SECRET SOLD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 29, 4 February 1939, Page 9

SECRET SOLD

us. ARMY’S PRIZED POSSESSION America And The Democracies ANOTHER SENSATION CAUSED SENATOR NYE’S ALLEGATION [By Telegraph—Prt*l Association—Copyright I Received Feb. 4. 1 a.m. NEW YORK, Feb. 3. A forecast of something still more sensational than the sale of advanced-type American warplanes to France, has been given by Senator Nye, says the Washington correspondence of the New York Herald-Tribune. Senator Nye stated to-night that he had received reports that the army’s most prized possession, an antiaircraft gun director, had been sold to Britain. The instrument, which was a most closely-guarded secret until last summer when the "deal” was made with Britain, has the power of focusing a radio beam on an approaching aeroplane by picking up faint electrical discharges from its spark piugs and automatically training anti-aircraft batteries on the machine long before the eye or ear can sense its approach. The release of this gun to Britain is understood to have occurred after the French Ambassador, M. Bullitt, persuaded Mr. Roosevelt on the subject of the urgency of the situation abroad. An indication that the foreign policy situation is rapidly coming to a head is also seen in a formal statement issued by the nine Republican members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "We minority members deplore and protest against the un-neutral actions and secret methods employed by the President, which would not have been

known to the American people excepi through an accidental injury to . French flying-officer on January 26. they state. “We have no objection tc the sale of aeroplanes to any natior with which we have diplomatic relations, but we insist that such secrei and un-neutral acts will entangle us in foreign conflicts and endanger the peace of America. We urge the President to present all the facts openly tc the American people and uphold our traditional fore'gn policy of neutrality non-intervention and peace. American people, irrespective of party, are opposed to being on a committee of any war programme through secret diplomacy.” Former Representative Fish, known as Mr. Roosevelt’s "best hater.” accused the President of entering a quasi-military alliance with France and with intent to fortifying Guam so that it would “be an arrow aimed at the heart and life-blood of Japan.” The Government acknowledged tonight that it was being sued by General Franco for the recovery of 10,000,000 dollars worth of silver purchased by the United States from the loyalists. Continuous pressure on the President over foreign policy is expected to induce him to make one of his socalled “fireside chats” in the near future to clarify the position and reassure the people. BURNING CONTROVERSY the preside:. policy. Received Feb. 3, 9.30 p.m. MONTKEA.L,, *eb. 2. The Washington controversy concerning aid to me aemocracies continued to rage unabated to-uay, and a conterence between Mr. RooseveL anu another Congressional committee, tms time the House Appropriations buoCommitlee, developed mrther interesting features in me dispute. Members of the committee said that Mr. Roosevelt turned to the other side me direction of the question whether the United States should permit airplane purchases by Germany and Italy on .he same basis as those by France. Mr. Roosevelt allegedly said: “That l the question.” The President reiterated his belie! that the French purchases would be beneficial to the American aeroplane industry, making it ready lor the first American order, under an appropriation of 50,000,000 dollars whicn is expected from Congress shortly under ihe Presidents larger 309,000,00J.d011ar military plane-building pro’gramme. The Secretary to the Treasury, Mr. Henry Morgenthau, replying to Senator Lodge's statements concerning the stabilisation fund, denied that any of its two billion dollars would be used “directly or indirectly, or in any way whatsoever to help any country make any purchases of merchandise.” The Secretary for the Interior, Mr. Harold L. Ickes, entered the controversy with a statement that there was no danger of the United States becoming involved in a war under Mr. Roosevelt’s adiministration, and he strongly attacked Mr. Hoover’s statements. “I think he owes it to the American people not to misrepresent things and become an alarmist when there is no provocation,” said Mr. Ickes. Replying to a question concerning the charges by Herr Hitler that he (Mr. Ickes) is a war-monger, the Secretary replied: “I do not think any man in America more smeerely wants peace than I.” FRENCH PRESS COMMENT PARIS, Feb. 2. The Press, without exception, emphasises the revolutionary character of Mr. Roosevelt’s pronouncement, some claiming that it is an abandonment of the isolationist policy for active participation in European affairs, with the realisation that America could not hold aloof if the totalitarian States committed acts of aggression against the democracies. The Petit Parisien says that Mr. Roosevelt could implement his ideas more quickly than Rome and Berlin imagine.