Washington. May 21. President Roosevelt, announced an Offer to ship food to Ireland. and also the creation of a structure of civilian defence in the United States. in the course of his press conference yesterday. The President said that the United States had offered to sell or charter two ships to Ireland and supply half a million dollars worth of food for the Irish civilian population.
The ships would be manned by Irish crews, and the purchase of the food would be financed from a special Red Cross relief appropriation of $50,000.00. the half million being additional to any purchase made by Ireland herself.
The President indicated that no armaments would be available for sale to Ireland following the United States general rule to supply munitions only to active belligerents. The ships for Ireland would be placed under the Irish flag and would probably carry much more than $500,000 worth of food. because Eire intends to make purchases on her own account.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.