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Show fcy UtiC rr r L-n"-" and ROBERT ALLEN WASHINGTON A long series of backstage conversations, some informal, in-formal, some obscure, have preceded preced-ed the European peace trip of Undersecretary Under-secretary of State Welles. Some have been carried on by accredited diplomats, some by purely pure-ly unofficial envoys, and some actually actu-ally have got into the state department's depart-ment's hair. Here is a description of one confidential peace overture in which the President was interested, interest-ed, which also throws light on the Roosevelt row with John L. Lewis. In late September, about three weeks after war broke, W. R. Davis, the international oil man, was visiting visit-ing with John L. Lewis and Walter Jones of Pittsburgh in the latter's apartment, and told of various conversations con-versations he had had with Hitler. Davis had been selling Mexican oil to Germany, was intimate with high-placed Nazis, and told of their ideas for permanent European peace. T think the President ought to know about this," remarked John L. Lewis, and went into an anteroom where he called the President. He had no difficulty getting him, and said: "Mr. President, there's a man here I think you ought to see. He's got some important ideas on the war." So Roosevelt made an appointment. appoint-ment. British Secret Service,. When Davis arrived at the White House he was introduced to Adolf Berle, assistant secretary of state, and noticed, during his conversation with Roosevelt, that Berle was busy taking notes. This caused Davis to protest "I thought this was to be a confidential confiden-tial conversation between you and me." "Oh, Adolf's all right," and the President brushed the protest aside. In the end, Roosevelt suggested that Davis fly back to Germany, get any concrete peace proposals which Hitler might have, and report back. So Davis caught the Clipper for Portugal. The first stop was Bermuda, Ber-muda, ' where a plainclothes man tapped him on the shoulder and said: "Come along with me. I'd like to talk to you." He turned out to be a member of the British secret service, who warned Davis to go back to the United States or else his passport would be lifted. He seemed to know is Li History Repeats Itself? Will Welles be to Roosevelt what Colonel House was to Wilson? all about the Davis peace trip. However, Davis raised such a fuss that he was finally allowed to proceed pro-ceed though not until after the Clipper had ' been kept 24 hours in Bermuda waiting for him. From that point on, the British did everything possible to handicap Davis, even canceling his passage from Portugal so that he had to take a plane to Morocco and thence on to Germany. But at last Davis got to Berlin, interviewed the highest high-est Nazi leaders, and flew back to the United States, arriving in late October. With him he carried several long, closely written pages in German, giving the ideas on which Hitler was willing to discuss peace. American Detectives. Davis took an apartment in the Mayflower and began to translate the document Then, suddenly, he discovered two men sitting outside his door. They were G-men. At this point Walter Jones, close friend of Davis, went to the management man-agement to complain. There he discovered dis-covered that not merely two G-men, G-men, but five were in the hotel, and that they had trailed Davis from the moment he registered. Apparently Appar-ently the British secret service and the justice department were working work-ing closely together and neither for peace. A day or so later, Davis presented the German peace plan orally to Berle for transmission to the President. Presi-dent. Present also was Waller Jones, but no one else. It was emphasized em-phasized that the entire conversation conversa-tion was strictly confidential. This was at noon. Later that day Davis and Jones motored to Har-risburg. Har-risburg. Pa., where a phone call from Washington reached them a query from a newspaper man. "The state department tells me that you and W. R. Davis have brought a peace proposal from Germany," Ger-many," the newsman asked Jones |