Europe buzzes with invasion speculation
Rumors put landing hours or weeks away
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Unprecedented meeting –
American Catholic priest and Stalin confer on Poland
Massachusetts pastor calls results of two-hour talk with Soviet Premier ‘excellent’
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Guam pounded by Liberators
U.S. bombers fly 2,200 miles on raid
By William F. Tyree, United Press staff writer
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Leaders hint GOP is ready to back world peace plan
Washington (UP) –
New foreign policy declarations by three leading Republicans pointed strongly today toward a GOP platform pledging U.S. participation in an international organization to preserve peace and promote world economic stability.
That theme appeared in statements during the week by two leading presidential possibilities – Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York and Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio – and Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg (R-MI), ranking active Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Mr. Bricker outlined his views in a speech Tuesday night and Mr. Dewey spoke on foreign policy Thursday night. Mr. Vandenberg went on record last night in an exchange of correspondence with John Sampson, American correspondent for the London Daily Mirror.
Mr. Bricker declared that the four great Allied powers (Russia, China, England and the United States) must assume joint of the peace “until a permanent international organization can be established.”
Mr. Dewey spoke of cooperating with other nations in building “a structure of peace backed by adequate force to prevent future wars” and of promoting worldwide economic stability “not only for the sake of the world, but also to the end that our own people may enjoy a high level of employment.”
Mr. Vandenberg said that:
American self-interest includes rational and practical international cooperation with Britain and all the other sovereign United Nations to stabilize peace, justice and economy.
The response among Senate Republicans, to whom any treaty setting up such international cooperation must be submitted for ratification, was generally favorable.
Mr. Vandenberg, who drafted the GOP Mackinac Charter pledging international cooperation to maintain the peace, said his party will keep that pledge if it wins the November election but that the United States will not join a world state.
In reply to Mr. Sampson’s questions, he said that he could answer only for himself, not the party, but he believed that:
The next Republican administration first of all would be dedicated to swift and total victory over both Germany and Japan.
Would guard U.S. interests
Mr. Sampson had asked whether, if the Republicans win the election, the United States would tend to withdraw from the field of international cooperation, whether there would be any material change in Anglo-American relations and what would be the Republican attitude toward a “strong and united British Commonwealth of Nations after the war.”
Mr. Vandenberg said that while the United States would not join a world state, “it will vigilantly protect essential and legitimate American self-interest precisely as Mr. Churchill repeatedly asserts his vigorous purpose to protect British self-interest.”
Mr. Vandenberg added that he thought permanent friendship and fair play between the United States and Great Britain are indispensable.
Roosevelt mourns death of Knox as ‘heavy loss’
President gives late Secretary major credit for expanding U.S. Fleet
By Merriman Smith, United Press staff writer
In the South with President Roosevelt –
President Roosevelt led his fellow Americans today in mourning the death of Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, to whom the Chief Executive assigned major credit for building the U.S. Navy into the mightiest seagoing force the world has yet seen.
Breaking the long silence from his vacation retreat in the South, the President issued a statement to “a nation at war” to term the death of his 70-year-old Cabinet officer as a “heavy loss, and to me especially who had come to lean on him increasingly.”
Reviews association
Mr. Roosevelt, tanned and well on the road to recovery from his series of recent illnesses, reviewed his almost four years of official association with Mr. Knox at an informal news conference with three press association reporters who accompanied him to this as yet undisclosed retreat.
There was no indication whether the President would be able to return to Washington in time to attend the last rites for the man who, although of different political affiliations, took over the role of Secretary of the Navy July 11, 1940.
The President told reporters that he had watched with amazement the terrific pace that Mr. Knox had maintained during the war to guide the expansion of the Navy to its present unprecedented strength.
Can’t mitigate loss
He recalled how Mr. Knox, after the Jap attack on Pearl Harbor, asked for permission to go to Hawaii immediately to learn first-hand the details of the destruction wrought to the Pacific Fleet.
For a man who was then 67, Mr. Roosevelt said, that was a great thing to do.
The President revealed that VAdm. Ross T. McIntire, his personal physician, had been in Washington to consult with other specialists on Mr. Knox’s illness and had returned yesterday when it became clear that nothing more could be done for the Secretary.
Mr. Roosevelt said that while nothing could mitigate the loss of Mr. Knox, the nation could count itself fortunate that his death had not occurred earlier when the country could less have afforded the loss of the great champion of naval strength.
To newspapermen who have followed Mr. Roosevelt’s activities for years, the President looked in better condition than he had in months, showing no signs of the bronchial ailment which had troubled him persistently during the winter and early spring. He said he felt much better.
His presence at this resort was announced by the White House April 11, but no detailed accounts of the trip will be made public until the President returns to the White House.
Wanted more information
Seated in a comfortable armchair, cigarettes in hand, Mr. Roosevelt said he had been much impressed by Mr. Knox’s desire to make the personal trip to Pearl Harbor. Mr. Knox, he said, wanted more information, and wanted it faster, than it could have been provided in Washington.
The President revealed that it was at Mr. Knox’s suggestion that he named Associate Supreme Court Justice Owen J. Roberts to head the Pearl Harbor investigating board. The Chief Executive said Mr. Knox had expressed a desire that the inquiry be conducted not by experts but by common sense people who had the confidence of the country.
Mr. Roosevelt said he had sent a note of condolence to Mrs. Knox and that he planned to address a message to the naval forces in a day or two.
Several listed for naval post
Knox third to die while in office
Washington (UP) –
The Navy carried on today under the leadership of Acting Secretary James V. Forrestal while the capital speculated over President Roosevelt’s plans for a successor to the post left vacant by the death of Secretary Frank Knox.
