Patrols and Convoys

Wrote Columnist Raymond Clapper: "I saw President Roosevelt at his regular press conference this week, and the weight of his burden is plainly written on his face. I have never seen him more drawn, and his color was that fatigue gray which comes from long hours of close work and strain. Mr. Roosevelt is dealing with a vast amount of secret information, and his decisions necessarily often are based upon facts which cannot be publicly known. . . . But here is a question of broad policy, which is tangled up with the issue of whether we fight or not. ... It seems to me he would be in a strong position to command public support for what he is doing if the public knew what he was doing."

What was the President doing to get U.S. supplies to Britain? He was unquestionably making available as many ships as the U.S. could provide (see p. 75). But what was being done to insure the safe passage of those ships across the Atlantic? Last week the vast mass of inquiry, advice, speculation, gossip, rumor, on the part of pundits and editors boiled down to a series of questions and answers, with more questions than answers:

Q. How far does the U.S. neutrality patrol extend?

A. At his press conference the President repeated that the neutrality patrol could go anywhere on the seven seas, that speculation about its extent was futile. (An hour earlier, Admiral Stark had told reporters that U.S. patrols were operating 2,000 miles at sea. Fortnight ago Mayor LaGuardia, as U.S.-Canadian Joint Defense Commissioner, said they were operating 1,000 miles off the coast.) The President said estimates were meaningless, as they depended on where you were measuring from; he would extend the patrol to whatever limits he felt necessary for defense of the Western Hemisphere. He added significantly that, although the Neutrality Act barred merchant ships from the combat zone, U.S. warships were free to enter the forbidden waters.

Q. How effective is the patrol in warn ing shipping of Nazi raiders and submarines, in tipping off British warships?

A. German reports, even if exaggerated, indicated a continued high rate of sinkings, and frank British statements that the Battle of the Atlantic looked "pretty grim" suggested that it was not immediately and strikingly effective.

Q. Do political pressures prevent the President from employing convoys?

A. Last week the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted down resolutions banning convoys, voted down holding hearings on them. Said Mark Sullivan of the committee's job: "They voted it down, they locked it up, they turned it down; they squelched it, they suppressed it, they buried it. They buried it in two dif erent forms and in three different ways. . . ." Senator Tobey, one sponsor, dourly said the committee was so thorough it reminded him of the old Yankee who was asked by an undertaker what should be done with the body of an unloved relative. The old Yankee wired back: "Embalm, bury, cremate and freeze -- take no chances."

Last week 50 Senators and Representatives, led by Senator Taft, publicly organized a bloc pledged to "unalterable opposition" to U.S. convoys "by whatever name they may be called." In the Senate, when Pennsylvania's Guffey spoke for convoys, Senator Tobey answered him, shaking his fist in the direction of the White House: "Mr. Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, Mr. President, Mr. Chief Executive . . . keep your hands off the Congress of the United States!" Senator George, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he was opposed to convoys. An Associated Press poll of the Senate showed 45 Senators for convoys, 40 opposed -- enough to prevent action.

There were other questions and the striking fact was that they were unanswered: Is the President awaiting a crystallization of public opinion? Is he fundamentally opposed to the idea of convoys? Is he waiting to make a dramatic announcement when the time seems right? Whatever the answers, the questioners all agreed with the New York Times's Turner Catledge, fresh from a trip around the U.S.--the people were waiting for the President to speak out.

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