| Cryptic Messages Fan Rumor of Sea Council
Latest dispatch From Presidential Yacht Doesn't Say if He's Actually on Board Washington, Aug. 7, 1941 (U.P.) -- A Navy dispatch from the Presidential yacht Potomac said today that the Presidential party was continuing its cruise toward an unannounced destination and that Mr. Roosevelt was being kept advised of the international situation by radio. The message read:
The brief message did not specifically say that Mr. Roosevelt was still aboard the Potomac although it did refer to "all members of the party." A dispatch from the Potomac yesterday also did not state specifically that the President actually was aboard the yacht. Rumors that Mr. Roosevelt had met or were about to to meet were kept alive by the cryptic nature of the messages from the Potomac and two new bits of information, all inclusive. One was the fact that the President's highest military and naval advisers are absent from the capital. The other was a statement by a well-placed official that he knew that the President and the Prime Minister had desired for some months to have a face-to-face conference., Army Chief of Staff, and Gen. H.H. Arnold, Assistant Chief of Staff in charge of the Army air forces, were not in Washington. Secretary of the Navy Knox, Admiral Harold R. Stark, Chief of Naval Operations, Gen. George C. Marshall, Army Chief of Staff, and Gen. H.H. Arnold, Assistant Chief of Staff in charge of the Army air forces, were not in Washington. Knox was located in York Harbor, Maine. Stark was said to be out of the city on leave, but the Navy said it had no knowledge of his whereabouts. The Army gave a similar reply to queries concerning Marshall and Arnold. E-mail: Robert Swanson |