OUR RIGHTS ON THE SEAS
 
     President Roosevelt has given the Navy the only orders that could properly follow the
attack on the destroyer Greer.  Those orders are to track down the submarine that made the
attack and to "eliminate: it if it is found.  The circumstances of the case leave no doubt that the
attack was deliberate.  On the authority of the President we know that it was made in broad
daylight that visibility was good; that the Greer was plainly marked, both by her flag and her
identification number, and that she was attacked more than once.  A navy which permitted an
assault of this kind to go unanswered would not be worthy of its name.  Its failure to take action
would expose the nation to great danger.
     
     A few torpedoes that failed to find their mark in the gray wastes of the North Atlantic may
seem to some observers, at a first superficial glance, to create no important "incident."  But in
reality it is impossible to isolate this "incident" from the whole large question of American rights
on the high seas.  The logic that leads from one point to the other is inescapable.   The Greer was
on the Iceland run because American troops have occupied that island in order to safeguard one
of the strategic controls of the North Atlantic passage, and our imperative interest in the safety of
the North Atlantic passafe is determined at this time by the necessity of maintaining that
uninterrupted service-of-supply to Britain which Congress has approved in the interest of our own
security.
     
     The attack on the Greer ought to bring prompt action on a major policy.  The present
situation calls on us to use the best Navy in the world to safeguard the delivery of vital war
materials.  We have every right under international law to take such action, since no American
Government, either in this war or in the last one, has ever recognized the legality of the German
submarine "blockade."  We have every reason in common sense to protect to the best of our
ability the ships that carry to the battle lines those weapons which Congress, voting by
overwhelming majorities, has made available to our allies under the Lease-Lend Act.
 
     The American Goverment and the American people have shown in every crisis of our
history a firmness of will and ability to make decisions once the facts of a given situation were
clearly visible.  Since we do not intend to yield Nazi German, since we are committed to a
democrtatic victory, since we are already "in" the war in the sense that Congress has made us a
vital link in the service-of-suppl, we can best move forward to protect what we would hold.  It is
time to arm our merchant ships, to remove the last restrictions imposed on them by the outworn
so-called "Neutrality Act," and to give them the protection of our Navy.