Show aG aGo r o t i iR R iCEN Washington D U C CAUTO CAUTO CAUTO AUTO CUT That cut of 26 i i per cent in m auto production drew no cheers from war department chiefs To them it was a big d ment ment First of all the cut looks a lot b than it actually is For one thing the carefully did not re reveal reveal reveal veal in its hoopla press releases was the fact that thit even with thiS cu t auto product on st ll 11 wul wiil be 10 per cent greater than In 1938 and 1939 In other words notwithstanding the increasing shortage of strategic raw materials such as steel rub rubber rubber rubber ber alloys and other metals auto product on is to continue at levels h gher than in m the peaceful years of 38 and 39 Another reason for tor the army gloom was that it wanted an imme date d ate cut of ot a at t least 50 per cent For months war department heads pleaded and argued with OP f mo moguls moguls moguls for tor drastic curta ment on the ground that the material going into pleasure cars are desperately need needed ed cd for planes tanks sh ps guns and other vital armaments But for months the masterminds did absolutely nothing Finally in m July scrappy D rector Leon Henderson who has seen eye to eye with the army on thIs issue from the start took the bull by the horns and ordered a 50 per cent slash s reaction was to hit the cell ceiling mg ing It H refused to accept the ruling And while battled behind the scenes with autos continued to roll off assembly lines Imes in record breaking numbers However Hen Henderson Henderson Henderson derson s bare knuckling finally took effect The 2612 26 per cent cut is a little less than half halt of what that the army and Henderson wanted but it is 62 61 4 per cert more than s original figure TANKS FOR BRITAIN Some t me ago the Merry Go Round revealed that a chief object t ve ye of Lord Beaverbrook s visit was to get more tanks tanks-tanks tanks tanks for tor Iran tanks for tor Egypt tanks eventually for an on of the continent Beaverbrook particularly wanted the new PO powerful erful 32 tanners that soon win will roll off the Chrysler assembly I 1 ne at the rate of a month It can now be revealed that the Brit sh supply minister will not go home empty handed He will take back with him very cheering assur assurances assurances antes ances regarding the division of these tanks between the U S and British armed forces But that isn t the end of his tank problem Allotting tanks to the Brit sh m in inthis this country is one thing but delivering ering them across the Atlantic is another In fact fact the problem of transport transport- transporting mg ing large numbers of 32 ton tanks IS the toughest shipping problem maritime experts have faced since the magnetic mine mme which ravaged sh pp ng until the magnetizing de de devices devices devices vices were evolved In a nutshell here is the problem For every sh of light 12 ton tanks sent to England or Africa the same ship plus nearly three fourths of another ship would be required to transport the same number of 32 ton 32 ton tanks In other words they are bIgger Translated into specific fig figures that ures-that that ship 26 convoy which landed light tanks at Alexandria three months ago would have had to consist of 44 vessels to carry the same number of medium tanks With shipping scarcer than hen s teeth a difference of 18 ships is an extremely important factor Also the necessity of traveling in slow convoys further reduces the tile amount of sh available Some experts estImated this reduction as high as 50 per cent In addit on the BritIsh sometImes take an excessively long t me to unload cargoes So the tank problem thus also be becomes becomes becomes comes an acute shipping problem One bright spot in m the on IS the great reduction in m ship losses m in inthe inthe the last 60 days since the extension of the U S neutrality patrols But the basic problem of securing more I cargo bottoms st U D rem rema a ns Note ote Since January 1 U S sh p yards have turned out a total of ot 56 cargo vessels MERRY GO ROUND Army s are singing the praises of Century Fox Foi s Darryl Zanuck and many movie moguls for their big job m in film ng reels of army tra ning ping films This was the time train tram ng films have ever been taken and Hollywood dId them for 40 per cent of what it would have coat t co t Hollywood itself to do the job In other v words the army only had to pay un tin on labor and cost of film Hollywood the supplying the stu stud stud stud d os ct on overhead and ev everything else The Washington Diplomatic corps is goggle eyed over Mrs Warren Person P erson s new book The Good GoodNe GoodNe GoodNe Ne Murder Her husband is head of the Export Import Bank th h ch loans millions to the Good Neighbors Dr I Lubin brill ant White House defense expert is the most official m in Washington He has a ar office in m the White House another In the labor department as head held of the bureau of ot labor statistics a ath ath th rd in the labor division of and a I fourth in m the treasury as an advise to Secretary |