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Show V l DREW PEARSON Washington, D. C. MARTINIQUE APPEASEMENT How tolerant we have been of the French island of Martinique, for two years thumbing its nose at us within with-in bombing distance of the Panama canal, is illustrated by a conversation conversa-tion which took place between the state department's Sam Reber and treasury department officials. Reber had gone to Martinique to negotiate with Vichy Admiral Robert regarding the airplane carrier, cruisers and six oil tankers rusting in Martinique waters. Subsequently, Subsequent-ly, the state department announced that an agreement had been reached with Admiral Robert whereby these ships would be turned over to the U. S. A. Months have passed, however, how-ever, with no result. After state department envoy Reber returned, treasury officials asked him: "What about the gold in Martinique? Marti-nique? What is to become of that?" They referred to 25 billions of gold francs still stored in Martinique. "Oh," replied Reber, "that didn't come up." "Wasn't it even mentioned?" j asked treasury officials, who remem-'-Jred how France had defaulted on her "debts from World War I, still owing us several billion dollars. "No," replied Reber, "did you think it would be safer up here?" "Well, it certainly isn't very safe down there," countered the treasury. "We decided," replied Reber, "that we didn't want to do anything which might infringe on the sovereignty sov-ereignty of France." That ended the matter. The gold is still in Martinique, and Admiral Robert, who apparently isn't much impressed by the subtleties of state department appeasement, has continued con-tinued to thumb his nose at the United States. RED CROSS DONOR Several weeks ago Mrs. Roosevelt phoned the Red Cross to say that she wanted to donate blood to the Washington blood bank, but wanted no publicity. Red Cross officials agreed and the visit' went off without any fanfare. Mrs. Roosevelt merely took her place in line with other blood donors, rolled up her sleeve, had a pint drawn from her arm, and went on about her business. Some weeks later, Red Cross officials of-ficials were astounded to have Mrs. Roosevelt appear at the blood bank again. This time she had not telephoned, tele-phoned, but they felt their pledge of no publicity still held good. Once again, the First Lady took her place with other blood donors, and scarcely scarce-ly anyone knew she had been there. Red Cross officials wished they could have publicized the incident, because they were in the middle of their drive for funds. However, they did not do so, and this column learned of the facts quite by accident. acci-dent. PAY BEFORE PATRIOTISM War Production board officials tell of a heavy snow-and-sleet storm that blanketed Seattle and left the Boeing Aircraft plant snowbound, unable to operate for two days. By the end of the week roads had been opened, and Boeing broadcast a back-to-work call. Men came to the gates of the plant, but stopped there. And they declined de-clined to go further until they could be assured of receiving time-and-a-half pay for week-end work. "But you haven't put in 40 hours this week," officials retorted. The men stood their ground, however, how-ever, and Boeing officials telephoned Washington for advice. They talked with Madame Perkins, who ruled that nothing should be allowed to interfere with production and that the men should be paid. MERRY-GO-ROUND fl. U. S. department chiefs have asked for the deferment of very few government workers, but local draft boards, acting on their own, have deferred a tremendous number simply sim-ply because they worked for the government. gov-ernment. ft The diplomatic envoys of Honduras, Hondu-ras, Costa Rica, Salvador, Guatemala, Guate-mala, and Nicaragua soon will become be-come ambassadors extraordinary instead in-stead of ministers plenipotentiary. This would give all Good Neighbor diplomats the rank of ambassador except Haiti and the Dominican Republic; Re-public; would also place them ahead of Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Zea-land. C Figures for accidents on the home front continue to be almost as tragic as war casualties. Ned Dearborn of the National Safety Council says that 93,000 Americans were killed and 9,300,000 injured last year, ft Of the 26 British camera men who filmed General Montgomery's "Desert "Des-ert Victory," four were killed, seven wounded and six taken prisoner . The film is imperfect and hard on the eyes because it was taken under battle conditions. But it is a great story of British heroism, ft Only American journalist to visit the Japs' secret naval base, Truk. is Willard Price. In his book! 1 "Pacific Adventure," he scooped the . world on Japan's surreptitious plans 1 to dominate the Pacific from Truk. Recommended as required reading for the state department. |