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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Roger Shaw Election Day Holds National Spotlight; Tension in Balkan States Increases As Axis Demands Greek Concessions; British Carry Air War to German Soil (EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are expressed in these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) I I (Released by Western Newspaper rtnlnn i THE WAR: Aerial I There were rumors and counter-rumors counter-rumors about the total evacuation of London, in the face of Goering's aerial ae-rial bombardment. Old people over 65, school children, and active mothers moth-ers were advised to leave as soon as possible, taking with them all sick or invalided souls. About half a million children I more than 50 per cent of the school j population were out of town, and 500 expectant mothers were departing depart-ing weekly for parts unknown. It was not a cheerful picture. The British government still refused to leave, although an emergency parliament parli-ament house had been prepared in readiness, at Cheltenham, in the extreme ex-treme west of England. The board of trade already had announced the removal of its business offices records rec-ords to the Grand hotel, in an unpronounceable un-pronounceable spot in central Wales. The spot was, actually, Llandudno. The British board of trade corresponds corre-sponds to the U. S. Chamber of Commerce. Com-merce. Reports from London, Berlin and Rome indicated that the British air force had launched a major air of- were moving increasingly to the anti-Hitler anti-Hitler viewpoint, for a Germanized Balkans did not appeal to the Kremlin Krem-lin at Moscow. The actual military value of the Red army was under constant discussion. Had it found itself, it-self, in the last month of the Finnish war? Was the Red aviation any good? Were there any suitable Red generals left alive after Stalin's purges? These were the moot questions, ques-tions, and even the left-eye monocles of the Prussian general staff were in some doubt about Marshal Voro-shilov's Voro-shilov's warbids and warboys. Reported demands upon Greece by the Axis powers included: (1) immediate severance of economic relations with the British, (2) cession of territory to Italy and Bulgaria, (3) use of Greek airs bases by the Axis, (4) abdication of King George of Greece, (5) grant of a right of way to Italy for construction of a major military road. DEFENSE: Draftees Thirty thousand draftees were to be put into the army by November 18, and another 800,000 by June 15. There had been a total of 17.000.000 A. C. L. U.: 'Reforms9 The American Civil Liberties un-I un-I ion used to be called radical. It defended de-fended Communists, Nazis, Negroes, trade unions and other varied i v i LI .'fAAfe fensive against the axis powers in reply to the constant bombings of London by the Nazis. While the RAF had by no means been idle during the preceding weeks, this current drive seemed to take on more force than heretofore. Invasion ports on the French side of the English channel were severely severe-ly bombed and shipyards at Bremen were reported blasted. Industrial cities of northern Italy came in for their share of the beating, according accord-ing to the dispatches from British headquarters. Disease The worst news of all was this: Spinal meningitis had broken out. This was due to the fact that nearly 3,000,000 people had been sleeping in unsanitary subways, crowded into unhygienic surroundings. Nerves were wearing out, and so was physical physi-cal resistance, with an average of only four hours' sleep per night. The "cerebro-spinal fever" was blamed on a nose and throat germ, presumably pre-sumably air-borne. There was fur- causes, whieh was certainly an American way of doing things, but its leaders were sometimes accused of leftist tendencies. Eleven new members were added to the national committee of the A. C. L. U. They were certainly of an orthodox, and even conservative, type. The new members included Mr. Roosevelt's headmaster of aristocratic aris-tocratic Groton school, Dr. Endicott Peabody. Also, interventjonistic Robert Sherwood, the famous playwright. play-wright. Van Wyck Brooks, the blue-blooded blue-blooded author and critic, was another, an-other, and so was Pearl Buck, the "Chinese" novelist. Dean Christian Gauss of conservative Princeton university uni-versity was on the list, and Dr. Frank Kingdon, director of the citizenship citi-zenship educational service. Also, William Draper Lewis of Philadelphia, Philadel-phia, director of the American law institute, William Allan Neilson, president emeritus of Smith college for women, Bishop Bromley Oxnam of the Methodist church in Boston, and Professor Sophonisba Breckinridge Breckin-ridge of the University of Chicago. With America re-arming to the full, the woman's touch is used at the Frank-ford Frank-ford arsenal, Philadelphia, Pa., to feed-these feed-these .50-calibre cartridge cases into ', jit ! NATIONAL: Socialism Certain gloomy political scientists were maintaining that the blight of national socialism was spreading round the world to all the major countries: Germany, Italy, England, France, Japan, America, etc. In each country, they declared, it varied its pattern, but the basic essentials es-sentials were always there. Sad They said that national socialism now combined the aggressive militarism