WILLING TO MAN CONVOYS

Southland Times, Issue 24420, 28 April 1941, Page 5

WILLING TO MAN CONVOYS

ATTITUDE OF U.S. SEAMEN

(Rec. 10 p.m.) CHICAGO, April 26. Captain May, national vice-president of the American Federation of Labour Masters, Mates and Pilots’ Union, said today that his organization of 7000 seamen was willing to man convoys across the Atlantic. “My outfit,” he said, “was voted to back up the national defence programme 100 per cent., and if that means convoying, O.K. We will take them on.”

Mr Roosevelt, questioned at a Press conference on reports that 40 per cent, of the supplies shipped to Britain were being sunk, said that he did not be-

lieve anyone possessed accurate data about the matter. He added that 40 per cent, was an over-high estimate. Mr Wendell L. Willkie called upon the administration today to give the American people the full facts of the reported sinking of war materials en route to Britain and urged immediate steps to halt the sinkings. “I believe the American people can be brought to a realization of the seriousness of the situation if the full facts are disclosed,” he said. USE OF PATROL VESSELS After the forthright pronouncements yesterday of Colonel Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy, and Mr Cordell Hull, Secretary of State, President Roosevelt at today’s Press conference, rather surprisingly placed the emphasis on the extended use of patrol vessels rather than on convoys. He declared that the American neutrality patrol vessels would operate as far into the waters of the seven seas “as may be necessary for the defence of the American hemisphere” but said that the Administration was “not yet thinking of escorting convoys.” He declined to amplify his views on the convoy situation, but said that for a year and a-half the vessels of the neutrality patrol had been operating 1000 miles into the Atlantic from the eastern shores of Maryland. He said that the patrol would not necessarily be confined to the Atlantic.

Asked exactly what was the difference between a convoy and a patrol, Mr Roosevelt replied: “In the first instance it is escorting merchant ships in a group to prevent an act of aggression against them. “A patrol, on the other hand, is a reconnaissance of certain areas of the ocean to find out whether there are any possible aggressor ships that might be coming into the western hemisphere.”

Mi - Roosevelt was reminded that three of his Cabinet officers yesterday had publicly expressed concern about the aid to Britain and was asked how this squared with his Press conference remarks. He said that he did not know and dodged a question as to whether the country had anything better in mind than the convoy system to ensure the delivery of war supplies to Britain.