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The day in dispatches
Filed through the day, as it happened
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The Empire has answered the war in six different ways
South Africa replaced its government today. General Hertzog resigned this morning after his own parliament rejected his policy by 13 votes, and General Smuts has been asked to form a ministry. The Union has refused neutrality but has yet to declare war.
23:15GMT
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The only facts beyond dispute today were the ones governments signed
LONDON The only facts this newspaper can establish beyond dispute today are documents that governments signed.
22:15GMT
22:15GMT
Roosevelt has still to impose the arms embargo two days after his broadcast
WASHINGTON President Roosevelt has still to impose the arms embargo, two days after he told the country it would remain neutral.
21:15GMT
21:15GMT
Roosevelt proclaims neutrality, with the arms embargo still to be signed
WASHINGTON President Roosevelt signed the general proclamation of United States neutrality shortly after one o'clock this afternoon. The proclamation leaves the arms embargo to a separate instrument under the Neutrality Act, which he has yet to sign. He told his press conference he would act after a White House conference called for half past four. The conference was still sitting when this was filed.
The White House, Office of the President of the United States
Official text
Proclamation 2348, Neutrality of the United States, 5 September 1939. Extract.
20:15GMT
20:15GMT
French war ministry gives no details as fuller reports circulate abroad
PARIS The Ministry of War's communiqué this evening says only that operations continue. It names no sector or formation and gives no result. This dispatch has passed through the censor.
19:30GMT
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London has yet to answer Berlin's claim of five British bombers shot down
LONDON There are now two conflicting accounts of Monday afternoon's raid on the German fleet, and each side is better placed to know some facts than others.
18:30GMT
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Berlin says RAF raid did little damage and claims five bombers shot down
BERLIN Germany says Monday afternoon's British attack on warships at Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbüttel achieved nothing of consequence, and claims that five British bombers were brought down.
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Everyone in Britain is to be registered and issued with an identity card
LONDON Everyone in Britain is to be registered and issued with an identity card under a bill that became law today.
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Commons passes bill to register the whole population
LONDON The House of Commons has passed a bill to register every person in the United Kingdom.
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Athenia survivors come ashore at Greenock
GREENOCK Survivors of the Athenia began coming ashore at Greenock this morning from the destroyers that brought them up the Clyde in the early hours.
13:45GMT
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Two ways of sinking a merchant ship carry very different insurance costs
NEW YORK Three merchant ship losses were announced today, two German and one British, and they show two different ways of sinking a ship.
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British cruiser Ajax sinks German freighter Olinda off the River Plate
MONTEVIDEO The British cruiser Ajax stopped and sank the German freighter Olinda on Sunday, and the freighter's crew have now come ashore at Montevideo.
11:45GMT
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Britain agrees to buy Australia's whole wool surplus for the war's duration
SYDNEY Britain has agreed to buy the whole of Australia's exportable surplus of wool and foodstuffs, two days after Australia entered the war.
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Australia calls up militia as Britain agrees to buy its wool and food
CANBERRA Australia has ordered the mobilisation of its militia. Militiamen are to be called up in successive drafts of 10,000, each serving sixteen days, mainly to guard vulnerable points, according to an announcement made this evening.
10:00GMT
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London says the RAF hit two German battleships and admits casualties
LONDON The RAF severely damaged German naval units at Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbüttel on Monday afternoon, the Ministry of Information says in its official account of the first British bombing attack of the war. The account admits casualties without giving a figure. It is the attacking side's own account, compiled from what the crews reported on their return. The text is reproduced as issued, including its spellings.
Ministry of Information
Official text
Ministry of Information statement on the attack on the German fleet, 5 September 1939
08:30GMT
08:30GMT
South Africa changes its government without an election
CAPE TOWN South Africa gets a new Prime Minister today without an election, as its constitution allows.
07:00GMT
07:00GMT
Hertzog resigns and Smuts is asked to form a South African government
CAPE TOWN General Hertzog has resigned as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, and General Smuts has been asked to form a government. Smuts, who was Hertzog's deputy until Monday, is expected to take office today.
04:00GMT
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Polish staff admits losing Grudziądz, Bydgoszcz and Częstochowa as Warsaw is bombed again
WARSAW The Polish general staff has acknowledged that its forces have abandoned Grudziądz and Bydgoszcz, both in the Polish Corridor, after severe fighting. It has also acknowledged abandoning Częstochowa, to the south.
02:15GMT
02:15GMT
First report from inside Danzig says the Post Office has fallen
STOCKHOLM A United Press correspondent in Danzig has filed the first report from inside the city since Friday. He says German forces overcame the defenders of the Polish Post Office and that the fighting there is finished.
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Polish Post Office in Danzig reported taken as Westerplatte holds out
DANZIG German forces have overcome the defenders of the Polish Post Office in Danzig, using artillery and fire against the building, a United Press correspondent in the city reports.
Where things stood at the start of the day
- Poland
- The offensive goes into a fifth day: Berlin says frontier resistance has been broken, while Warsaw calls the withdrawal planned and reports counter-attacks. Warsaw has been bombed again, Westerplatte is still under fire, and nobody can say who holds the Post Office in Danzig.
- The Atlantic
- Churchill told the Commons that the Athenia was torpedoed without warning, and Berlin denies that any German submarine was near her. Rescue is continuing, survivors are still being landed, and there is no reliable count of the dead.
- The air war
- British aircraft have bombed German warships at Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbüttel, the first British bombing attack of the war. London claims direct hits and severe damage to two battleships and admits some casualties, and nobody in Britain can yet check the claim.
- Britain and France
- Britain has brought in contraband control and created a Ministry of Economic Warfare, and convoy has started on one route with a general system being organised. France says operations have opened by land, at sea and in the air, and has said nothing further.
- The Empire
- Australia, New Zealand and India are at war alongside Britain, and South Africa's parliament has rejected neutrality by 80 votes to 67. The Union is not yet at war, and Canada's parliament meets on 7 September.
- Neutral nations
- The United States has restated its neutrality and says a formal proclamation is being prepared. Japan says it will stay out of the European war, Ireland is neutral, and Italy is not a belligerent.
Background
Neutrality is a legal act, not a mood
The President signed four documents today, several hours apart, and the relationship between them is not obvious from any single one.
The first declares the United States neutral in the war between Germany and France; Poland; and the United Kingdom, India, Australia and New Zealand. This is the general international-law instrument. It sets out what belligerent warships may do in American waters, what American nationals may not do, and what the United States understands its own obligations to be. It does not impose the arms embargo.
The second does. It is issued under the Neutrality Act itself, and it proclaims the statutory finding that a state of war exists. The Act provides that upon that proclamation the export of arms, ammunition and implements of war to those states becomes unlawful. So the embargo has a specific legal parent, and it is not the first proclamation.