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Show Washington Congress took time for a deep breath whllo the President and Vlco-I'residont were being inaugurated inaugu-rated and plunged right back into the fight for and against H. R. 1 7 7 (J . the controversial lend-lease bill which would give the President Presi-dent the right to "sell, transfer, oxcliange, lease, or otherwise dis-)oso dis-)oso of" any defense article which the President may deem advisable to transfer to another nation. And to permit British ships to be repaired re-paired In our ports. Former Ambassador Joseph P. struct 2 00 cargo vessels. The House appropriations subcommittee subcommit-tee approved the measure almost immediately and Chairman Clifton A. Woodrum plans to ask imme- j diate Congressional consideration as soon as the Navy's new $1,209,-000,000 $1,209,-000,000 appropriation is disposed of. Moving at Rapid Rate . The whole armament program is moving along at an ever more rapid rate. John D. Biggers, director direc-tor of the new production division of the defense agency, announced that 799 miltiary airplanes were built in December, surpassing the most optimistic of estimates by 100. He also announced that January production would exceed December's considerably, and that Kennedy appeared, had already endorsed the speech, while Chairman Chair-man Sol Bloom, Democrat, commented: com-mented: "Just another ostrich speech with his head deep in the sands of unreality. And I still prefer pre-fer to take the advice of Secretaries Secre-taries Hull, Morgenthau, Stimson and Knox, and Mr. Knudsen, and above all, that of Franklin Delano Roosevelt." Over the strenuous opposition and constant denouncement of those favoring the President's bill, Mr. Fish and his supporters on the committee called an imposing impos-ing array of witnesses which included in-cluded Norman Thomas, Socialist candidate for president; Hanford MacNlder, former ambassador to Canada; Col. Charles A. Lindbergh Lind-bergh and General Hugh S. Johnson. John-son. Mr. Pish intended to summon Wendell L. Willkie, also, but his trip to .Europe forestalled his appearance. ap-pearance. With so much excitement about the hearings of the House Foreign Relations committee, the opening mined to resist any major curtailment curtail-ment in the powers proposed for the President, insisting that he must be given a free hand to act swiftly during a crisis which may change in "twenty-four hours." The administration may have to give in a great deal before it is over. It may have to strike out the "Naval-repair" part of the bill, and conceivably might be forced to accept a statutory limitation on the amount of money that could be devoted to the purpose of aiding Britain, but the feeling here is that the bill will pass with its major provisions intact. In the meantime, official efforts are being made to hamper the dictator dic-tator powers in every way possible. pos-sible. A treasury drafted executive execu-tive order which will freeze all production of light tanks is now almost five months ahead of schedule. sche-dule. Yet with all these public and private efforts to meet the threat of a dictator - controlled world, there's still an effort to maintain normal relations with axis powers. pow-ers. A large German flag, flying from the offices of the German Consulate in San Francisco, was ripped from its mast by two American Amer-ican sailors. An authorized German Ger-man spokesman in Berlin' declared that this incident has "created a very bad impression in Berlin" and that "there sho'uld be an apology." apol-ogy." Immediately, the United States government formally expressed its regrets and promised a thorough investigation of the incident would be made. foreign assets in the United States has gone to the White House. Such an order will halt the present flow of German, Italian, and Japanese funds in and out of the United States in the same way that a previous order has prevented pre-vented the use of funds of occupied occu-pied countries. Although it will tie up British funds also, a provision of the "order "or-der enables a country to withdraw its funds as long as it is within the interest of the United States for it to do so. Fear of this step has caused recent heavy withdrawals with-drawals of Swiss and German currency cur-rency from the country. Our own rearmament program was speeded up as House leaders arranged to give speedy consideration consider-ation to President Roosevelt's request re-quest for $350,000,000 to con- Kennedy gave the opposition a wedge to offset Wendell Wlllkie's startling endorsement of the bill by making a nation - wide radio speech in which he urged that a less drastic measure be written, on the ground that the danger was not immediate enough to justify I 1 what he callod "this surrender of ! the authority and responsibility of I the Congress." j j Kennedy Created Stir j Even before he testified before 1 the house committee holding hearings hear-ings on the bill, his speech had been denounced and applauded by loaders on both sides of the issue. Representative Hamilton Fish of New York, Republican member of the committee, at whose request of Senate hearings on Friday were almost forgotten, but starting with the same parade of witnesses witness-es as appeared before the House, the Senate hearings promise plenty plen-ty of fireworks before they are over. It is here that the voice of Senator Wheeler may make itself felt most. He, at least, is in no mood for compromise, and demands de-mands outright rejection of the bill. Administration May Give In A distinct impression has been given out by administration forces that they would not fight a two-year two-year time limit on the bill and might yield on other points which they did not feel affected the main purpose. But they are deter- |