New York, Aug. 13.
President Roosevelt may have dispatched to London the mission head-[ed by Rear Admiral Robert L. Ghormley in order to ascertain just how seriously Britain needs active United States A in defending herself against Germany, Rear Admiral Stirling Yates, Jr, U.SN. retired, said yesterday.
"Admiral Ghormley will presumably act as an observer under conditions similar to those of 1917 before the United States entered the war, when President Woodrow Wilson sent Admiral Simms to London," Admiral Stirling said in a copyright article written for the United Press.
Admiral Stirling said he had observed that an increasing section on American naval opinion trended toward the belief that the United States could not afford to have Britain de-teated and. the British fleet made derelict.
"This trend is toward American participation in the war if the p sibility of a British defeat seems imminent," he said.
The Ghormley mission may help decide whether United States naval and air help must be extended to assure a British victory, Admiral Stirling said—United Press.
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