.) WASHINGTON, April 15. i The United States Fleet has been ordered to return to the Pacific from the Atlantic as soon as it has been fuelled. No explanation is given, but it is believed that the move is the outcome of the European tension. It affects all the sea forces except the newly-created Atlantic Squadron.

The sudden transfer of the fleet is believed to have the highest significance and is reported to be the result, at least partly, of intelligence reports that any new military developments in "Europe might be coupled with action by Japan in the East Indies area.

The President (Mr Franklin D. Roosevelt) personally approved the order. The Atlantic Squadron has been reinforced by five cruisers, six submarines and an aircraft carrier. Several units sailed tonight. The main battle fleet, lying at Hampton Roads, is hastily refuelling and is expected to weigh anchor within 36 hours.

The fleet had been engaged Jn manoeuvres in the Caribbean Sea and was due to visit New York for the World’s Fair after a review by the Secretary of the Navy (Mr Claude Swanson) off Virginia Capes on April 27. The Navy Department refused an official explanation of the abrupt sailing.

THREE SUGGESTIONS

Three possible purposes are advanced: (1) Readiness for any eventuality in the Pacific in the event of war. (2) An effort to offset the position of the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo triangle in the event of Mr Roosevelt’s peace move being unsuccessful and at the same time partly allaying British and French fears about the Far East.

(3) A gesture towards relieving

Europe tension. Subscribers to the second belief expressed the opinion that with the British and French fleets concentrated in the Mediterranean the Japanese will be likely to feel free in the Pacific, where they recently seized the strategic Spratley Islands. If Japan has designs upon the East Indies (for petroleum and rubber), as Washington is reported to have been advised, the United States is directly affected because of the proximity of the Philippines. It is, recalled that in 1937 Mr R. A. Eden, then Foreign Secretary, asked Mr Norman Davis at the Brussels Conference whether the United States Fleet would, poliee'the Pacific if Britain were occupied in a European war. Mr Davis declined to make a commitment.

Other quarters consider that the order was timed to accompany Mr Roosevelt’s appeals to the dictators, as a peaceful gesture indicating that the United States has no hostile intentions. A spokesman of the State Department specifically denied this interpretation, saying that the fleet was merely returning to stations.

Norfolk (Virginia) was transformed from carnival gaiety to feverish preparedness when 47,000 men had their leave cancelled and began making more than 100 warships lying at Hampton ■ Roads ready for sea with “the utmost despatch,” as ordered from Washington. Repairs on docked vessels were ordered to be cut short and the loading of ammunition and fuel began immediately. Patrols in New York combed the streets rounding up ratings, and three ships were able to clear the port before night. Newspapers and naval officers are being swamped with inquiries from relations, many of whom had travelled from the Pacific coast, as the fleet was scheduled to remain in the Atlantic until The officers were startled by the change of plans. A peacetime fleet movement of such magnitude and at such short notice is unprecedented.