Axis says U.S. is nearer war (9-16-41)

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The Pittsburgh Press (September 16, 1941)

AXIS SAYS U.S. IS NEARER WAR

British colonial seaports opened to arms cargoes
…
American Navy believed starting convoy assignment in North Atlantic today
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KNOX ‘GOES BIT NEARER’
By the United Press

Official German and Italian sources today took a more serious view of the declared American policy of freedom of the seas.

Authorized sources in Berlin said that Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox’s speech before the American Legion in Milwaukee yesterday went:

…just a bit nearer than President Roosevelt himself dared go toward getting the United States into the war.

Coincident with the Berlin pronouncement, Virginio Gayda, official mouthpiece for Mussolini, declared in an editorial in Giornale d’Italia that the United States unequivocally declared itself a belligerent entering the war against the Axis without provocation as a result of Mr. Knox’s speech.

Called big risk

Mr. Knox declared that ships in the Atlantic zone as far as Iceland would be protected by the United States Navy. He said this protection would be extended to ships of “every flag” – a pronouncement taken to mean that the U.S. fleet would guard British vessels.

Commenting on this phase of the speech, the fascist editor declared that the United States had thereby assumed extensive risk to serve the British.

Gayda also emphasized the charge that the United States’ action against the Axis was taken upon American “initiative.”

Comment on ruling

The Nazi spokesman said that:

…like Senator Claude Pepper and others on the Roosevelt staff, he [Mr. Knox] was told to go just a little further in these unofficial pronouncements.

The purpose is to reveal things that Mr.Roosevelt purposely left in the dark.

Authorized German sources, commenting on the granting of permission for United States ships to visit some British Empire ports previously forbidden under the Neutrality Act, said:

This constitutes a constitutional change of a type previously unknown.

British called sharks

It is interesting as an example of functioning democracy – to make a law and then set about breaking it.

It is just like sending United States ships to the Red Sea. This is merely another case of deliberately running after incidents.

The German radio, recalling that President Roosevelt referred to “rattlesnakes” in his speech, said there were:

…no rattlesnakes on the high seas but the British are sharks, destroying the freedom of the seas.

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BRITISH AWAIT TEST AT SEA

London, Sept. 16 –
The Secretary of the Navy’s announcement in hi9s speech yesterday that the Navy would go into action today has received great attention in the press here which views the next weeks as test weeks for German-American relations.

Secretary Knox’s use of the word “protection” with which he described the Navy’s task in the Atlantic is interpreted here to mean that American patrols will perform much the same task as convoys, certainly from the United States to Iceland, leaving the rest of the trip to the British fleet.

The British believe it was a step the United States had to take to safeguard the policy of aid to Britain. Military experts view this war more as a war of production than a battle of land armies and they expect the nations to win which have succeeded in out-producing their enemies.

Commenting on Secretary Knox’s speech, Lord Halifax today said:

It is exactly in line with the President’s declaration of last week. The President made it clear that the United States Navy has definite orders to take action.

Lord Halifax described this action of the United States as consistent with the American pioneer spirit.