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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS BY JOSEPH W. LaWISE Soviet-U. S. Relations Strained By Molotov's Attack on FDR; Italy Protects Her Neutrality (EDITOR'S NOTE When opinion are expressed In the.se columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) Released by Weilern Newspaper Union. EUROPE: Double Feature AH Hallow's eve found every European Eu-ropean ear cocked to Moscow, waiting history-making utterances from Premier Viacheslav Molotov. Adolf Hitler had 1,500,000 men poised at the front; go did the allies. But war hung in abeyance. For as Russia swung so would the war, because be-cause every other European state had declared its status, neutral with leanings either toward Germany (like Italy and Hungary) or toward the allies. Stolen Thunder A few short hours before Molotov' s speech, II Duce Benito Mussolini pulled a coup that must have stunned his erstwhile colleague in Germany. Ousted was Propaganda Minister Dino Alfleri, close friend of Nazidom's Propagandist Paul Joseph Gocbbels. Ousted were Fascist Secretary Achille Starace, close friend of Deputy Dep-uty Fuehrer Rudolf Hess and the man who gave a signal for the Italian Ital-ian chamber's demonstration against Germany. He said Nazi-Russian friendship was getting thicker. Next day it was revealed trade discussions discus-sions were going forward successfully. success-fully. One report from Stockholm said Russian submarines would be given the Nazis fn exchange for German merchant ships, providing a subtle way of staying "neutral." Poland. He said there can be no question of restoring Poland and that It was absurd to continue the war for that cause. Two days earlier, ear-lier, Britain's Prime Minister Chamberlain Cham-berlain had acknowledged Russia's right of Invasion to "protect" her Polish blood brothers from Germany. Ger-many. Balkans. He gave no hint of expansion ex-pansion there, but shook a nasty finger at Turkey for signing mutual assistance pacts with the allies after shunning a treaty with the Soviet. United Slates. He precipitated a heated argument which observers thought might end with severance of Sovlet-U. S. diplomatic relations. Commenting on President Roosevelt's Roose-velt's earlier note expressing hope for continued amicable Finnish-Rus- If " v4 ' hi M A .J l;-.fj , k, TP C 4 1 Ah r POLITICS : Candidate-of-the-W'eek Rooseveltian third-term talk, which took a back seat in early days of the war crisis, loomed again in San Francisco when Secretary ol Agriculture Henry Wallace boomed the President for re-election. Next day Secretary Steve Early made it clear that Franklin Roosevelt wanted want-ed no boom, and Iowa's Sen. Guy Gillette left a White House conference confer-ence where the President had reportedly re-portedly asked that Iowa's delegation delega-tion to next year's convention go unpledged. The deduction: Thai Mr. Roosevelt will not seek re-election, and certainly wants the matter mat-ter hushed for the present. But Henry Wallaceiad started the political pot boiling again. Into the Republican picture jumped Oregon's Sen, Charles McNary, who tentatively tenta-tively consented to run. Into the Democratic picture jumped a brand new name, Montana's Sen. Burton K. Wheeler, who tried to win the vice presidency with the elder La-Follette La-Follette in 1924. Writing California's Gov. Cuth-bert Cuth-bert Olson to protest a meeting ol "progressive leaders" scheduled STALIN'S MOLOTOV . . , stole his thunder. sian relations, Molotov said: "One finds it hard to reconcile that with the American policy of neutrality . . . One might think that matters are in better shape between the United States and ... the Philip-pines Philip-pines . . . than between the Soviet Union and Finland, which has long ago obtained both freedom and political po-litical independence ..." Next day, while Massachusetts' Rep. John McCormack demanded from the house floor that Ambassador Ambas-sador Laurence Steinhardt be- recalled re-called from Moscow, the President dug from his files an exchange of notes with Soviet President Michael Kalinin last April, when Kalinin cabled an unsolicited "expression of profound sympathy" with the President's Presi-dent's efforts to safeguard peace. This cable had come one day after Mr. Roosevelt sent peace pleas to Dictators Hitler and Mussolini. Thus the U. S. put Kalinin on record as supporting the President's peace efforts ef-forts in contrast to Molotov's declaration. decla-ration. Suggested White House Secretary Sec-retary Steve Early: "It would seem that he (Molotov) had the embargo in mind rather than what he termed the President's moral support of Finland." (Vnspotlighled, the neutrality bill wormed its way through the house which voted 237 to 177 for sending it to conference with the senate, conferees to have definite