Evening star., 1941-02-06
British Aid
tContinued From First Page.)

President to obtain the approval of
the chief of staff of the Army and
the chief Of operations of the Navy
before he transferred supplie5 of
the Army and the Navy TO the de-
mocracies. An amendment offered
by the Foreign Affairs Committee
directs that the President consult"
the chief of staff and the chief of
operations before making any trans
fers of Army and Navy materiel to
Britain or the other iemocracies.
The House adopted the committee
amendment.
Asks One Year Limit.
Representative Voorhis, Democrat,
of California Immediately after the
adoption of the Dirksen amend
ment proposed that the time of
operation of the bill be restricted
to one year, instead of two. He
made an argument in support of his
amendment. urging that if it became
necessary. Congress could extend
the life of the proposed law next
year.
The amendment failed Of adop-
ton, however, when vote was
taken few minutes later. The vote
was 1876 to 93
With the adoption of the Dirksen
amendment, it remained for the ad-
ministration forces to decide whether
to kill the time limit amendment to
the bill, recommended by the For
eign Affairs Committee. and so kill
the Dirksen amendment, which was
an amendment to the committee
amendment, or wait until the bill
comes into the House from commit
tee Of the whole and hope to remove
the Dirksen amendment then.
Repeater Legality Questioned.
Immediately after the adoption Of
the Dirksen amendment. discussion
arose whether Congress by a con-
current resolution of the House ard
Senate could repeal law. Mr.. Dirk
sen pointed out, however that if in
writing legisla ton Congress inserted
a provision for the repeal of a law
by concurrent resolution, it would
stand.
During the consideration of the
voorhis amendment, Representative
Jorkman Of Michigan attacked the
lease-lend bill as "the worst sleight-
of-hand bill ever saw. 1t should be
entitled, "A bill to go to war with
foreign nations"
He charged that under the provi-
sions of the bill the President could
dispose of the Navy. the food sup
plies of the country and practically
everything else
Majority Leader Mccormack took
the floor to oppose the Voorhis
amendment. He said that all the
amendments proposed will have
solid vote on the Republican side"
Fish's Language Quoted.
He ridiculed charges made by
Representative Fish that Congress
was granting broad powers to the
President, pointing out that in jan
uary Mr. Fish had introduced a bill
In which "the broadest power" to
use the language of the bill, was
granted to the Federal Loan Ad-
mlnlstrator to extend credit to
Great Britain.
Mr.. Fish pointed out that in his
bill it was proposed to limit the
credits to Great Britain to $1,000
100000 and that the powers given
the Federal Loan Administrator ex-
tended only to that amount.
Under the parliamentary situa-
tion existing in the House at the
time of the vote the Dirksen amend
ment was still subject to another
vote-probably on a rollcall-and
possible rejection before a final vote
on the bill itself.
When the amendment first was
called up it was rejected by a stand
ing vote of LOT to SO. Mr.. Dirksen
demanded teller count which
turned out 148 to 141 for the amend
ment, which thus became the first
from the Republican side to be ac-
cepted.
Just before the House voted on
the Mundt Amendment. Majority
Leader Mccormack made an impas-
stoned plea that all amendments
designed to limit the amount of the
appropriations for air aid to Britain
or other countries be defeated. He
pointed out the bill is an authorize
ton, not an appropriation measure,
and that it only confers on the Pres
ident "a few additional powers he
does not now possess under the
Constitution"
so far as any new activity is con-
cerned,' he declared, this is an
authorization bill and the executive
branch of the Government must
come back here for appropriations"
Representative Hinshaw, Republi-
can, of California, told the House
during the debate over the amend
ments if it voted for the bill it must
be willing" to vote for war.
That is the next step this Con-
gress is to be called upon to do," he
S,rcSintnI