Knox Explains

Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, who has often adjured the press not to give away secrets, finally told correspondents why one of his own magazine articles let a cat out of a bag.

Newsmen had long wanted to know how the Secretary explained the fact that an article by him in Collier's last August broke the news that a U.S. observer was aboard the American-built Catalina flying boat that spotted the Nazi battleship Bismarck and called the British fleet to the kill.

The explanation was simple: the article was ghostwritten and the Secretary had never even looked it over. Said he: "If I had known about that section in the piece personally, I would not have cleared it. When it was explained to me, however, I could not be too severe, because the fact was uncovered independently by the writer who worked on the piece."

Mr. Knox also explained that he did not write for profit but to "publicize and popularize the Navy." To the Naval Relief Society and to his ghost writers he had given all the proceeds from four recent magazine articles: from Satevepost, $1,000; Collier's, $1,000; Liberty, $900; American, $750; Post foreign rights, $75-79.

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