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Show I Weekly News Review 1 British Policy of 'Expediency' Reverberates Around the Globe I By Joseph W. La Uine I. International As proprietor of the world's greatest great-est empire, Great Britain assumes a right and obligation to be ringmaster ringmas-ter of international diplomacy. If such a duty is incumbent during peace, it becomes more pressing in time of stress. The year 1938 is one of stress, and in November of 1938 Great Britain is still the ringmaster but is jumping to the lash of her own whip. Caught in the backwash of her own fatal conservatism, she is .desperately making an expensive peace with dictators and democracies democ-racies alike. A roundup of these peace overtures, with cause and effect, ef-fect, with reverberations and repercussions re-percussions that echo around the world, looks something like the following: fol-lowing: GERMANY November has become an "international "inter-national crisis" month of more import im-port than September. Eeason is that September's Czech-German-Sudeten crisis had immediate effect on only a comparative handful of central Europeans. But in November, Germany Ger-many has begun terroristic persecution perse-cution of Jews, has moreover shown downright hostility toward all Christian Chris-tian denominations in general and to the Catholic denomination in particular. par-ticular. This treatment has aroused world-wide resentment against Chancellor Adolf Hitler and his Italian friend, Premier Benito Mussolini, Mus-solini, who uses similar tactics against world Jewry. It has also driven ghosts from the closet of Britain's Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, because he failed to get a German guarantee against Jewish persecution when he negotiated negoti-ated the "sellout" treaty at Munich this autumn. Though Christian Great Britain is horrified by Hitler's persecution, it dares not slap Germany's face. Not only are British banks planning SOUTH AFRICA'S PIROW He expressed Britain's sympathy. loans to Nzi-controlled industries, but London must also exhibit sympathy sym-pathy with Germany's colonial demands de-mands in Africa. During the heat of Jewish persecution Berlin was visited by Oswald Pirow, minister of defense and industry for the Union of South Africa. Although Colonial Secretary Malcolm Mac-Donald Mac-Donald has indicated Great Britain does not intend to surrender any colonies, Mr. Pirow's visit can only mean that the Union of South Africa fears Hitler and wishes to return Germany's war-lost colonies immediately. im-mediately. BALKANS (RUMANIA) Among such southeastern European Euro-pean nations as Rumania, Jugoslavia, Jugo-slavia, Greece and Turkey lies Great Britain's last chance to resist German political and economic expansion, ex-pansion, and also to maintain a vestige ves-tige of international prestige. Although Al-though social-minded London once shunned Rumania's King Carol for his love affair with Magda Lupescu, daughter of a Jewish junk dealer, his recent visit to London (with Crown Prince Michael) found English Eng-lish royalty only too glad to court his favor. This is because his friendship friend-ship for Great Britain can stop Hitler's Hit-ler's southeastward-bound steamroller. steam-roller. If Carol gets British export credit of about $50,000,000, if Great Britain agrees to buy Rumanian oil and give Carol a large loan, Rumania Ru-mania will close its doors on Germany. Ger-many. Following this same policy, London Lon-don must increase her sway in other Balkan states, also encouraging Jugoslavia, Turkey and Rumania to return war-won lands to Bulgaria, which stands alone outside the Balkan Bal-kan entente and is easy prey for German economic expansion. ITALY Even while King Carol's visit was marking an effort to stop dictators, smartly dressed Lord Perth visited the Italian foreign office in Rome and presented his credentials to "the king of Italy and emperor of Ethiopia." This constituted formal British recognition of Italy's Ethiopian Ethio-pian conquest, which is now denied by only Russia and the U. S. among great powers. Such recognition was a British capitulation, and a few hours later Lord Perth returned to the foreign office to initial the Anglo-Italian Anglo-Italian "friendship" pact It w:iis recalled that last spring Prime Minister Min-ister Chamberlain promised he would not invoke the pact until Spain's civil war had reached a "settlement." With a new rebel offensive of-fensive just starting on the Ebro, that "settlement" has hardly been reached. FRANCE Though friendly with Great Britain, Brit-ain, France has lost much because its foreign policy has been following that of London. What is worse, French finance could not bear the unprecedented expense of last September's Sep-tember's military preparations. Therefore the government has been crawling into its shell, concerning itself more with domestic problems following its defeat at the treaty of Munich. Its most pointed foreign gesture has been a recognition of Italy's Ethiopian victory. But new troubles are looming from Italy's direction, following but a few hours on the heels of the Anglo-Italian friendship accord. Having won British Brit-ish