enabled them to get in their effective work of destruction when the United States planes ran out of ammunition. After the battle had waged for 14 days, with the United States losing thousands of planes, the cause seemed to be hopeless and St. Louis was surrendered. The situation was getting more desperate all the time and the people again were losing hope. The large loss of airships at the battle of St. Louis had weakened the U.S. Army regardless of the rapidity with which new planes were being turned out. The enemy took charge of St. Louis and moved part of their supply bases there. The food situation was acute thruout the country. Farmers had been afraid to go to the field to plant anything. Canada was not able to supply all of our needs and we were blockaded on the South, East and West. The Cabinet now awoke to the fact that many mistakes had been made and that the situation instead of improving was growing rapidly worse. Before the fall of St. Louis or the news of it had had time to be fully understood by the people all over the United States, the English and the Germans attacked the Northern border, making for Chicago. The lines were tightly drawn, the enemy was still holding the Western Coast and it now meant only a matter of capturing Chicago, close up the lines between Chicago and St. Louis, and complete the enemy's lines across the Central part of the United States. Council after council was held while the fighting was going on around the Great Lakes. The Government rushed reinforcements and the new long-range gun on our large cruising airships was able to do effective work for a long time in protecting Chicago. England lost heavily in the battle around the Great Lakes because Canada was helping us there, but the blow was heavy to the United States. Our losses in men and planes were tremendous. In the early part of September, 1931, it was plain from the skirmishes which had been taking place around the Great Lakes that the enemy was trying to attack Chicago and it was only a question of time when they would break thru and make the attack. The United States officers were well aware of the fact that if Chicago fell into the hands of the enemy, it would place the United States at a greater disadvantage than ever to defend the Eastern Coast. The United States War Council decided to urge France to attack England and Germany and make them withdraw forces from the United States to protect their home cities. France was well equipped with airplanes and could rapidly destroy the large cities in England and Germany and she was the only country on the other side that we could look to to help us. When America's appeal was received in France, the President of France sent the following message to our Government: