Show a G R W R washington D 0 NAZI censorship its not being widely publicized but nazi germany already holds n tight rein on all messages sent by the state department to its diplomats diploma is in parts of europe in fact the state department Is unable to communicate muni cate at all with certain sections and communications to other seed eions must bo be relayed delaye through berlin the department has it its s secret codes for transmission of official messages es but codes are no good it if the messages dont move it if mr hull wants to communicate with a member of the U S diplomatic staff in parts paris he cannot do so directly but must lie file to the now new french capital of vichy and from there subject to the whim of the petain government the MCM message go may be moved on to paris A short time ago messages had to be sent via berlin with the hope that nazi offic officials lais would permit the U S embassy there to relay thoi thel message to paris by courier both brussels and antwerp are completely cut off except through berlin but oddly enough rotterdam and antwerp are open for direct communication any messages from washington to Nor ways capital oslo must be touted through stockholm note though this has meant a reduction in official messages to europe the total of cable messages clearing from the state department Is breaking all records for volume chiefly because of he heavy a vy comm communication uni with latin america 0 SMOKELESS POWDER SHORTAGE destruction of the kenall N J powder plant was afar a tar more serious blow to national defense than anyone in high official circles wanted to admit it now leaves the united states with only two smokeless powder plants in the entire country the du pont font plant at carneys carleys Car point N J and the govern government me nt owned ny arsenal at dover N J not far from kenvil it produces only a very small amount of powder real fact Is that powder plants are slow and cumbersome to build requiring a series of buildings in which the powder Is gradually dried two new plants are being rushed to completion by the war department but they will not be finished until next spring one of these Is near charlestown Charles town ind and will be operated by the duponts though built by the government at a cost of the other will be at radford Rad tord va and will be operated by the hercules powder company though built by the government at the same price how serious Is the powder situation was illustrated by the fact that one day after the new jersey explosion the war department issued speedup speed up letters to both dupont and hercules whereby they are ordered to increase powder production from 00 pounds a day to pounds a day in the radford plant and from a day to a day in the charlestown Charles town ind plant this means that the plants will be bigger but it does riot mean they will be finished earlier day after the new jersey explosion also the war department sent a confidential memo to the white house on the seriousness of the powder situation note german intelligence agents unquestionably knew the exact capacity of american factories and how limited our present production was namely pounds a year they must have known also that the destruction of one factory would throw tho the united states oft off its preparedness sched i ule more than any other single incident SECRET AIRPLANE CONTRACTS the public Is not going to get any more information about airplane contracts let by the war department the army Is putting the lid ild on as a military precaution inside fact Is that news of recent contracts was released only to offset the impression that the work was not getting ahead secretary of war stimson had stated on august 9 that contracts had been let tor for only 33 planes of the authorized in june just a month later september 10 the war department released figures that told a different story instead of 0 f 33 the number of planes contracted tor for was 2707 these figures were put out to reassure the public but from now on there will be no talking the war department Is following the lead of general marshall who says you cant play poker with everybody looking at your hand e MERRY GO ROUND the state department Is still trying to keep the muzzle on mrs daisy harriman Harrl man forthright minister r to norway apparently mr hull fears she will tell what really happened there sen joe polled the highest vote ever received by a democrat in the recent wyoming primary with less than half of the normal vote cast in this election the democrats figure they have a good chance to carry the state in november |