The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-09-12
hoot First Orders Given by President to American Navy

= does not relate to any isolated episode.
 Instead, we Americans are talk ing a long-range point of view in regard to certain fundamentals and to & series of events on land and on sea which must be con- sidered as 8 whole-as a part of a world pattern.
 It would be unworthy of great nation to exaggerate an isolated incident, or to become inflamed by some one act of violence. But it would be inexcusable folly to minimize such incidents in the face of evidence which makes 1t clear that the incident is not iso- lated, but part of a general plan.
 The important truth is that these acts of international law lessness are a manifestation of 8 design which has been made clear to the American people for long time. It is the Nazi design to abolish the freedom of the seas, and to acquire absolute control and domination of the seas for themselves.
 For with control of the seas in their own hands, the way can be- come clear for their next step of the United States and the Western hemisphere by force. Under Nazi control of the seas, no merchant ship of the United States or of any other American republic would be free to carry on any peaceful conn., rnerce, except by the condescend- ing grace of this foreign and tyrannical power. The Atlantic ocean which has been and which should always be, a free and friendly highway for us would then become a deadly menace to the commerce of the United States, to the coasts of the United States, and to the inland cities of the United Staes.
 Defying Law
 The Hiler government, in def1- ance of the laws of the sea and of the recognized rights of all other nations, has presumed to declare, on paper, that great areas of the seas-even including a vast eX- panse lying in the Western heni- sphere-are to be closed, and that no ships may enter them for any purpose, except at peril of being sunk. Actually they are sinking ships at will and without warning in widely separated areas both within and far outside of these far-f1urlg pretended zones.
 This Nazi attempt to seize con- trol of the oceans is but a coun- terpart of the Nazi plots now be- ing carried on throughout the Western hemisphere-all designed toward the same end. For Hit ler's advance guards-not only his avowed agents but also his dupes among us-have sought to make ready for him footholdS and bridgeheads in the New World, to be used as soon as he gained con- trol of the oceans,
 His intrigues, his plots, his ma chinations. his sabotage in this New World are all known to the government of the United States. Conspiracy has followed conspir- acy.
 Last year a plot to seize the government of Uruguay was smashed by the prompt action of that country, which was support ed in full by her American neigh bors. A like plot was then hatch ing in Argentina, and that govern ment has carefully and wisely blocked it at every point. More recently, an endeavor was made to subvert the government of Be- livia. Within the past few weeks the discovery was made of secret air landing fields in Colombia, within easy range of the Panama canal. I could multiply instances.
 Control of Seas
 To be ultimately successful in world mastery, Hitler knows that he must get control of the seas. He must first destroy the bridge of ships which we are building across the Atlantic, over which we shall continue to roll the im- plements of war to help destroy him and all his works in the end. He must wipe out our patrol on sea and in the air. He must st- lence the British navy.
 It must be explained again and again to people who like to think of the United States navy as an invincible protection, that this can be true only if the Brit ish navy survives. That is sim pie arithmetic.
 For if the world outside the Americas falls under Axis dom- ination, the shipbuilding facili- ties which the Axis powers would then possess in all of Europe, in the British Isles, and in the Far East would be much greater than all the shipbuilding facilities and potentialities of all the Americas not only greater, but two or three times greater. Even if the United States threw all its re- sources into such a situation, seeking to double and even redou- ble the size of our navy, the Axis powers, in control of the rest of the world, would have the man. power and the physical resources to outbuild us several times over.
 It is time for all Americans of all the Americas to stop being deluded by the romantic notion that the Americas can go on liv- ing happily and peacefully in a Nazi-dominated world.
 Generation after generation, America has battled for the gen. eral policy of the freedom of the seas. That policy is a very sim pie one-but a basic, fundamental one. It means that no nation has the right to make the broad oceans of the world at great dis tances from the actual theater of land war, unsafe for the com- merce of others.
 That has been our policy, proved