Evening star., 1941-04-30
By the Associated Press.


almost ang point 1UiU not be fully
unexpected.
BY the Associated Press.
The Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, told by Secretary OF
State Hull that 1T is manifest that
passage of an anti-Convoy resolution
"would be misunderstood abroad" ."
voted down today two resolutions
designed to restrict use of Navy
vessels for convoy purposes.
One of the resolutions, by Senator
Tobey. Republican, of New Hamp-
shire. would have prohibited conveys
and the other. by Senator Nye, Re-
publican. of North Dakota, would
have permitted them only if Con-
gress approved.
The committee, in refusing to re-
port the resolutions to the Senate
for debate, acted after hearing from
the State Department chief that his
recommendation was fatty against
passage.
The committee voted, 13 to g.,
against holding hearings on the
Tobey resolution; 13 to 10, against
reporting it without recommended
ton. and IA to 9 against sending it
to the Senate with an adverse re-
port.
Then the group voted. 13 to 10,
against reporting the Nye resolu-
ton favorably and declined on
voice vote to order hearings on the
proposal.
The Committee Vote.
The vote by which the committee
declired to hold hearings on the
Tobey resolution follows:
For hearings-Senator Reynolds
and Clark, Democrats; Johnson of
California. Capper, Vandenberg,
White, ShipStead and Nye, Republ-
cans, and La Toilette, Progress
siVe-9
Against hearings-Senators Wag-
ner, George, Connally, Thomas of
Utah, Van Nuys, Murray, Pepper,
Green Barkley, Guffey, Gillette,
Glass and Byrnes, Democrats-13
The vote against reporting the
resolution adversely was the same,
except that Senator Harrison, Demo-
crat, of Mississippi, voted by proxy
with the majority, making the to-
tai IA to g.
The vote against reporting either
of the resolutions favorably or with
out recommendation was the same
as that on holding hearings except
that Senator Harrison voted with
the ma ajority and Senator Van Nuys
voted with the minority, making the
total 13 to 10.
Warships Already Busy.
WarshipS of the United States
Navy, patrol bombers, and in all
probability carrier-based aircraft,
already are playing a vital role in
patrolling ocean stretches which fig
ure in Britain's battle of the At
lantic, informed sources reported to-
day.
This assertion was made after
President Roosevelt's fiat statement
that American naval vessels were
not prohibited from entering combat
zones by any executive order and
that they would operate anywhere
deemed necessary for hemisphere
defense.
Mr.. Roosevelt, in telling this to
his press conference yesterday, said
1t did not mean that Navy units are
going into the European combat
zone or that they would go in.
Nevertheless, apparently informed
sources said it would be no surprise
. to them if the Navys patrol aircraft
has been covering at least portions
of area included in Germany's re-
cent extension of her counter-bloc-
kade zone westward. They men
toned specifically that part Of
the counter-blockade zone which
stretches from Iceland almost to the
coastal waters of Greenland, where
the United States has acquired de-
fense base privileges. This has been
q danger area for British shipping.
The potential effectiveness of the
whole far-f1ung surface and air pa
troll is so great, in the opinion OF
these sources, that it may make the
convoy question a dead issue.
Meeting FavOrs Debate.
Meanwhile, a group of Senators
and Representatives who met last
night at the Capitol agreed that
pending Senate resolutions to re-
strict conveying by the American
Navy should be brought to the floor
for debate. .
Senator Taft, Republican, OF
Ohio, chairman of the meeting, told
reporters that surely this vital is
sue should be publicly defeated by
the representatives of 10000, 900
people before they are dragged in
war by professors and columnists." :"
Mr.. Roosevelt, IN discussing the
patrol yesterday, repeated time and
again that there were no mileage
~ limits for its activities. A little
earlier Admiral Harold r. Stark,
chief of naval operations, had dis
closed that at some points ships OF
the fleet were cruising as far as
1000 miles offShore, but Mr.. Roose-
velt declined to commit himself to
this limit, remarking that the 1000
mile distance depended on where
you measured from.
Evidence of axis interest in the
wide patrol system was not slow in
forthcoming. Several hours after
Mr.. Roosevelt spoke, Koh Ishii, di-
rector of the official board of III
formation at Toxic, spoke of the
Atlantic patrols as "but one step
from war;
He said in reply to a question
that extension of the patrols was
in the direction of an act of ag-
eression land very dangerous" The
fact that Japanese spokesman
tsee PATROL, Page A-12)