Evening star., 1941-04-24
Conferred With President.

| SOulCIICu WIN 1iCSiuSht.
1t was recalled here that Mr.. LIZ
| Guardia made a hurried visit here
Tuesday for conference with Pres
ident Roosevelt before departing fol
Canada. 1t was likewise consid-
cred important that before making
his address at Ottawa he was quoted
as saying that it would contain a
line giving the whole answer" to the
question of how far the United States
would go in conveying war supplies
to Britain.
Mr.. La Guardia spoke at the ST.
Georges Day luncheon of the Ca
madam Club and Canadian FEEDER
alton of Mayors. His words were:
off shore defense. as we under
stand it, is to defend our shores at
three hours distance from the
farthest point of either the Cana
dan or the United States coast"
And when I say three hours
mean three hours by airplane do
ing 1888 miles an hour. That is our
ST. Georges Day message to the
people of England"
Mr.. La Guardia would not ampl-
fy the statement, the Canadian press
reported, but emphasized later that
the 1888 miles an hour" was very
important"
interpretations Differ.
The reaction in some Canadian
circles was that Mr.. La Guardia was
forecaSting the start of United States
conveys as far as the mid-Atlantic.
This would permit the relase of
British Empire naval units now do
ing convoy duty in the western half
of the North Atlantic and thereby
reinforce the f1otillas operating in
the eastern half, where most ship
ping has been lost
Informed quarters here, however,
did not go to that length in their
interpretations They kept to the
expression, "off-shore defense pa
troll" but they acknowledged that
this might help to keep German
submarines or surface raiders away
from shipping lanes in the Western
Atlantic.
One knotty question that went un-
answered was what action a patrol
vessel would be expected TO take to
enforce the defense zone in the event
it encountered a raider operating
against shipping 1t was recalled
that none of the belligerentS OBJ
served the 300-mile neutral zone pro-
claimed for the hemisphere by the
PansAmerican republics after the
outbreak of the war. Consequently,
there was no expectation that Ger
many would agree to respect an area
three times that width, particularly
after Hitler's warning that British
ships would be torpedoed wherever
they were met.
Convoy Plan Denied.
The opinion in some quarters here
was that unless the defense patrol
would be ready to back up its police
work if necessary, its effectiveness in
protecting shipping would be ques-
tionable. To compel observance of
the zone, however, would involve in
cidentS with raiders.
There has been recurrent discus
sion here of the possibility of Amer
lean conveys, particularly since the
adoption of the British-aid program.
Speculation has centered on what
action might be expected if lease
lend supplies were sent to the bot
tom by Germany's CONFERENCE.-The
Administration officials. however,
have consistently refrained from any
statement which would indicate
that conveys were contemplated.
President Roosevelt was quoted as
having told some members of Con-
gresS at White House conference
early this month that conveys were
too absurd to talk about" at
present.
Senate Fight Likely.
Nevertheless, the reports of the
1,000-mile defense zone patrol were
expected to intensity the efforts OF
Senate group which has been seek
ing action on an anti-convoy resolu-
ton. Efforts to incorporate such a
provision in the lease-lend bill were
unsuccessful.
A resolution to forbid the use OF
conveys is now before the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee. Some
of its supporters were reported plan
ming to seek to have the proposal
taken out of the committees hands
and brought to the floor, should the
| committee vote to shelve it.
Administration officials are known
to oppose such restriction, both
because of the undesirable psy-
Geological effect it might create in
axis nations and because it might
tie the Governments hands in g
sudden emergency.