| Show 4 I M Merry Go By DREW PEARSON and ROBERT S. S ALLEN WASHINGTON The The presidential inauguration tion on is nearly three months off but already white ov carpenters are busy erecting stands and seats on capitol plaza Reason for foris' foris is' is unusual haste is the is the defense program If If we waited d much uc longer ong r explains David Lynn capitol architect we wouldn't be able to get any lumber The erection of the great camps for the selective service trainee h has s caused a shortage in the lum lumber lumper er market The government is buying up all the good lumber it can get for the cantonments The lumber shortage also will affect the seating capacity There will be room for only spectators spectators 2000 2000 less than in 1937 Congress Congress Con Con- gress appropriated the same amount of money as four years ago but with increased material I and Tand lumber costs costs' the isn't going as far British Balkan Dilemma Diplomats are still puzzled why the the Italians invaded Greece at t the time they did In fact rumors Tumors are recurrent that there ha has been a certain tain cooling off between Rome and Berlin and that Mussolini barged into nto Greece without telling telling telling tell tell- ing his axis axis' partner Whether this rumor is true nobody can yet yettell yettell yettell tell for the simple reason that only about four men participate in the Mussolini-Hitler Mussolini conver conver- But lending some credence to it is the fact that the Italians have haire made little headway and seem to be relatively unprepared Real truth according t to intelligence reports received d here is that that the Italian army has not the slightest enthusiasm for its its' job Reports continue that the It Italian people also do dont don't t like the role of Balkan conquest which has been cut cutout cutout cutout out for them I Meanwhile no matter what may be the thereal thereal thereal real situation between Hitler and Mussolini it remains a fact that the British face a tou tough h proposition in giving any help to Greece So far the they have not landed more than two divi divi- One look at the map of the Mediterranean shows what the British are up against They have three war areas which they must protect and only a limited number of men and ships and ships in I the Mediterranean The three areas are 1 Egypt 2 Greece and 3 Gibraltar British Caught in Trap In Egypt the British army of about men faces an Italian army of men This has been sufficient so far to keep the Italians Italian at bay But now the British face a new men menace ce For the talks between Hitler and Marshal Pe Pe- Petain tam tain contemplate the use of French Syria against them In Syria are about French Arab troops which might be sent down through Palestine to take Suez In other words the British might be caught between the pincers of Graziani's army on one side in Egypt and the French Syrian army on the other side This might make the problem of protecting Suez desperate And that is why the British cant can't send many troops to help Gree Greece e. e Another reason why they cant can't give further help to Greece i is their fear that the attack on Greece is a feint to get all of Britain's Mediterranean Mediterranean Mediterranean fleet concentrated in the east Then Germany would attack Gibraltar in the west This of course would mean perfect teamwork between the two dictators and it may be that they put out the rumor of a rift merely to catch the British off guard They have been known to do things like that Meanwhile the Germans continue to pour troops into Rumania They are not only retraining retraining retraining re re- re- re training the Rumanian army anny under nazi strategy but they are also bringing in tons of German munitions So it looks as if Hitler would put the squeeze on Greece from the Bulgarian side when the time comes That time may not come for a while because Hitler has shown 11 that he seldom moves until he is fully prepared With the Italians on one side and the Germans Germans Germans Ger Ger- mans on the other probably not even per percent percent cent support from the Brit British h could save gave Greece Distributed by United Feature Syndicate |