mili-tarism of the politicial right with the aggressive socialism of the political po-litical left. This united left and right, and made for some sort of totalitarian state. The Churchill government, for example, unites radical labor (under Ernest Bevin) with the military mentality of Churchill himself. Chamberlain, they claimed, represented the last the machine that tapers them. These cartridges are used in anti-tank guns. young men that registered, which topped the forecasts. In reference to these young men, War Secretary Stimson declared: "Only God and Hitler know what will happen to the United States." The army, it was stated, plans to train 900,000 annually for the next five years, which is the life-length of the Burke-Wadsworth Burke-Wadsworth conscription bill recently recent-ly passed by congress. The B-W bill provided that an annual 900,000 was to be the maximum number called up per year. Western One southwestern Indian was found who claimed to be a member of the German Bund, and didn't want to register. He said he was waiting for Hitler to come and "free" him from the white man, the White House, and the great white father. Some people said that this stand of Victorian middle-class capitalism. cap-italism. The Vargas dictatorship in Brazil, the Franco rule in Spain, and the Konoye regime in Japan militarized mili-tarized and anti-capitalist were additional ad-ditional samples. LEOPOLD: The Belgic King Leopold of Belgium was accused ac-cused last June of grave military treachery in the Flanders campaign They said he let the British and French troops down by making that initial separate peace. France revoked re-voked his legion of honor decoration and the Leopoldine bust was removed re-moved from the Belgium pavilion at the New York World's fair. Then months later, people began to reno vate their opinions about Leopold of the Belgians. The Petaln government govern-ment of France restored his legion of honor. The marble Leopoldine bust was restored to the World's fair exhibit. Some 700 people were specially invited to the bustial restoration. resto-ration. The pavilion had been open only two weeks when Leo made his peace with the Hitlerians. The weary months since that time have meant seclusion-for the monarch-in monarch-in a guarded Belgian chateau, where he rules vaguely and in nmo Here is Admiral Sir Harry Af. Har-wood, Har-wood, who commanded the British forces off the coast of South America when the German battleship Graf Spee was trupped, and now is named Lord Commissioner of the British Admiralty and Assistant Chief of the naval staff. ther danger of typhoid, influenza, a higher insanity rate, and other attendant at-tendant ills. It will be remembered that epidemic disease is one of the four grim horses of the apocalypse, and perhaps the worst of the grisly team. The Balks When it came to the Balkans, there was increased tension. Rumania Ru-mania was further occupied by the German invaders. Bulgaria headed straight for the Axis orbit, while British citizens began to decamp from both Bucharest and Sofia. Jugoslavia, squeezed between Italy, Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Italian Albania, signed a new trade and political pact with Hitler, which tied up the Jugoslavs in the German Ger-man continental system, at least for the time being. Greece was threatened threat-ened by the Bulgarians and Italians, and was backed up by Russia and Turkey Greece and Turkey, along with Egypt and PorUigal. were still nominal British allies. The Soviets aborigine was red in more ways than one. POLITICS: Wind Up As the politicians all over the nation na-tion were busy winding up their blasts of campaign oratory, American Ameri-can voters were preparing to go to the polls to cast what was expected to be the largest ballot in the nation's na-tion's history. Major candidates were completing their pleas to the electorate and latest public opinion polls indicated a close presidential race. On Mr. R. Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt did not try to predict the result of the 1940 campaign, which was coming to a peak. She said she simply didn't know, and implied she could take it or leave it Said Mrs. Roosevelt, who is popular popu-lar even with the foes of her husband: hus-band: "As far as the polls go. they mean very little to me. They are so often too much one way. or the other. When you've been the wife of a politician long enough, yuu learn not to express anything one way or the other, but just go along and see what happens . . ." Duello Meanwhile, Clare Boothe and Dorothy Dor-othy Thompson disagreed on the election. Miss Boothe wrote "The Women" and other things. She stood firm for Willkie. Miss Thompson, N. Y. Herald Tribune or no N. y' Herald Tribune, plumped for Roosevelt. Roose-velt. Miss Boothe razzed Miss Thompson, and the Herald Tribune held up Miss Thompson's stuff. There was quite a to-do about it all. with Miss Boothe apparently worsting Miss Thompson in this blitzkrieg of hairpins and cat-calls if at all. SNITE: Iron Lunged About the bravest young man in America is Fred Suite Jr. of CI cago. He has lived for four years "1 an iron lung, and has traveled In it to distant places. He has mar ried hopp.ly and now has an he" Snite wanted to register for tne draft, with his customary plucU They appointed Snite senior a, a special registrar, and the father .registered the son. |
