NOT U.S.A. POLICY

Taranaki Daily News, 2 May 1935, Page 5

NOT U.S.A. POLICY

SEIZING BRITISH POSTS REBUKE BY PRESIDENT EVIDENCE OF A GENERAL ACTIONS IN EMERGENCY DISARMAMENT ON BORDER By Telegraph—Press Assn—Copyright. Rec. 7.15 p.m. Washington, April 30. President Roosevelt took what is believed to be an unprecedented action to-day by invoking his power as com-mander-in-chief of the army to rebuke the chairman of the House of Representatives Military Affairs Committee for publishing the testimony ,of BrigadierGeneral Charles Kilbourne, until recently assistant-chief of staff, .pertaining to the neutrality of nearby territory in the event of a war emergency.

In recent hearings General Kilbourne declared that it might be necessary to seize British and French islands in the Atlantic to prevent the enemy utilising them as air bases. The President flatly repudiated such intentions, but apparently the part of General Kilbourne’s testimony which was found most annoying was the reference to the “camouflaged” section of the Air Base Bill now under consideration which would authorise the building of a military aviation base near the Canadian border under the guise of an “intermediate station for trans-continental flights.” President Roosevelt’s letter to the chairman of the committee, Mr. McSwain, declared that hereafter such testimony must either be kept secret or presented to him for approval before being published. “I desire to inform the committee that certain portions of the testimony of General Kilbourne, especially those relating to the Canadian border, do not represent the policy of the administration or the commander-in-chief, nor do they reflect the views, purposes or motives of the United States Government. This Government does not envisage any possibility of change in the friendly relations between the United States and any foreign 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 if was stated that in an emergency the United States must be 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.