ROOSEVELT’S REBUKE

Stratford Evening Post, Volume III, Issue 349, 2 May 1935, Page 5

ROOSEVELT’S REBUKE

j UNPRECEDENTED MOVE !

j MILITARY CHIEF OF STAFF | ‘-TOLD OFF”

Press Association— Copyright Washington, April 30. j President Roosevelt took what is bej Ueved to be an unprecedented action j to-day by invoking his power as com- , mander-in-chief of the army to rebuke i the chairman of the House of Represenj tatives Military Affairs Committee for I publishing the testimony of Brigadierj General Charles Kilbourne, until recently i assistant-chief of staff, pertaining to the j’ neutrality of nearby territory in the \ event of a war emergency. ! In recent hearings General Kilbourne 1 declared that it might be necessary to I seize British and French islands in the i Atlantic to prevent the enemy utilising | them as air bases. The President flatly j repudiated such intentions, but appar- ; ently the part of General Kilbourne’s I testimony which w T as found most annoy- ■ ing was the reference to the “camou--1 flaged” section of the Air Base Bill now j under consideration which would j authorise the building of a military avij ation base near the Canadian border 1 under the guise of an “intermediate staj tion for'trans-continental flights.” i President Roosevelt’s letter to the j chairman of the committee; Mr. Mc- ■ Swain, declared that hereafter such tesi timony must either be kept secret or | presented to him for approval before j being published. “I desire to inform the committee that certain portions of the testimony of Gen- ] eral Kilbourne, especially those relating | to the Canadian border, do not repre- , sent the pqlicy of the administration or | the ccmmander-in-chief, nor do they reflect the views, purposes or motives of | the United States Government. This | Government does not envisage any possiI bility of change in the friendly relations i between the United States and any for- ! (*gn country.

“The Government accepts as an accomplished fact the peace conditions cemented by many generations of friendship between Canadian and American people and expects permanently to live up, in the letter as well as the spirit, to the treaties relating to permanent disarmament on the boundary.” In evidence before the committee it was stated that in an emergency the United States must bo prepared to seize British and French islands near America.

Even with Canada neutral, the enemy had the following bases available, it was alleged: Newfoundland, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Trinidad, British Honduras and the Lesser Antilles. To insure against air attacks being launched from any of these in time of emergency they must be kept under surveillance to discover any evidence of the preparation of such bases.

America must be ready to bomb such installations as soon as they were discovered. If the situation was sufficiently vital to require it America must be prepared to seize the outlying bases.