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Show Washington, D. C. AUTO CUT That fanfared OPM cut of 26 per cent in auto production drew nc cheers from war department chiefs. To them it was a big disappoint ment First of all the cut looks a lot bigger than it actually is. For one thing the OPM carefully did not reveal re-veal in its hoopla press releases was the fact that even with this curtailment auto production still will be 10 per cent greater than in 1938 and 1939. In other words, notwithstanding the increasing shortage of strategic raw materials, such as steel, rubber, rub-ber, alloys and other metals, auto production Is to continue at levels higher than in the peaceful years of '38 and 39. Another reason for the army gloom was that it wanted an immediate imme-diate cut of at least 50 per cent For months war department heads pleaded and argued with OPM moguls mo-guls for drastic curtailment, on the ground that the material going Into pleasure cars are desperately needed need-ed for planes, tanks, ships, guns and other vital armaments. But for months the OPM masterminds did absolutely nothing. Finally, In July, scrappy OPACS Director Leon Henderson, who has seen eye-to-eye with the army on this issue from the start, took the bull by the horns and "ordered" a 50 per cent slash. OPM's reaction was to hit the ceiling. ceil-ing. It refused to accept the ruling. And while OPM battled behind the scenes with OPACS, autos continued to roll off assembly lines in record-breaking record-breaking numbers. However, Henderson's Hen-derson's bare-knuckling finally took effect. The 26V4 per cent cut is a little less than half of what the army and Henderson wanted, but it is 6'4 per cent more than OPM's original figure. TANKS FOR BRITAIN Some time ago the Merry-Go-Round revealed that a chief objective objec-tive of Lord Beaverbrook's visit was to get more tanks tanks for Iran: tanks for Egypt, tanks eventually for an Invasion of the continent. Beaverbrook particularly wanted the new powerful 32 tonncrs that soon will roll off the Chrysler assembly line at the rate of 450 a month. It can now be revealed that the British supply minister will not go home empty handed. He will take back with him very cheering assurances assur-ances regarding the division of these tanks between the U. S. and British armed forces. But that isn't the end of his tank problem. Allotting tanks to the British in this country is one thing, but delivering deliv-ering them across the Atlantic is another. In fact, the problem of transporting transport-ing large numbers of 32-ton tanks is the toughest shipping problem maritime experts have faced since the magnetic mine, which ravaged shipping until the de-magnctizing devices de-vices were evolved. In a nutshell here Is the problem: For every shipload of light 12 ton tanks sent to England or Africa, trie same ship plus nearly three-fourths of another ship would be required to transport the same number of 32-ton 32-ton tanks. In other words, they are bigger. Translated into specific figuresthat fig-uresthat 26-ship convoy which landed 560 light tanks at Alexandria three months ago would have had to consist of 44 vessels to carry the same number of medium tanks. With shipping scarcer than hen's teeth, a difference of 18 ships is an extremely important factor. Also, the necessity of traveling in slow convoys further reduces the amount of shipping available. Some experts estimated this reduction as high as 50 per cent In addition the British sometimes take an excessively long time to unload cargoes. So the tank problem thus also becomes be-comes an acute shipping problem. One bright spot in the situation is the great reduction in ship losses in the last 60 days since the extension of the U. S. neutrality patrols. But the basic problem of securing more cargo bottoms still remains. Note: Since January 1, U. S. shipyards ship-yards have turned out a total of 56 cargo vessels. MERRY-GO-ROl'ND Army officers are singing the praises of 20th Century-Fox's Darryl Zanuck and many movie moguls for their big job in filming 100 reels of army training films. This was the first time training films have ever been taken, and Hollywood did them for 40 per cent of what it would have cost Hollywood itself to do the job. In other words, the army only had to pay union labor and cost of film. Hollywood supplying the studios, stu-dios, production, overhead and everything ev-erything else. The Washington Diplomatic corps is goggle-eyed over Mrs. Warren Pierson's new book. "The Good Neighbor Murder." Her husband is head of the Export-Import Bank which loans millions to the Good Neighbors. Dr. I. Lubin, brilliant White House defense expert, is the most "officed" official in Washington. He has an i office in the White House, another in the labor department as head of the bureau of labor statistics, a ' third in the labor division of OPM. and a fourth in the treasury as an ' adviser to Secretary Morgenthau. |