military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (03/13/91)
From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) Tuesday, 11 March, 1941 President Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Bill into law. Several amendments have been passed limiting his powers under the new legislation; most importantly, the law expires in June, 1943. But provisions restricting him from using US warships to escort convoys have been removed, and Roosevelt retains the power to transfer warships to foreign navies. The bill is quite generous in allowing Britain to delay payments until the war's end, but it requires cash payments for as long as possible, forcing Britain to sell its American assets. It further prevents Britain from exporting materials equivalent to those purchased in the US, which greatly reduces Britain's foreign trade. The Thai-Indochina war is ended with a treaty signing aboard a Japanese warship in the Gulf of Siam. The former British Ambassador to Bulgaria reaches Istanbul, where a bomb in his luggage explodes, killing two Englishwomen and two others. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@att.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "Reading about the possibilities of atom-smashing apparatus releasing tremendous sources of power, the thought arises: Why seek more power when we do not rightly use powers we now have ?" - Walter Sonnenberg, in a letter to the New York Times