Show weekly y news analysis britain gets 50 U S destroyers in trade for naval air bases by roger shaw EDITORS NOTE when opinions are expressed la in these columns they tre are those of the news analyst faa lyst and not necessarily of this newspaper U S DEFENSE boats for bases president roosevelt Hoo sevelt notified congress that the united states had reached an agreement with great britain whereby this country would obtain leases on naval and air bases in british possessions in this hemisphere in exchange for the transfer of 50 overage over age U S destroyers to england expected to arouse a storm of debate the act requires no ratification by congress but was submitted to that body to advise the nation of the arrangements made attorney general robert H jackson submitted an opinion to the white house which upheld the legality of the tarrie the destroyers were built by the united states during the world war and had been out of service for some time until they were recently re commissioned ninety nine year leases on territory in newfoundland on the island of bermuda the bahamas jamaica st lucia trinidad and antigua in the atlantic and in british guiana in south america are granted to the united states by the terms of the agreement naval and air stations are expected to be constructed at these points to aid in if S plans for a military defense of the western hemisphere AVIATION worst tragedy in the worst commercial aviation tragedy in the count rys history and the first in more than 18 months 25 persons lost their lives when a penn sylvania central airliner crashed near lovettsville Lovetts ville va during a violent thunderstorm the liner en route from washington D C to pittsburgh pa plunged into the side of a blue ridge mountain foothill apparently with the throttles of its two engines wide open AU all of the persons aboard the ship perished among the 21 passengers was sen ernest lundeen farmer laborite of minnesota the plane seemed to have exploded when it struck the ground scattering wreckage and bodies of the victims over a large area ARKANSAS SAS travelers aided by four trusty guards two of them convicted murderers 32 prisoners escaped from cummins state prison farm near pine bluff ark in a wild mass break the guards were prisoners who had been appointed trusties because of their good records and were supplied with saddle horses and guns of the six loyal trusties who refused to join in the break and were 1 1 A Y g heres a man that both republicans and democrats can congratulate lies iles senator hiram W johnson of california center who won both the republican and democratic nomination for united states senator in the recent california primary election this practically assures him of reelection for his fifth term ile he is pictured here being congratulated by democratic senator burton K wheeler of montana left and G 0 P senator warren R austin of vermont right prevented by ringleaders ring leaders of the plot from interfering one was killed when he tried to shoot it out with the escaping prisoners the convicts fled with four high powered rifles and six sawed off shot guns some of which were weapons they had had in their possession prior to the break II 11 GERMAN WAR aerial the germans reversed their aerial tactics just as they reversed their infantry tactics in 1917 at the beginning of the first world war the germans would attack in regular regimented mass formation the losses were colossal especially at verdun it was sheer mass murder late in 1917 general von hu tier changed the german methodology he devised a hit and run individual scattering attack which wiped out the whole british fifth army at st quentin on march 21 1918 it was the worst day the british army ever had bad until dunkirk in 1940 the same cycle has come to fo german aviation in the battle of england the german planes were attacking in regimented mass waves the losses were tremendous close to 1000 planes general changed the method he sent the german machines over in irregular individualistic jabs and by night instead of by day this proved much more economical and much less ineffective the amusing feature was this generals von autier and learned their novel military maneuvers from no less a source than the american I 1 indians of the eighteenth century the red skins that ambushed general braddock etc out way transylvania here I 1 come ever since the last war hungary and rumania have been quarreling about the disputed province of transylvania it was hungarian for 1000 years till 1919 and has been ru manic since over the past some weeks the rumanians and hung hangars lars have been squabbling at a great rate germany and italy want peace in the balkans so at last they settled the row in arbitrary style they split up transylvania half and hall half hungary getting the top iop half and rumania keeping the bottom halt half the name transylvania by the way gave william penn the idea for his pennsylvania nomenclature and not so bad at that transylvania is the special home of vampires as anyone who had read dracula dracsula Dra cula will remember and also rumania also lost territory to little t e bulgaria on the black sea coast and to the russian soviets the big province of Bes sarabia rumania was phoney from start to finish and few tears were shed over king carols cruel fate italy and germany have now given carol an airtight air tight guarantee of left of his kingdom how grateful that merry monarch feels remains to be seen the guarantee however may lead to trouble in the balkans between germany and russia what mr churchill sits up nights and prays for DAMAGED in france the french ministry of fine arts investigated what spots in france had been hardest hit by the war with germany it gave out the following list many of the places are well known to the americans here it is rouen laon soissons com beauvais amiens akiens gien saumur auxerre dauxerre Aux erre orleans calais dunkirk sedan Me arras le francois the last named was wiped out the amiens akiens cathedral had a miraculous escape in italics the brave italians ordered themselves to drop all