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Show MEit-GD-luUHD rtrl ft & MBEtTAttLtN Washington, D. C. BRITISH DIPLOMACY The British barring of Russian Ambassador Litvinoff from an airplane air-plane en route to the U.S.A. has increased in-creased Washington whispers that it is about time the British did something to clean up their moribund mori-bund diplomatic service and cut out snubs to people who are trying to help them. It has long been the belief of Americans, too polite to mention it, that the British embassy in Washington Wash-ington can make more mistakes to the square inch even than Mr. Hull's state department and many of the state department's mistakes come from trying so ardently to ape the British. For years the British embassy has sat on its hilltop, well removed from the bustle of Washington, and looked with slightly disdainful amusement upon the hoi polloi of congress. An invitation to the British Brit-ish embassy in those good old days was considered by the dowagers as better than an invitation to the White House. But those good old days, unfortunately un-fortunately both for the dowagers and the embassy, are gone, never to return. However, the embassy appears completely unaware of that fact. And its charming young men go their charming way, saying sometimes too audibly: "We must be nice to Americans"; while the real work of defending Britain takes place in the British Purchasing commission, com-mission, largely under the direction direc-tion of hard-boiled Canadians and Australians. Viscount Halifax is one of the most delightful and genteel persons ever to grace the embassy. He tries hard. But hard as he tries, he cannot overcome the bubbling Charles Peake, who minces around him as it his lordship still were viceroy of India with white and crimson-costumed Sikhs mounted on black chargers outside his palace, pal-ace, in Calcutta, instead of being in a city where politics are very earthy and where the congressman's congress-man's wife from Keokuk has a lot more influence than the pink tea protocol experts usually seen at the British embassy. WASHINGTON SOCIETY Washington is a city where debate de-bate may rage furiously on the floor of the senate, but simmer down to friendly story-telling in the anteroom ante-room or around the dinner table afterward. This is not always the case, however, and sometimes Washington society becomes so aroused that it is dangerous to invite in-vite certain strong-minded people to dinner. This was true during the fight over Roosevelt's Supreme court bill; and during the Roosevelt-Willkie election elec-tion campaign; and it is somewhat true during the neutrality controversies controver-sies today. Old hands at the game of controversy, however, manage to keep their tempers. For instance, seated near each other at dinner the other night were Sen. Burt Wheeler, than whom there is no more energetic ener-getic isolationist, and Undersecretary Undersecre-tary of the Navy Forrestal, just as energetically interventionist. Wheeler was talking about the recent re-cent neutrality debate, telling how Roosevelt forces influenced votes by promising jobs and dishing out patronage. pa-tronage. Interrupted Undersecretary Forrestal: "Senator, did the neutrality fight reach the depths of your fight to pass the Wheeler-Rayburn act?" (The Holding Corporation act.) "No," shot back Senator Wheeler, "I didn't have the patronage." The two men continued a good-natured good-natured discussion of neutrality, Wheeler maintaining that time would prove that his anti-war stand was right After the war, he contended, con-tended, history would reverse the present tide of war sentiment and there would be a revulsion of feeling feel-ing if not a virtual French revolution. revolu-tion. "And when the guillotine ax begins be-gins to fall, senator," said Forrestal Forrest-al as he departed, "will you be my attorney?" FINNS VS. NAZIS Intelligence reports from Europe for the first time indicate friction between German and Finnish troops on the eastern fronts. The Finns are sore because the Nazis have been living off the country and have not been at all scrupulous in paying Finnish peasants for pigs, cows and chickens. On top of this, the Nazis recently ousted Finnish children from an orphanage at Rovaninemi and used it for the general staff. This made the Finns boil with anger. . CAPITAL CHAFF The government is paying out more money than ever before in history his-tory for use of the wires and ether. Even with reduced rates for official messages, the tolls for telegraph, telephone, cable and radio are tremendous. tre-mendous. ' Every time a government official picks up the telephone to make an outside call, Uncle Sam pays three cents, the wholesale rate. In telegraph tele-graph messages the government gets a 40 per cent discount, though there is a minimum charge of 20 cents. |