November 5, 1939; CITY OF FLINT FREE / NO PLACE TO GO:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1939:

BAN EXTENDS TO

NEUTRAL PORTS
Of DANGER AREA

Inclusion of Holland and

Belgium Is Viewed as
Highly Significant

By RICHARD L. TURNER

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4.
Rigorously applying the newly signed neutrality law, President Roosevelt today excluded American shipping from virtually all European ports except those of neutral nations on the Mediterranean and Arctic oceans.

The law itself, to which Mr. Roosevelt affixed his signature soon after noon, forbids the vessels of this country to carry cargoes to belligerents England.

France and Germany. By an additional proclamation, authorized in the law, the chief executive then forbade them to traverse a broad "combat zone" in which there appears to be danger from German torpedoes or British warships.

 

CITY OF FLINT IS

FREE BUT IT HAS
NO PLACE TO GO

Those Aboard Wonder How

To Get Home—'Orphan'
Under New Statute

OSLO, Norway, Nov. 4—-(AP)—

The question of how to get home or whether to try for a British port tonight confronted the freighter City of Flint, anchored in Bergen harbor and again under her American command after a 3,000-mile trek through Arctic waters in charge of a German prize crew.

The question also was raised by one foreign observer whether the newly-enacted United States neutrality legislation would permit an effort to deliver to Britain the vessel's cargo of tractors, oil, grain, leather, fruit and wax which the Nazis labeled as contraband.

The Norwegian navy early today freed the City of Flint at Haugesund and interned the German prize crew placed aboard when she was seized by the pocket battleship Deutschland Oct. 9. Shortly after the release order the vessel steamed to Bergen, 75 miles up the coast.

German Protest Made
Usually reliable informants said it was likely that Norway would reject a German protest presented to the foreign office during the day.

The German consul at Bergen visited the 18 interned German crewmen, interned aboard the Norwegian destroyer Olav Trygvasson, and said he hoped to reach some settlement soon.

(Details of the German protest were not made public, but authorized sources in Berlin said it was oral and "based on the whole procedure of Norwegian authorities in connection with the City of Flint's entry at Haugesund." These Nazi sources said release of the German crew would be demanded and that there might be a claim for damages, inasmuch as contraband cargo aboard the vessel would have passed into German hands if she had reached her intended German port.)

 

The War....

(BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Aside from the United States' action on neutrality and the City of Flint developments, Saturday saw almost no action on the land war front, but three ship losses at sea were reported. The ninth week of the European war closed with shipping losses totaling at least 110.

The three ships reported lost yesterday were the Danish passenger liner Canada, whose captain said she was ripped by an explosion Friday, night; the Norwegian freighter Sig, which went down also after an explosion, and the French freighter Bacule, torpedoed in mid-Atlantic.

The chief action on land was reported to have been activity by patrols on reconnaissance. In the air, French dispatches said a mass German flight deep in French territory was broken up.

In the Finnish-Russian negotiations, Finland's delegation met for an hour last night with Soviet leaders, but silence still cloaked progress of the talks.  It .was learned reliably, however, that the negotiations would be continued

 

 

With television in its nose and explosives in its body, this flying

torpedo, sketched above, may become a new sky weapon. Pilot in

control plane, which may be as far as 100 miles in rear, sees scene

in front of torpedo through television screen and directs its flight

to target by radio.