' ■!?' SHIP Last night, while President Roosevelt was denouncing German attacks at sea, an event had occurred about which he apparently knew nothing. If he had known, he would surely have told - would have featul'^d the information as the nKKsxExit newrest and the latest, hot news to''>^upporty his case. The President spoke at ten o clock at nigW. ^ess than twelve hours before he began his radio address, a Nazi subarmine tor TP ship off Iceland. pedoed Among the incidents excoriated by the President was the sinking, last Tuesday, of the steamship STESSA, a vessel operating under the flag of the Republic of Panama, but owned by an American maritime concern. It w'as a former Danish ship taken over by the United States and transferred to the Panamanian registry - on its way to Iceland with a non-military cargo of foodstuffs The ship sunk yesterday, the very day of the President’s address - was much the same. There’s an almost startling 3 j[_jj^^2.arity. The S.S. MONTANA was likev'ise a vessel flying the Panamanian flag and of American ownership. Like the SfESSA, it was one of the Danish ships taken over by the United States n x { SHIP - 2 and transferred to PanajJanian registry. And also - it was carrying a cargo to Iceland, non-military, lumber this time. Ye sini:ing would have been a telling item to have included in the list of Nazi offenses, two almost identical ships instead of one. But the news did not break until today. The State Department was informed by the Navy Department - at noon, V.Tiy wasn’t the event known before? Why wasn’t it known yesterday? These questions bring up an odd point. The Navy Department states that the torpedoing off Iceland was witnessed by British warplanes. You^d think that they w’ould have flashed the information so that the President would have had it. There must be some reason that can’t be guessed right now. No lives were lost-»ift the—0ink-ing of—this—ooeond p owned bv Ame-rioan^ The crew took safely to their boats, and at last reports were still afloat. No one of the crew iJ i i- M: I t IS an American. /Secretary Knox was asked if any American warship^ had hurried to the scene to carry out the President's order to 1 SHIP _ 3 shoot on sight. The Secretary replied that apparently no United States naval vessels were in the vicinity. A report of the sinking was given to the President 7.hile he was holding a Cabinet meeting this afternoon, and you can be sure that this latest incident immediately became a large matter of discussion by the President and the Cabinet - the incident that the President did not know about yesterday. 1^11 bet he wishes that he had known. i REACTIONS The immediate German response to the Roosevelt proclamation was to announce the sinking of a lot of ships - twenty-six in all. The Nazi high command tells of a big battle between a pack of submarines and a huge convoy in the North Atlantic. this action, Berlin claims, the D-boats torpedoed -zWt? and swik twenty-^|i3?» freighters for a total of a hundred and thirty-four thousand tons. The attack, say the Nazis, has been going on for two days and is still continuing. In addition. Berlin announces the sinking of three steamships off the coast of Britain for a total of twenty-one thousand tons, and they claim that German planes bombed and damaged a British cruiser. The Italians chime in by reporting th&t Fascist submarines sank A a couple of British ships in the Atlantic. The Berlin news was announced on the radio with the blaring of trumpets, and undoubtedly was timed to be some kind of an answer to the momentous radio event of last night. As for a more direct reply - Nazi Germany certainly A -----------------■■ seems to be in a quandary. V/hat v.'ill do about President i i II I 11 I I RE^.CTIONS - 2 Roosevelt’s order to the Navy - to clear German submarine and surface raiders out of a large area of the North Atlantic? An area which President Roosevelt described as - ^'def^sive waters.