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WHILE Mr. Churchill was telling the nation last night that, whatever successes Hitler might win in the East, the vital struggle is that now being waged on the Atlantic, news came from America that 200 American warships are out at sea, spotting for Axis warcratf. Destroyers, submarine chasers, minesweepers and flying-boats of the U.S. Navy are reported to be covering the seaways between New England and Newfoundland, where Britain's main supply lines run. More ships are assembling to reinforce the Neutrality Patrol. Mr. Churchill said: "The American Fleet and flying boats have been ordered to patrol the wide waters of the Western Hemisphere, and to warn peaceful shipping of all nations outside the combat zone of the presence of lurking U-boats or cruisers belonging to the two aggressive nations. We British will, therefore, be able to concentrate our protecting forces far more upon the routes nearer home, and to take a far heavier toll of the U-boats there. When I said ten weeks ago, `Give us the tools and we will finish the job,´ I meant, `Give them to us, put them within our reach,´ and that is what it now seems the Americans are going to do." "More Favourable" "I could not believe they would allow the high purposes which they have set themselves to be frustrated, and the products of their skill and labour sunk to the bottom of the seas. That is why I have a very strong conviction that though the Battle of the Atlantic will be long and hard, and its issue is by no means determined, it has entered upon a more grim but, it seems to me, far more favourable phase." President Roosevelt, in turn, is to make a nation-wide broadcast on Wednesday night. Americans who favour out-and-out convoying of goods to Britain by the U.S. Navy are hoping he will tell more about the position. So far he has said that U.S. patrols will be extended into the Seven Seas as far as is necessary for "the protection of American lives, property and interests." Senate Delay? A resolution by Senator Charles W. Tobey denouncing use of the Navy to escort supplies to Britain is due to go before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday. Administration supporters are eager to have a proposal on Tobey's lines sent by the committee to the Senate floor in the hope of beating it. The Isolationists are clamouring for a chance to vote for it. Other Senators want the resolution smothered in committee to avoid the delays of debate. What happens, however, will probably be decided by the Man in the White House. A straw poll in the Senate shows that fifty of the ninety-five Senators favour convoys.
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