Mr. Knox Warns of Axis Sea Power Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, urging passage of President Roosevelt's lend-lease bill "in our own best national interests," has told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the United States Navy would be heavily outnumbered by the fleets of the Axis Powers if British sea power should be destroyed, states the "Christian Science Monitor." The Navy probably will commission 100 new fighting ships in the next two years, he said, but during the same period 304 new units would be swelling the Axis forces.
The United States needs time to perfect its defences, Mr. Knox said in his prepared statement, reminding the Committee that the two-ocean navy construction programme now under way would take six years to complete. "Only Britain and its fleet can give us that time. And they need our help to sur Mr. Knox presented figures showing that the United States fleet had 322 fighting ships on January 1, compared with an estimated 658 in the navies of Germany, Italy, and Japan. By next January, he said, the figures would be: United States, 432; Axis Powers 803. For Janua 1943, he rated comparative strengths: United States, 422; Axis Powers, 962.
Throughout the three-year period the figures showed the United States outnumbered in every fleet category from battleships to submarines. Mr. Knox forecast the greatest increase in Axis strength in submarines. He placed their present undersea fleet at 284 and estimated they would have 500 by 1943 Mr. Knox said that if the United States "does not wish to face the consequences of the establishment in South America of aggressive military power, we should now prevent Germany from overturning the British sea power which holds the Nazis in Eurove.!f Germany becomes free to move across the ocean for the conquest of new territories," he continued, "she most probably will move first into South America to get hold of that great storehouse of natural wealth."
Combined Power of Britain and America It is only by the combined sea power of the United States and Great Britain, M said, that the Atlantic and Pacific have as barriers against the acquisitive designs of aggressive powers." For 125 years, he asserted, British naval power has not threatened the United States. This government proclaimed the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 to keep the New World from being conquered by the Holy Alliance, he said and added: "We were successful in maintaining that doctrine only because of the support of Great Britain, whose overwhelming fleet could prevent overseas aggression from Europe."
He said that full organization of American resources would permit help to Britain and at the same time preparation of strong American defences. "The cost to us in money, effort, and sacrifice will be great—but the cost will. be far greater, even in the immediate future, should we now stand aside and let Britain fall." he said. The present war, Mr. Knox contended, is "fundamentally, an attempt by Germany to seize control of the sea from Great Britain."
He said that since the World War the United States has maintained "a one-ocean navy in the Pacific, and that navy has proved adequate in both directions only because the existence and the deployment of the British navy gave us security in the Atlantic. In effect." he continued, "both we and the British Commonwealth of Nations actually have had a two-ocean navy, operated for a single peaceful purpose.
"We still have a one-ocean navy. We are y, but its structure will not be completed for six years. We need to complete that structure as fast as we can because the other part of our two-ocean navy is now in grave danger.
"The British navy can survive only if the British Isles survive. Should the British Isles fall. we can only believe that the British navy, which never runs from danger, will fall at the same time. I think we can safely assume that the British navy will share the fate of the courageous nation that supports it Should that come to pass, he said, "our fleet would necessarily be divided, to meet danger in both oceans. Whether it would be strong enough to protect even the regions nearest to us is a matter that can not now be foretold.
Once we lose the power to control even a part of those seas (surrounding the hemis Phere), inevitably the wars of Europe and Asia will be transferred to the Americas."
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