Show Round Merry By Drew Pearson and Robert S. S Allen WASHINGTON WASHINGTON-If If you travel from Paris down the route of the Orient Simplon-Orient Express through Milan Trieste Belgrade and each city will seem dirtier more tawdry and mo e more mor e oriental until finally in you think you have come to the off jumping-off place of Europe But if il on the other hand you approach Europe Europe Europe Eu Eu- rope from rom the Mediterranean via Gibraltar Algiers Malta and Patras then de de despite spite its dusty quays its narrow twisting streets its towering mosques will mosques will gleam forth like a Mecca of modern civilization No matter what the approach was one of of the most strategic cities of southeast Europe long before Hitler massed his mechanized mechanized mechanized mecha mecha- forces near its borders Named for the sister of Alexander Alexander Alexander Alex Alex- ander the Great the city lay on the main road between Rome and the east at the head of the thelong thelong thelong long arm of the Gulf of Alexander himself traveled over that road from Macedonia en route to Persia The Slavs Slays swept down from Serbia in an attempt to capture it in the seventh century then the in the ninth century The Saracens took it in followed by the Normans Normans Normans Nor Nor- mans of Sicily in the twelfth century the Greeks in the thirteenth century then the Vene Vene- Finally Murad II sultan of at Turkey captured the prized city of the Aegean in 1430 and it remained under Turkish rule for five centuries V ff It was not until the Balkan wars wars wars' against Turkey in 1912 that the Greeks finally won for their own again Boom Town in Last War It was the campaign in September of 1918 which finally won the last war But it took the allies three years of fighting to realize that could be the key to victory The front was established after the Serbian retreat in 1915 It was established and then left to itself and to the political maneuvering maneuvering maneuvering maneuver maneuver- ing of General Sarrail who could not get along with the British the Italians or the Serbs So for nearly three years waited waited and prospered Greek merchants waxed fat and rolled in drachmas Girls fr from m Port Said Constantinople Naples even Paris and London poured into the city The French officers' officers mess mess' imported potted palms bamboo furniture and Cochin-China Cochin mess boys boys creat creat creating ing an oriental oasis OMis in Greece The moon over the Aegean was very bright the semitropic breeze was very soft and the fighting was well up in the hills of Serbia So o for two years the front marked time while the farmers of Macedonia sneaked out on both sides of the lines to plant their tobacco and arid their poppies and reap their opium Central Powers' Powers Weakest Link At last in the summer of 1918 the allies woke up to the fact that the weakest link in inthe inthe inthe the defenses of the central powers was through Serbia against Bulgaria and Austria via the front And the Serbs finally Unleashed unleashed unleashed un un- leashed against the enemy and once more on the hills of their homeland charged with such speed through Macedonia that they lived on the wagons bread-wagons of the Austrians French British and Italians were left behind only the Scottish women's hospitals could keep up with the Serbs A few days later Bulgaria then Austria sued for a separate peace The war was virtually virtually virtually virtu virtu- ally over Today there is no doubt on n either side re regarding regarding regarding re- re garding the importance of Hitler knows that from it he can dispatch scores of pocket submarines to wreak havoc on British ships in the Mediterranean plus scores of bombing bombing bombing bomb bomb- ing planes to blast Suez Crete and Cairo And the British know that if il they lose this key port to the eastern Mediterranean their battle to preserve the lifeline of the empire is practically lost So dusty lustful sprawling key to victory in the last war Wal may bring victory or defeat early in this war Round Merry-Go-Round screened Defense-screened congressional attacks on the labor laws have inspired a unique countermove countermove counter- counter r move ove by certain new dealers dealers dealers-a a proposal that some defense orders be awarded to unions which would rent plants and machinery to produce produce produce pro pro- duce the supplies Ed Foley young general counsel of the treasury works in shirt sleeves in his office The widespread report that Captain Eddie was in the control room of the sleeper plane that crashed recently at Atlanta is untrue He was sitting up in the spare compartment talking to the steward Neither knew the ship was in danger Big Jim Farley kept hundreds of friends abreast of his Latin-American Latin tour with with postcards written in his famous green ink Jims Jim's voluminous voluminous mail must have been a good stroke of business for t the flie e postcard makers Distributed by United Feature Syndicate |