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you tell them what it is Frank?” He gave the authority and then asked Knox to tell us.
“Well,” said Knox, in his sputtering way. He was an excitable man and high strung. He was easily angered at enemy actions. He said, “We have very secret information that mustn't go outside this room that the Japanese fleet is out. They're out of harbor. They're out at sea.”
Most of us looked as though our eyes would drop. We were not kept posted as to the intelligence reports. We knew just enough to know that there was no sense in asking how they knew it. He said, “We know it's in the ocean, at sea.”
The President sat there looking very serious and severe, nodding his head, but scowling in a puzzled way. He was nodding his head in affirmation.
Knox went on, “Our information is....”
Then the President interrupted him, again to keep him from going much further. He apparently thought it was all right to tell the Cabinet the fleet was out, but no more than that. Then he said this, which Knox agreed with, “We haven't got anything like perfect information as to their apparent destination. The question is in the minds of the Navy and in my mind whether the fleet is going south.......
Several people said, “Singapore?”
He nodded, “Probably. That's the presumed objective if they go south.”
Then Knox interrupted to say, “Every indication is that
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