instructions. One instate- IL DUCE'S STARACE 11 is demotion . . . France last winter; Gen. Alberto Parianl, friend of Hitler's Col. Gen. Walther von Brauchitsch and author of the Italian "blitzekrieg" plan for a German - Italian Spanish drive against France; Gen. Giuseppe Valle, friend of Field Marshal Hermann Her-mann Goering. Replacing them were middle-of-the-roaders like Marshal Mar-shal Rodolfo Graziani, chief of staff. Retained were other favorites like Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ci-ano Ci-ano (Mussolini's son-in-law) and Count Dino Grandi, minister of justice. jus-tice. In Paris there was a feeling the Rome-Berlin axis had broken down completely. London was also happy, hap-py, for a few hours earlier Italy's Ambassador Giuseppe Bastianini had made a strong anti-Communist speech. In the Balkans it was thought Mussolini disapproved Russia's Rus-sia's expansionist policy, especially since II Duce did not even wait until Molotov spoke. But in Italy it was a simple indication that Massoljfii had his ear to the ground; Italians wanted no pact with the allies, they merely wanted strict neutrality. Ominous Talk First allied reaction to Premier Molotov'i speech was relief over his failure to declare a military alliance al-liance with the Reich, even though he did charge Britain and France k . f-jy "ft SENATOR WHEELER AND WIFE Plenty of friends. next month in Salt Lake City, C. I. O.'s John Lewis gave, among othei reasons: "The slight to Senator Wheeler and other great liberals ol the west, who have not been consulted con-sulted ..." Lewis apparently considered the meeting (some of whose participants may be violating the Hatch "no politics" act) as a third-term boom. lion: Jo repeal the arms embargo, by a vote of 243 to 181. Thus congress expected ex-pected to get out of town immediately. Britain hailed the repeal: Nazidom was enraged. One suddenly discovered danger of cash-and-carry is that the allies will indeed buy more arms but will cut other imports from the U. S. One Britisher thought imports of U. S. industrial products and foodstuffs may fall off $150,000,000 a year.) Western Front Abandoning purely defensive positions, posi-tions, German "shock troops" stormed the French frontier at scattered scat-tered points as murky weather gave way to sunshine. Fears grew that Belgium and the Netherlands might ESTONIA) Certainly it was made deal that Senator Sen-ator Wheeler should be consulted in any future "liberal" discussions about 1940. Washington observers, realizing that Lewis support may be a kiss of death to any political aspirations the senator may entertain, enter-tain, nevertheless admitted he has A. F. of L. backing, a big railroad following and plenty of friends in the senate. COMMUNICATIONS: Twisted Wires Following an ultimatum from Chicago's Chi-cago's District Attorney Thomas J. Courtney and U. S. District Attorney Attor-ney William J. Campbell, the American Amer-ican Telephone and Telegraph company com-pany barred Moses Annenberg's ract betting information service from using us-ing its facilities. The Illinois Bel) Telephone company followed suit be invaded. The Dutch proclaimed a state of siege in eight provinces, flooding frontier positions to check any Nazi advance. At Sea While the embattled V. S. S. City of Flint steamed carefully down the Norwegian coast to Germany under a Nazi prize crew, the U. S. asked both the Reich and Britain to protect pro-tect her interned American crew. Washington also reported 27 U. S. ships have been detained by belligerents bellig-erents since the war began. The war at sea came too close to American Amer-ican shores when the British freighter freight-er Coulmore was reportedly torpe-1 torpe-1 doed 450 miles off New England. Nazi planes and U-boa.ts continued successful raiding of allied shipping, but Britain retaliated by naming Lord Nuffield (her "Henry Ford") to a key post in the air ministry. His instructions: To intensify the navy's North sea blockade against Germany. RUSSIAN DEMANDS The Soviet would give Finland part of Karelia (I) in exchange for moving back Finnish frontier northwest of Leningrad (2); Kussia wants (3) islands is-lands of Seiskari, llogland, Lavansaari and Tytarsaari ; would lease lan I (4) at mouth of Finnish gulf for naval bases; asks for Finnish part of Rybachi peninsula penin-sula (S). were warring not to preserve democracy de-mocracy or restore Poland, but to safeguard their world empires. But sober reflection made the allies worry wor-ry about: Finland. Molotov revealed, much to the Finns' chagrin, the stalemated stalemat-ed proposals which have occupied these two countries for the past month. Besides a mutual assistance pact, Russia wanted territorial exchanges ex-changes (see map) which Finland declared would "rob us of the chance of defending the independence independ-ence ... of our land." |
