Evening star., 1941-10-20
Neutrality
Continued From First Page.>


as a skeleton of the Neutrality Law.
the administrative provisions relat-
ing TO the licensing of exports. The
essential feature of both amend
ments is that they would both
enable this country 10 deliver the
lease lend supplies.
Depends on Length of Fight
What happens 10 the Austin
Bridges-Gurnev repeal amendment
will depend very largely on the
length OF the fight which the iso-
lationlst group makes on the pro-
posal to permit the armlng OF
American merchant vessels. accord
ing to Chairman Connally Of the
Foreign Relations Committee.
If the isolationlsts are willing TO
permit the Senate to vote on the
armed ship proposal in e. reasonable
time. the probabilities are Senator
Connally and the administration
forces Will not seek to substitute
complete repeater Of the Neutrality
Act If. however. It appears that
the isola tionists are going to make
long. dravn-out fight on the
armed ship proposal. then there will
be & strong inclination to substitute
complete repeal
Senator Connallv is himself In
favor of repeal of the vital section 2
of the neutrality bill, which now
prohibits the sending of American
ships into belligeTent ports.
How many Republican Senators
will go along with the repeater sub
stitute offered by three of their num-
Der is still a question. Senator
Bridges said he hoped for support
by at least seven or eight of his
colleag CUES Those. in addition t. the
three authors. who may support re-
peal include Senators Ball of Mn
neSota, Barbour of New jersey,
White and Brewster Of Maine and
possibly Senator Lodge OF Mas
sachusetts. who voted against pas
sage of the bill in 1887.
Meanwhile controversy that be-
gan in the Foreign Relations Com
mittee this morning. when four days
of closed hearings were decided
upon. broke out anew on the Senate
floor
A protest against closed hearings
by Senator Danaher. Republican of
Connecticut, brought Committee
Chairman Connally to the defense
of the committees action
Senator Connally replied that the
p,jrnrity had ohlo man ~,
eign Relations Committee. who
would be present to hear all that
is presented and some of them. he
said, have already announced they
intend to reveal what goes on.
Could Talk Freely.
But there are those people in
this country" Senator Connally con-
tinued, who would like 10 en-
barrass cabinet officers with ques-
tions they cannot answer in public"
Executive hearings would enable
the cabinet officers to talk freely
to the committee. the Texan said,
instead of hearing people who want
TO use a Senate committee as a
sounding board for their private
preJuoices and exalted egos"
Answering Chairman Connally,
Senator Vandenberg of Michigan,
one of the Republicans who voted
for open hearings. said there was no
purpose on the part of the minority
Ito embarrass any cabinet officer"
with questions. He said it had been
suggested that they could testify in
executive session.
With all of those exceptions.
however" said Senator Vandenberg.
there still remains a vast amount
OF information that ought to be
given to Congress and the American
people. We believed it wiser to take
the American people into our conf
dence regarding their war destiny"
Senator Connally said it was his
intention, when the closed hearings
are over. to make public all testi-
mony. except portions the cabinet
officers indicate would not be in the
public interest.
Assails Connally.
Senator Danaher took the floor
again later to accuse Senator Con-
nally of 'mocking and jeering" those
who disagree with him. instead Of
discussing the facts
The Connecticut Senator quoted
from several of President Roose-
velt's speeches and messages of the
last few years. in which, he said,
the President urged peace and keep
ing American ships out of danger
zones
Now. he said, Congress is being
asked to take step toward war in
the placing of guns on merchant
ships, and insisted there should be
open hearings.