Mr. Roosevelt, in his letter which Was addressed to Representative Edward T. Taylor, Democrat of Colorado, Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, called attention to the fact that preliminary estimates for the' fiscal year 1939 commenced with the building of two battleships, two light cruisers, eight destroyers and six submarines.
"Since that time, world events caused me growing concern....I do not refer to any specific nation or any specific threat against the United States," he said.
he fact is that in the world as a whole, many nations are not only Continuing but enlarging their armaments programmes, I have used every conceivable effort to halt this trend and work toward a decrease in armaments.
"The fact is that the United States must recognize this trend. Therefore, be good enough to inform the Sub-Committee on Naval Appropriations that after the next session it is possible I may send supplementary estimates for construction of a number of ships additional to the above programme," President Roosevelt's letter. concluded.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.