foreign names trademarks and slogans from italian ian products this was the decree of the fascist merchants guild part of great corporate state of which the was the imitative american counterpart a more or less voluntary get together which regulates itself with the government as arbitrary umpire the italics barred such words as golf crepe creton zephyr after noon tea au revoir and beautiful CAMPAIGN not hot enough the 1940 campaign still was not very hot both the candidates acted very genteel although some of their supporters vocalized like cats on a back fence the best republican crack was this for a lot of republicans still care for willkie if mr willkie going to vote for mr Will willkie kle he would undoubtedly vote tor for mr roosevelt these republicans there were a lot of them felt that the foreign policies of willkie were no better than those of roosevelt and that they growled was a sad state of affairs this growling was becoming a really serious matter within the republican ranks willkie meanwhile leaned more and more on the willkie clubs and the independent democrats and less and less on the angry republican regulars who tend to be isolationist ti revolution the russell overton amendment to the conscription bill brought forth some willkie roosevelt nastiness the amendment in question would permit the government to conscript any industry in peacetime it if the government considered that industry necessary for national defense some people felt it was aimed directly at henry ford who play ball with the new dealers and help the british wilme willkie like the amendment and tried to draw roosevelt out on it roosevelt refused to be drawn out but the do pesters believed he liked the amendment and the radical new dealers certainly liked it fine it was the key they said to unlock the castle of entrenched yankee capitalism ital ism the russell overton amendment said the political scientists was probably the most truly revo lutio nary detail in american history more revolutionary than the declaration la of independence or the emancipation proclamation this was hotly contradicted and the debate grew bitter meanwhile secretary ickes got called a hitler in short pants and willkie got smeared as a barefoot wall street boy the rich mans roosevelt even so the 1940 campaign was pokey and norman thomas looked awfully good to a lot of perfectly respectable republicans public ans and democrats FRANCO MEX AIEX agreement after the spanish civil war huge masses of spanish loyalists of all sizes and sexes flocked to neutral france to escape the victorious general franco they go home and the french treated them very well on the whole but france these days is no place for spanish refugees even though old marshal petain does the best he can so the mexican government did a smart thing it signed a pact with france and will take the whole spaniards regardless of their politics it was a magnificent thing and will do mexico a world of good the only exceptions out of the quarter million will be common crimi criminals who will get sent back to spain if the franco government demands them there are very few of these the mexican government asked washington tor for U S ships to transport the to the halls of montezuma there they will bolster medicos cos white population as against the overwhelming masses of indians president cardenas himself is an and proud of it meanwhile in the abandoned country districts of france marshal petain was offering land rent free after three years the free ten ants to be will pay half rent for six years this is to try and get the french agricultural system back into adequate production another decree promises wages to farmers who are teaching farm work to apprentices the more children you have according to the reproductive M petain the better your chance of getting nice free farmland since the french being logical people hate big families therein lay the catch to the whole free pd p position ion DICTATOR non dicta dictatorial dictator winston churchill of england was in a big air raid on the coast of kent it was at a place called ramsgate the dictator entered an underground air raid shelter puffing on one of his favorite cigars which he chews like barney oldfield the mayor of ramsgate said sternly put out that cigar mr churchill the dictator looked sheepish and humbly did so there goes a good un said he crestfallen therein lies the essential difference between british and german in an dictators in the year of grace 1940 Chur chills daughter married a vaudeville actor and his nephew is a communist he himself ia a trade unionized bricklayer brick layer an ail 1 and an author he is an u blue blood he is half american and he served with the spanish against america he has bas never cared for america in the spanish war of 1898 when a new york taxi driver knocked him down a few years ago he gave the penitent fellow a cigar he also told him an off color joke in short the dictatorial mr churchill tends to be a pretty good guy namesake in london umbrella chamberlain Chur chills great rival has a namesake called plain george chamberlain he is 23 he is a soldier during a furious german air raid he yawned dawned so widely that he dislocated his jaw and had to go 90 to a hospital for serious treatment let that be a lesson to the hysteria cs of america hispanic the most reactionary politico in england sir samuel hoare was sent to spain as british ambassador it was announced on good authority tho rity that he promised spain the following if the hispanics would stay out spain would get gibraltar after peace was signed also portugal an age old ally of en england gland also french morocco stowaway at 47 so desperate ivas leono Lc ono 18 f above jy get to the united states I 1 that t she stowed away on the ship Ante american rican legion which brought refugees front from the european ivar zones leonore conics comes front from helsinki finland latest reports indicate that immigration authorities in the united states would be forced to exclude her from froin entrance into this country released by western newspaper union union |