Mr. Knox, who died yesterday of a heart malady, will be buried with full military honors Monday afternoon in Arlington National Cemetery, surrounded by the graves of many of his former comrades in arms. His duties as Secretary of the Navy fell on the slender shoulders of Mr. Forrestal, his soft-spoken but tough Under Secretary.
Flags at half-mast
Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m. at the Mount Pleasant Congregational Church.
Dr. Fred S. Buschmeyer will officiate, assisted by Chaplain S. W. Salisbury of the Navy. At Arlington, RAdm. Louis E. Denfeld, assistant chief of the Navy Bureau of Personnel, will be the escort commander.
Flags were at half-mast on all ships and naval shore establishments but all hands in the Navy’s fighting force were pledged by their commander-in-chief, Adm. Ernest J. King, to perform “what would surely have been his [Knox’s] last order – ‘Carry on’.”
Third to die in office
Mr. Knox was the third Secretary of the Navy to die in office. The first was Thomas W. Gilmer who was killed Feb. 28, 1844 – nine days after he took office – while witnessing a trial of guns aboard the naval vessel Princeton. The second was Claude A. Swanson, who took office on March 4, 1933, and died at Rapidan. Virginia, July 7, 1939.
Between expressions of regret over Mr. Knox’s death, there was wide speculation over his successor in the Cabinet. The general belief was that Mr. Forrestal would continue as Acting Secretary, at least through the national political conventions.
But among the names heard, besides Mr. Forrestal’s, were those of Adm. William D. Leahy, (Chief of Staff to the President), LtCdr. Harold E. Stassen (former Governor of Minnesota now on naval duty in the Pacific) and Wendell L. Willkie.
Others mentioned
Cdr. Stassen has already declared himself available for the Republican presidential nomination.
Speculation over a successor also touched upon the names of Charles Edison (who succeeded the late Claude Swanson as Navy Secretary in 1939 and then resigned to serve as Governor of New Jersey), Chairman Carl Vinson (D-TX) of the House Naval Affairs Committee and Rep. Lyndon Johnson (D-TX).
Some quarters feel that the President may not appoint a successor to Mr. Knox until the national political picture is cleared by the conventions.
Roosevelt pays tribute
At his vacation retreat in the South, Mr. Roosevelt issued a statement of regret at the death of his Cabinet officer and later met with a select group of reporters to pay tribute to him. There was nothing in his remarks, however, to indicate his future plans.
Mr. Forrestal, as Under Secretary, concerned himself largely with production problems but he is familiar with other aspects of the Navy’s administration.
Only a few months ago, he made an extensive tour of the Pacific battle areas to get a first-hand picture of the Navy at war. He also worked closely with Mr. Knox on many projects in which the Secretary was interested. Mr. Forrestal supplied much of the driving power for the top-speed naval construction program.
Friends for 30 years
A friend of President Roosevelt for almost 30 years, Mr. Forrestal was born 52 years ago in Beacon, New York, less than 25 miles from Hyde Park.
In two respects, Mr. Forrestal’s career paralleled Mr. Knox’s. He began his career as a newspaper reporter and he served in the last war. After a year at Dartmouth, he went to Princeton, working his way through.
Then, after a few years as clerk, and as a cigarette salesman, in 1915 he became a Wall Street bond salesman for the banking firm of William A. Read & Co., later Dillon, Read & Co. He served in the naval air arm during World War I and then returned to Dillon, Read & Co., and by 1938 had became president of the firm.
Served as defense aide
Mr. Forrestal first served in the present administration as liaison man for the President on matters affecting the national defense program. He had held that job for two months when the President named him to the newly-created office of Under Secretary of the Navy.
When the United States entered the war, the President made Mr. Forrestal a part of his “Inner War Cabinet.”
Three executors to guide paper
Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox was understood to have provided in his will for three executors to hold the controlling interest in The Chicago Daily News, his associates said today.
Mr. Knox, as publisher-owner of the majority stock, was said to have named as executors his wife Annie, Laird Bell (his personal attorney) and Holman D. Pettibone (president of the Chicago Title & Trust Company).
Knox praised by Alf Landon
Topeka, Kansas (UP) –
Alf M. Landon, Republican nominee for President and running mate of Frank Knox in the 1936 election, said today that the Navy Secretary’s “public deeds were always inspired by a sense of lofty patriotism.”
Mr. Landon said:
The country lost a good citizen and a great patriot when Frank Knox died.
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U.S. orders troops from Ward plants
No longer needed, federal operator says
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Jurist calls Ward action vital issue
Every American should take interest, he says
By Lawrence Perry, North American Newspaper Alliance
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Ward seizure probe begun by Senate Judiciary Group
Chairman McCarran has investigator there and already has received two reports
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Perkins: Efficiency of TNT plant cuts costs, boosts output
Economical operation of Point Pleasant unit would please even Senator Byrd
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer
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Bombers batter Wewak region
Seek to bar escape of Jap garrison
By William B. Dickinson, United Press staff writer
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Nimitz commends Marines who took Marshalls Atolls
By 2nd Lt. Jim J. Lucas, USMC Public Relations Officer
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Editorial: Secretary Knox
The building, training, manning and disposal of the world’s greatest navy in a period of approximately two years was one of history’s most amazing accomplishments, and for it, Secretary Knox deserved much of the credit.
His untimely death came at a time when the mightiest aggregation of force in naval history was swinging into decisive action.
The nation will mourn that it was not given him to see the outcome of the efforts in which he undoubtedly sacrificed health and strength and for which he literally died in action.
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