The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-05-14

British home waters for Singapore. Just at that moment, however, the Axis capitals apparently got wind of what was happening, and Mus solini started his unofficial sub marine campaign off the coast Of Spain which detained the British fleet at Gibraltar.
 A couple of months later, how ever, Roosevelt revived the idea and sent Norman Davis, late head of the Red Cross, to Brussels to a meeting of the Nine-Power pact sigpatories called to protect China from Japan. In the interim, Roosevelt had delivered his famous Chicago Quarantine Speech, warn ing that the United States might have to help put a quarantine around an aggressor nation. This was part of the build-up for Ad- miral Leahy's plan to quarantine Japan.
 However, the Brussels Con- ference fizzled-largely because of sabotage by the State De- partment in Washington. Nor man Davis found every move he made undermined by the ca reer diplomats in Washington, some of them quite frankly believing that it was best to give the Axis more rope. ut is this same group which now be- lieves Germany should be built
 fnf v1Q RuSsia.)
 Part of Norman Davis trouble was also the isolationist press, led by the Chicago Tribune and the New York News, which kept ham, mering away at the idea that Roosevelt was trying to get us into war. (After Pearl Harbor, they never remembered Roose- velts efforts to head off war and their own sabotage of his ef- forts.)
 THE PANAY INCIDENT
 At any rate, the plan to block ade Japan, following the failure of the Brussels Conference in October 1887. was dropped. But Admiral Leahy revived it again a year later, when, in December 1888, the Japs sank the U. s. gunboat Panay and the British gunboat Ladybird.
 Leahy recognized this for what it was. a deliberate attempt by the Jap war lords to test out how much insult the United States would take, and to make Britain and the USA lose face with the Chinese. Accordingly he rushed to the State Depart ment and all one Sunday after noon, Decmeber 13, 1888, one day after the sinking of the Panay, he urged Cordell Hull to seize this psychological moment to put the blockade of Japan into ef- feet.
 The British were also willing to cooperate. And, Leahy pointed out, in another year, war, inevit- ably breaking out in Europe, would tie up the British fleet and they could not possibly help us in the Pacific. Russia, he also point Cd out, had sixty submarines at Vladivostok, ready to help us cut off all scrap iron, all oil, all cot ton and copper from Japan. Without these. he argued, the Japanese war machine would be paralyzed.
 Pacing the floor of HulPs of- flee with Leahy was Hugh Will son, ex-Ambassador to Ger many and one of the State Departments foremost appeas- sers. He opposed Leahy at every turn, finally convinced cautious Cordell Hull that Leahy was too
 vigorous, that it was best to appease Japan.
 Less than one year later, Hitler had invaded Poland, the British fleet was desperately needed to defend British home waters and the fat was in the fire. From that point on there was no pos sible way the United States could blockade Japan-though many people have never understood why we went to the opposite extreme and increased our shipments of oil and scrap iron to Japan so that she laid in tremendous re- serves before Pearl Harbor. (Am- bassador Joseph c. Grew, the man chiefly responsible for the poll