Nogales international., 1941-05-17

President Knows What He Intends To
Do And Will Do 1t AT Proper Time
COME Of the newspaper columnists have reverted to
reading the Presidents mind and suggest
that he is undecided what course he intends to pur
sue IN relation to the convoy question.
Having no more definite information on that sub
ject than the President has disclosed in his regular
press conferences still willing to venture that
this particular example of teepathy is wrong.
We think that the President knows perfectly we'll
what he intends to do and will do it at the proper
time. That, we know, is the way his mind works. AS
to the particular course he cOntemplates, guess
would be little if any better than that Of the next
newspaper man.
We are aware Of course that he has stated that
the war supplies in transit or due to be shipped
will reach their destination. This implies definite
program. Probably the reason he has not disclosed
this program is that he follows the Navy regulations,
which discourage the publication of movements of
our ships. We assume that this the reason that
the scout patrol service which the Navy is engag
ed was not matter Of general knowledge until Sen
ator Tobey declared that the President was already
having the shipments to the anti-Nazi countries
voyed by the Navy.
The Senator undertook to bring the evidence of
this before the Senate but it down to mere
recital of certain letters he had received the writer's
of which he did not disclose Thereupon the Presi-
dent and Secretary of Navy announced that there
was no American convoy but instead there was con-
nung of the patrol Of the lanes in order that the
presence Of aggressive submarines or other craft
might be reported. It revealed that such infor
nation was transmitted in plain English-Which the
British Or anybody else could pick out of the air.
Shooting Does Not Always Mean War
The President was asked at one of his conferences
what course an American naval officer would pursue
in the event his vessel sighted submarine bent OH
destroying one of the merchant ships, to which he
replied that the American commander would report
to him.
1t has been asserted by the isolationsts and those
others who decry the principle of all aid to Britain
"short of war" that if we undertook the conveying
of the anti-Axs supply Ships it practically in
evitable that naval engagement would result and
that would mean Our own history shows that
this hypothetical sequence Of events does not i'll
vove war necessarily AS Senator Guffey OF Penn
sylvana pointed out the other day. there have been
numerous instances of gun fire both sea and on
land that did not result in war between the nations
engaged.
The second President of the United States. John
Adams, called Congress together III special session
and asked for military and naval rearnament be-
cause the French had seized American ships carry
ing goods to English ports and had sunk British ships
in American waters President Adams called atten-
ton to "actual hOstiltieS against American COM
merce by French cruisers. There were quite num-
be- of engagements involving our vessels and the
French navy. In fact there was one big fight when
our "Constellation' defeated and captured their
"LInsurgente.' Yet, neither France nor the United
States declared war.
Those 26 Freghters At SueZ?
Two weeks ago the newspapers carried big head
lines on report from Vichy France, that diploma
tie informants said tonight that 26 American mer-
chant ships with material for the British Middle
East armies accompanied by American warships,
had reached the Suez Canal" Just few days earlier
President Roosevelt announced that the Red Sea and
the Gulf of Alden, previously named as a combat
zone was open to American shipping This was done
by resembling year-old proclamation which includ-
ed these waters in the banned zones. Our naval au-
thorities here when asked about the report mere
ly replied that "no United States Navy ships are en-
ployed in the conveying business and diplomats
in Vichy said that they could not confirm the story
of the arrival of the merchant ships in Egypt