The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-12-20
PRESIDENT TO
 SPEED DEFENSE
CcOntinued from Page D

AAFA%AA NAAA A-~~- - ANAAA interfering least with the sleep and happiness of American tourists; and at Mayaguana Island in the Ba- hamas, where the problem is one of anchoring ships because of the depth of the water near the cliff like island.
 Told that the Duke of. windsor last night had signed a bill to au- thorize the U. s. to build a base at Mayaguana, MT. Roosevelt said that the U. s. still was looking for a bet ter place and declared that there would not be any problem in leas- ing another island if a satisfactory one is found.
 He added that it may be neces- sary to take Mayaguana because even with it's handicaps 1t may be better than any other site. It pro- vides an excellent lagoon for land- ing seaplaneS. But aG p1esent, 1ur. Roosevelt said, it is thougn5 un- satisfactory because of the dlfficuI- ties in anchoring vessels near enough to the base and yet not so near that they would blow ashore. On his own inspection trip, he said that he tried three tlnes but was unable to make satisfactory an- chorage.
 British Sign Contracts
 The British oroer for 60 merchant ships to be built in new American yaruS was the lasJ contract that tlle BriJlsh wall sign under the present system of supplying lmmeulase casn out of their own resources.
 Signing of other contracts in her projected $3,00O,OO0,O00 arms pur- chase program must await acGion oy the new congress on President RooseveIt's lease-loan pan.
 Contracts for the new ships, signed less than 12 hours after tresloent Roosevelt told the British to negotiate for new armament re- quiremenLs pending congressional action, call for the construction of 30 ships in new yard at Rlcnmono, Calif., and 30 at a new yard at South Portland, Me. Britain will help finance the constructor of both yards.
 Senate Democratic Leader Alben w. Barkley and Sen. Ava B. Adams, D., CoIo., an influential member or poth the senate banking mad cur- rency and appropriations commit tees, promised fast acClon on pro- posals to adj Britain financially when the new congress convenes oan. 3.
 The orders for the ships were specifically exempted from the preS- 4oenIS request Lna6 consummaIlo Ilon of the rest of the purcnase pro- gram be delayed until arJer the new year. The British have $50,000, ,000 4n cash set aside for ship consrtuc- Jlon.
 New Shipyards Costly
 The new shlpyardS will cost about $1 ,250,000' each. The Maine yard will be operated by the Todd-Bath Iron Shippuilding Corporation, a nwely- formed company of which the prin- cipal owners are the Todd Snlp- building Co, the Bath Iron Corpo- ration and a group of Pacific coast operators known as Six Services, Inc. The California yard will be op- erated by a new company to be known as the Todd California Shipbuilding Corporation, owned principally by the Todd Shipblildlng O., and Six Services, Inc.
 The new ships will be $500 tons, 416 feet long with a ST foot beam, and a speed of between 10 and Il knots. They will be ideal for oper- ation in conveys. Following sign ing of the contracts in New York last night, it was announced that work on the new yards would begin at 2 a. m., today that the first keels would be laid in about two and one half months.
 Other defense developments indi- cated increasingly closer coordina- tion of this country's rearmament program with Britains require mentS.