*’ The Nazi dilemma was sharply pointed out today by many commentators. Either they will withdraw their raiding boats from the forbidden area, or they’ll fight - the United States would be in a A A shooting war. If they withdraw - they’ll leave the sea open to the unimpeded flow of war supplies from the United States to Britain. That is - virtually unimp^ed, depending upon the ^ extent of the area in which American warships will operate | under the order to shoot first/ That might lose the war for them. i;| But then, the entrance of th^ United States into the conflict j might do the same thing. It’^a tough one for Hitler to decide in those ■«. fi dreamy seances of his. \.Unlversalopinion is that the President's A proclamation puts it directly up to Hitler. And what the Nazis do is likely to tell the tale of whether or not we get into the I war, how and when. I- j A m ■ I ihtTi/iV reactions - 3 So what, has Berlin to say today. /In Nazi quarters, the statement was issued that Germany will take what it calls "file’ll take what action they feel appropriate measures they’re compelled tci take. --- tr-oenpul-e^ft^** And one Nazi spokesm^ used these words:- ”The President clearly told the world that he alone is responsible for all ensuing developments.All of this is pretty vague - witn little indication of whit the Berlin decision will be From Rome the Expression of opinion is much more forthright. Gayda, Mussolini’s^ulliiJi'oiP^ writes that there^ be shooting. He sa^ thatUhe Axis now has no alternative but to take action, which he deicribes in these words:- "attack «*• f United States naval ves^els^W sight.” In Britain, the Roosevelt declaration^ awTreceived with unmitigated rejoicing, yhe British people believe^ will be followed soon by the event which the British so much desire - the United States entrance into the war. In Moscow too there is cheering. Today Vice-'.^ommissar REACTIONS - 4 Lozovsky quoted the presidential radio talk and described it in the following words:- "This," said he, "is a most serious blow to Germany, not only in a political sense - but something more." DEFE^^SIVE The one most important question left in doubt in the President's address last night was this - defensive waters? How much of the Atlantic Ocean comes jj^der that heading? The question is of the utmost importance - everything hangs on it. If the President has ordered the Navy to keep Axis submarines and surface raiders out of a certain area of the Atlantic - what area? much of the ocean is to be made safe for the shipping of every nation - especially including British? How far across does the zone of shooting at sight extend? The best surmise that one could draw from the presidential words was, that waters which the President considered f A vital to the defense of the United States would include at least everything west of our supply line to- Iceland. But that w’as Just guessing, and today prompt jHfiqtilyies were madT? li>-Kfashj:ng1iOR'>^. m Iww much uf the AUlaritie Ogofin-^n rrrf»lwded-40^the.>t>er« adofenotv^. ^rie query w^as taken to the ^Tiite House and put to A PresirtentiEl Secretary Early, said he was in no position to f Y,ATLBS - 2 interpret the President's speech, and referred the neiivs men to the State Department - Secretary Hull. At the State Department the Secretary held a news conference, and there he answered the question ty saying that ’’defensive waters”would cover an area of the ocecoi where the safety of the Western Hemisphere might be considered to be threatened. This hardly outlined the precise kind of boundar^^ that one would expect in good map making. The Secretary added that in the final analysis, the extent of our defense waters would be determined by Nazi activity on the ocean. Which still left the boundaries of that all-important area somewhat dim and nebulous. So we’ll have to wait and see - future events are likely to provide us with an eloquent and even noisy definition, .r IL I |:| N’ Ifll n I i m fi Lli 1i I i GRiiLK On Wednesday or Thursday of next vveek, the Senate Naval Affairs Committee will begin an investigation of the attempted torpedoing of the United States destroyer GRIER, That episode of the N^rth Atlantic was, of course, the principal incident that President Roosevelt named last night as reason# for action against ® fli Nazi submarines and surface raiders. Resolutions for an inquiry into the affair of the GREER were introduced by Isolationist Senators Nye and Clark. And today Committee Chairrran Senator Walsh of Massachusetts announced plans for the hearing. He said that I' Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox will be asked to testify concerning the attack on the GREER - just how it occurred and exactly what happened. And Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Stark v/ill be requested to appear. So we^re to have a full canvassing of the incident that produced a new development in administration foreign policy ^ A a step nearer war. The proceedings will be public,( and for thio the "foll'JTTlng res Walslu—"This- hociring will