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Show Me.rry-Co-Round By DREW PEARSON and ROBERT S. ALLEN WASHINGTON The confidential war reports re-ports received by government agencies have not been too optimistic of late regarding the allied positions. This pessimism has nothing to do with the sudden mobilization of the Dutch and Belgians, which had behind it only the fact that the canals which constitute the best defense against Germany Ger-many were frozen, and the lowland countries suddenly realized how easy it would be for the nazls to cross. Chief reason for pessimism Is the very mediocre me-diocre success of the British blockade, plus rumblings rum-blings of new conversations between Russia and Germany. How far these new conversations have gone Is impossible to say. But they revolve around the Russian failure in Finland and the fact that the Russian transportation system has broken down. This gives the Germans an excellent excuse ex-cuse to become the technical doctors of the soviet In fact. Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop, who has been under a lot of German army criticism for negotiating the Russian pact in the first place, now sees this as a golden opportunity to redeem himself. He has proposed to Stalin that Germany take over Russia's transportation and industry, but only if she has a completely free hand, and if it will be a long-term Job. Two Dictators Whether Stalin accepts is anyone's guess. But If he does, Russia and Germany together will constitute the most powerful region in the world, ruled by two dictators, stretching from the Rhine to the Pacific. , This potential alliance, plus the bogging down of the British naval blockade, is behind the change -of allied tactics and the Chamberlain threat that war may soon become much grlm-"mer. grlm-"mer. There is even some talk in allied war councils coun-cils of a spring attempt to break through the Sieefried line. This also is behind the huge new buying orders or-ders for airplanes placed in this country. The whole strategy of the allies now is to cut the war short, if possible with smashing victories, rather than continue the starvation tactics which were . originally planned. The starvation strategy broke down with the partial failure of the blockade and the deals Germany Ger-many made to buy goods in the Balkans. It will break down completely if and when Stalin lets Germany take over his railroads and industry. "Labor Trouble Gordon Dean, energetic young maestro of the Justice department's anti-trust operations in the . building industry, has encountered some strange situations in his work. ' Conferring with a Chicago assistant. Dean related re-lated the developments that led to the indictment indict-ment ot officials ot the AFL teamsters' union in Washington, as a result of a bitter intra-AFL fight over who should drive cement mixers on a government building project "It certainly was a perplexing situation," said Dean. "The teamsters contended they should drive the mixers, although under union rules they are not sunposed to operate them. On the other hand, AFL engineers insisted they should drive as well as nperatethe mixers." "You think that is cockeyed?" snorted the assistant: "That's nothing. Out in Chicago we can't even have cement mixers. Union fighting is so hot there that mixing has to be done by hand on the Job." ' (Distributed by United Feature Syndicate). |