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Show MJ jfcjb DREW PEARSON PLOT ON HITLER Those whose business it is to study the intricate problem of German Ger-man politics have now come to the conclusion that it it hadn't been for the July 20 putsch against Hitler, we might have been saved six months or so of fighting. The attempt on Hitler's life gave him the excuse to clean out every military man not in sympathy with the war, and his military leaders since then have lacked the courage to suggest an armistice even though they knew the war was hopeless. hope-less. Here is the inside story of what happened. The Hitler plot had been cleverly clev-erly arranged by the British. They had been working for months with a small secret segment seg-ment of anti-Hitler officers inside in-side the German army. Actually, Actual-ly, their pipelines into Germany had been laid even before the war started. Weeks and weeks of the most minute planning had gone into the plot. However, as in anything as dangerous as an attempt to assassinate as-sassinate the world's chief madman, mad-man, something went wrong at the last minute. A high-np Ger- ' man officer on the general staff had agreed to place a brief- j case containing a time-bomb alongside Hitler's chair during a meeting of the general staff. He did so. But either Hitler moved away or else did not sit where expected. At any rate when the bomb went off, it killed several officers, but Hitler was only wounded In the hand by a bomb fragment. ! That incident, however, touched i off the bloodiest blood purge in history. his-tory. Neutral sources estimate that 100,000 German officers and other high-up officials suspected of anti-Hitler anti-Hitler bias were killed. Any German Ger-man leader who had grown cool regarding re-garding the war or was slightly critical of Hitler was included. In the last war, it was the German Ger-man general staff who demanded of the Kaiser that he sue for peace as early as September 29, 1918. The German civilian government resisted. re-sisted. In this war it-was expected that the professional military caste would see the futility of further fighting fight-ing and also sue for peace after the Normandy invasion last June. But as a result of the July purge the military leaders who survived dared not brave Hitler's wrath. POSTWAR CONSCRIPTION Although no final decision has been made by FDR personally, Undersecretary of War Bob Patterson Patter-son and several other White House advisers are urging him to press for immediate congressional action on a postwar compulsory military training law covering1 all men 18 to 26. Patterson and some of the army brass hats want Roosevelt to jam the conscription bill through congress con-gress before the war is over. They are using the line with FDR that passage of a peacetime conscription bill by congress now will be further evidence to the United Nations that this country will maintain a sizable military force to help keep the peace. Congressional leaders so far are against immediate consideration, feel they'll have their hands full in the next few months getting more urgent postwar measures through capitol hill, such as jobs, without starting up a terrific controversy over conscription. Note: The White House Is being be-ing deluged with mail against postwar conscription. Most of the public seems to be against it. CAPITAL CHAFF C The German people have been ordered to kill all chickens in order to save feecj. C A secret report has been circulated cir-culated among top WPB officials showing that, as of February 1, the manpower situation was excellent. Manpower Commissioner McNutt has told the senate military affairs committee privately the same thing. . . . Senator Chandler of Kentucky quoting Vice Chairman William Batt of the WPB "That we have already out-produced our enemies and our Allies." C Representative Charles La Fol-lette. Fol-lette. liberal Indiana Republican and a close friend of Wendell L. Willkie, never had met his son, Philip Willkie, until his recent trip to London where Lieutenant Willkie Will-kie was stationed. A few days later La Follette bumped into Philip accidentally acci-dentally in New York, and a few days after that Willkie arrived in Washington and was a guest at La Follette's home. C The Norwegian embassy has protested pro-tested to Louis B. Mayer against Metro Goldwyn - Mayer's plan to screen "Victoria," by novelist Kuut 1 Hansun, who turned quisling. The : Norwegians don't want any book by any quisling featured in Hollywood. Three weeks have now passed and the Norwegian embassy is wondering wonder-ing x-hy Louis B. Mayer has not i replied. C. The California Veterans of Foreign For-eign Wars have requested Roosevelt to drop deportation proceedings against west coast labor leader ; Harry Bridges. I |