not-be-ee^-et, this —t hr an 11 cQimBik Last night president Roosevelt charged that in the Republic of Columbia there were secret German air fields - not far from the Panama Canal. At, Bogota today the Columbiay\ Minister of H^a^ stated that he is investigating reports of illegal airfields. These, he said, are claimed to be on the property of Germans living in the Republic of Columbia. He named places^whe>*4> sacret aipf-ie^dc are gaid-^to bOy- ulaoeaj some three hundred miles from the Panama Canal. / SPEECH Last night the second largest radio audience listened in. The presidential broadcast had a rating of sixty-seven per cent That*s the result of a survey made by Radio Agency. The potential radio audience is reckoned at about sixty million people. Of these, sixty-seven per cent listened to the much heralded address by wireless. In other words, more than forty million Americans listened. President ^^oosevelt, star of radio stars, always has a tremendous rating. In his fireside chat of last Becember he had percentage of fifty-nine. His highest was in May when he declared a state of unlimited emergency. That time the percentage figure was - seventy-three points higher than the figure for last night White House Secretary Steve Early tells us that telegrams have been pouring into the White House, and the first count shows that they're about ten-to-one in support of the President's order to the Navy to shoot at sight. k M 1_ ill 7|i I I n f LIKEBERGH Th6 Vkhite House today took another fling at Lindbergh - L-»ndbergh speech last night. At Des Moines, Iowa, under the auspices of the America First Committee, the world*s most famous aviator made an address shortly after President Roosevelt was on the air - with his "shoot at sight" declaration. Lindbergh charged that the United States is being led into war by influences that he described in these words:- "the British, the Jewish, and the Roosevelt administration." Today in V.'ashington, White-House Secretary Steve Early had the following to say:- have seen the out-pouring of Berlin in the last few days. You saw Lindbergh*s statement last night. I think," he coinmented, "there is a striking similarity between the two." i f with Presidential Secretary Steve Early making comment on the mmm snVTLT r ID PreEWent RooaovoXt today gave instructions to the American mission that's going to lioscov?. He had a talk with Averell Harriman and other memoers of the group that are soon to leave for the Soviet capital, to join a British mission in conferences with heads of the Stalin Government and the He'S Arwy- The fullest aid to the Soviets - that's what the President told them to work for. For how long a period is the United States prepared to help the Soviets? Upon emerging from the Thite House, Averell uarriman said:- "There will be no time limitation except that we will work for ultimate victory." •mm v ; ak Ty.e events of war are clouded in doubt tonight - lc.rgely because of^oonv^ed portents of a renewed Nazi drive, ^ A ______ Moscow continues to tell of victorious counter-att;acks. Berlin is reticent^ and admits the offensives that are being staged by the Red army. It’s from London that we have rather worried word that things may become dangerous for the Soviets, \ London reports that the Nazis have started a new blitzkrieg drive at the center of the line - at Gomel. This offensive seems to be making headway and it constitutes what a British military spokesman described in these terms:- ’’a definite grave danger to Kiev and the defenses of the Ukraine.” i i 1 SPIES The Nevi Y^rk spy triel continues to produce some odd twisters. It was ironic for agents of the F.B.I. to be in under-cover radio communication with the Gestapo in Hamburg - the G-men posing as Nazi spies over here^Uut the comedy became a scream when the Gestapo flashed the following:- ”You are under surveillance”. This was the dramatic message received by the G-men, pretending to be spies. The espionage headquarters of the Nazis warned them that they were being watchedy- by tne F.B.I., no doubt. Just how the Gestapo boys contrived to get that bit of information isn’t clear, but they ordered the secret wireless set on Long Island to stay off the air for two weeks. Yo’J can imagine how the F.B.I. humorists laughed at that oneI But, as they were supposed to be an espionage group over here, they obeyed orders. They didn*t communicate with Hamburg for two weeks. By that time, presumably, they A : hi 11 were not under surveillance any longer! O Xo V 1