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Show (- V l ' j WHO'S NEWS THIS I WEEK i i By LEMUEL F. PARTON (Consolidated Features WNU Service.) NEW YORK. When Oliver Stan-ley Stan-ley left the British ministry of transport in July, 1934, he was succeeded suc-ceeded by 36-year-old Leslie Hore-Belisha, Hore-Belisha, a Oliver Stanley Simonite lib-Wears lib-Wears Hard Hat eraL Then On a Hard Head and thereafter, thereaft-er, they engaged en-gaged hi many brisk parries and sharp ripostes, masters of the foil rather than the quarterstaff, brisk and finished swordsmen both. Now it is the ultra-conservative Mr. Stanley who replaces Mr. Hore-Belisha Hore-Belisha as war secretary, against a confused background, requiring more details for full understanding at least at this distance. On October 8 of last year, Mr. Stanley offered his resignation as president of the British board of trade. At the time, it was indicated that Mr. Stanley had not found Prime Minister Chamberlain's prosecution pros-ecution of the war sufficiently aggressive, ag-gressive, but later reports were that he had revolted against the control of the government by an inner cabinet cab-inet of four members. He was persuaded per-suaded to withdraw his resignation. resigna-tion. His political alliances have been with the conservative section sec-tion of the army, who vehemently vehement-ly opposed the appointment of Mr. Hore-Belisha to the war office, of-fice, early in 1937. Some of the "appeasement" wing of the Chamberlain government were bitter critics of Mr. Hore-Belisha's Hore-Belisha's subsequent army shakeup, in which he sent many oldsters back to their club chairs. It is possibly this circumstance cir-cumstance which has led to conjecture con-jecture that Mr. Stanley's appointment ap-pointment foreshadows a new rapprochement between extreme ex-treme right elements in England Eng-land and Germany, the elimination elimina-tion of Adolf Hitler and a new basis for peace. Mr. Stanley's activities since Munich Mu-nich haven't indicated that he is out for appeasement. However, it is clear that the colonel blimps of the army don't like Mr. Hore-Belisha and do like Mr. Stanley. He is the secretive, tight-lipped son of the genial, talkative seventh earl of Derby. He gathered some shining medals in the World war and was parliamentary under-secre-tary in the war office, minister of transport, minister of labor and president of the board of education, before becoming president of the British board of trade. As indicated above, he is a fencer rather than a hard-hitter. He is fifty-four years of age. KING IBN SAUD of Saudi Arabia has 250 wives, 29 sons, 22 daughters daugh-ters and a palace with 200 rooms. That's a lot of Britain Ponders upkeep and it AsKinglbnSaud is understand- Widens Alliances able toat he may be widening wid-ening his economic alliances, as reported re-ported in recent dispatches. He is also said to be reorganizing and enlarging en-larging his air force. The first Arab to wrest an autonomous autono-mous state from Britain, he has co-operated with the empire, but Palestine has disturbed him and in various quarters there is speculation specula-tion as to whether he intends to use his augmented military resources for or against England. He has preached the unification of Islam throughout the world, and his influence, influ-ence, as leader of the mystic and powerful Wahabi sect, has penetrated penetrat-ed among the desert tribes from Iran to West Africa. His synthetic state, carved out in the Arabian coastal territory, in a post-war deal. Is a complex of alergly guarded empire interests. inter-ests. With its proximity to the Suez canal, with the threat of Russian, as well as Italian, aggression ag-gression and conspiracy in the Moslem bloc, on the road to India, In-dia, Saudi Arabia is goal-keeping territory, and Ibn Saud's allegiance al-legiance is an urgently important impor-tant British asset. Since the start of the desert battle bat-tle of the loud-speakers several years ago. along with the Palestine impasse, there have been indications indica-tions that Ibn Saud was losing interest inter-est as an empire partner. Last January, he wrote President Roosevelt an appeal for support of the Arabs against the Jews in Palestine, Pales-tine, with an implication that the Balfour mandate was working against Islam. Bull-necked, bull-voiced King Ibn Saud is six feet four inches tall and weighs 250 pounds. On the palm of his hand is a mole, the mystic stigmata of a master swordsman, swords-man, in the lore of the desert. He was once an obscure tribesman, fighting his way to power in his mid die years. He likes to hold court in the open air. sitting cross-legged. |