Show Merry Merry-Go Round Merry Round By By Drew Pearson and Robert S. S Allen WASHINGTON One One of the principal subjects subjects subjects sub sub- discussed by Harry Hopkins and General George C. C Marshall in London was Russian Involvement in the war In the Pacific Allied chiefs are convinced that the question no longer is whether Russia and Japan will fight but when The answer to this question is of greatest moment to both sides Russian participation in inthe inthe inthe the Pacific would mean many vital strategic advantages to the United States For Hitler a Jap attack on the Russian rear would offer the hope of easing Russian pressure on the western front where nazi plans for a spring offensive have been seriously disrupted For the Japs striking while the red army is straining every nerve to overcome the nazis would offer the possibility of crippling the Russians Russians Rus Rus- scans before they are in a position to throw their full weight against the Japs Allied strategists believe that Jap warlords now are weighing the question of an early attack on on Russia This belief is based on certain significant significant significant cant intelligence information such as One The One The premier of the Jap puppet government government government govern govern- ment in was summoned to Tokyo to tomake tomake tomake make plans for raising new levies of native troops to reinforce the Jap army on the soviet border Berlin Two Two Berlin has been putting the heaviest pressure on the Japs to attack Russia The recent mysterious return to Tokyo of the Jap ambassador to Germany is credited with being connected with this matter Normandie Report In its report on the Normandie fire the house naval affairs committee sharply censured the navy for negligence However the report would have been much hotter if two members of the subcommittee which drafted it had had their way Isolationist Representative Mell Maas of Minnesota and James W. W Mott of Oregon did their utmost to pin the chief blame for the conflagration tion on President Roosevelt Further Representative Representative Representative Patrick Drewry of Virginia old guard Democratic chairman of the subcommittee almost let them get away with it Th The man who blocked the political scheme was Representative Ed Izac of California decorated World war navy hero Before the report was finally agreed on a meeting of the subcommittee almost broke up In a riot when Izac and Maas exchanged violent verbal punches During the investigation it was brought out that orders had been issued for the Normandie to sail February 14 with troops for an unannounced unannounced unannounced unan unan- destination Conversion of the vessel was to be rushed to completion by this date On February 6 Admiral Harold R. R Stark then chief of naval operations canceled the order when informed that the Normandie would not be ready The next day however he telegraphed that the vessel must sail on the Maas and Mott contended that Stark acted under orders from the president president although although Stark did not confirm this when he testified testified and and that therefore the president was chiefly responsible for the fire because In the rush proper precautions precautions precautions couldn't be taken to prevent accidents Committee Battle The two isolationists at first demanded that the committee place the blame directly on the president but when Izac hotly objected they proposed an indirect blast at swivel chair strategists Maas frequently used this term during door closed hearings and he made it bluntly clear that he meant the president Drewry raised no objections and the report with this wording Was about to be approved when Izac interrupted Everyone in the country will think we mean the president and that Is what you want people to think he blazed at Maas Theres no evidence evidence evidence evi evi- dence to show that the president was in any way to blame for the fire Youre You're playing cheap politics and trying to undermine public faith in our commander in You'll never win the war that way Were not winning it this way either barked back Maas Theres too much Interference ence with the tha army and navy You and your kind kind give me a pain in my neck retorted Izac You hate the president and that's the reason you are trying to fasten the blame for all mistakes on him Im I'm getting good and fed up with your tactics I Im getting fed up with you too shouted Maas You think youre you're a great authority on ont t this war because you were a naval officer in the thelast thelast last one But you dont don't know so much You dont don't know so much either retorted Izac who won the the- congressional medal of honor in 1918 for extraordinary heroism j |