acceptance of its foreign policy, Italy has turned to Britain's onetime one-time closest ally (France) for colonial colo-nial demands. The demands: That France cede to Italy the Djibouti-Addis Djibouti-Addis Ababa railroad and the Port of Djibouti, in French Somaliland, and share with Italy the control of the Suez canal and administration of Tunisia. Not only are such demands de-mands inacceptable to France, but she now sees the fallacy of trying to appease the insatiable hunger of either Germany or Italy. RUSSIA Though the Soviet paper, Inves-tia, Inves-tia, has urged closer Russian cooperation co-operation with the U. S. for preservation preser-vation of world peace, and though Dictator Josef Stalin is more interested in-terested in his domestic development develop-ment than in world-wide expansion of Communism, no democracy can afford to disregard the fact that Russia's political sympathies are more closely akin to those of Germany Ger-many and Italy. Strengthened by the Munich pact, Germany must eventually fight Russia or make peace with her. It has been authoritatively au-thoritatively reported that Chancellor Chancel-lor Hitler has sent three peace offers of-fers to Dictator Stalin, the latest of which suggests a division of Russian-German spheres of interest. This possibility carries dynamite, for once Moscow and Berlin make peace there is nothing to prevent each of these tremendous powers from expanding at will. UNITED STATES At home, the above international developments have brought three pertinent results: (1) Great Britain has rushed to consummation her reciprocal trade agreement with the U. S., in which Canada is also involved. Constituting Constitut-ing a climax to Secretary of State Cordcll Hull's reciprocal trade program, pro-gram, the agreement is an important impor-tant effort to loosen and swell the flow of U. S.-Canadian-British trade. Not voiced, but tremendously evident, evi-dent, is the fact that this treaty marks a new solidarity among democracies as opposed to dictatorial dicta-torial nations. (2) U. S. indignation over Germany's Ger-many's Jewish persecution has found expression in the plan put forth by Joseph P. Kennedy, U. S. ambassador to Great Britain. Its essence: World-wide co-operation for removal of Germany's 600,000 Jews to North and South America jS j' Th y i ii'iV"! v WJfnfi---i,-f,-JJ--"Ji AMBASSADOR KENNEDY For German Jews, a solution. and parts of the British, French and Netherlands empires. Great Britain would arrange land for new settlements, settle-ments, while U. S. Jewish and private pri-vate groups would provide money. (3) Rather than accept French and Russian bids for leadership in world peace movements, President Roosevelt has invited 20 sister republics re-publics in the Western Hemisphere to unite in a defense against European Euro-pean or Asiatic aggression. This new U. S. foreign policy is evidenced by: (1) the President's outspoken denunciation of Germany's Jewish persecution; (2) his recall of Hugh R. Wilson, U. S. ambassador to Germany; Ger-many; (3) his announcement of a multi-billion dollar defense program to protect not only the U. S. but all Western Hemisphere nations; (4) U. S. interest in the Pan-American conference opening December 8 at Lima, Peru; and (5) an apparent effort in Washington to steer away from European entanglements, other than those with France, Britain Brit-ain and other democracies. Labor Shaggy John L. Lewis has lo;t much prestige the last two years because his Committee for Industrial Indus-trial Organization initiated the wave of sit-down strikes, also because many -of C. I. O.'s most outspoken members were "radicals." Opposition Opposi-tion flared up in time to defeat many C. I. O. endorsed candidates in the November election, and by the time Mr. Lewis' organization opened its constitutional convention in Pittsburgh Pitts-burgh a week later, the handwriting was on the wall. C. I. O. (now the Congress of Industrial In-dustrial Organization) has made at least two important bids' for conservative con-servative support. First, the .convention .con-vention has adopted a resolution to preserve the sanctity of collective bargaining contracts, thereby attempting at-tempting to appease C. I. O. -hating employers. Second, C. I. O.'s much- 1 ALIEN HARRY BRIDGES Even C. I. O. became hostile. publicized Harry Bridges, alien west coast labor leader, was figuratively bounced from the convention when he attempted to secure official endorsement en-dorsement of so-called "radical" political po-litical views. This was Mr. Bridges' second blow of the day, for at Indianapolis In-dianapolis a demand for his deportation depor-tation was issued simultaneously by Stephen F. Chadwick, commander of the American Legion. Now permanently organized, C. I. O. has charted a finish fight with the older, more conservative American Amer-ican Federation of Labor. The battle bat-tle will not only be one of organization organiza-tion principle, but it' will also entail en-tail the future status of 22,000,000 unorganized American workers. Though C. I. O. boasts a "simple and democratic" constitution, observers ob-servers checked the figures and found that five members of the executive ex-ecutive board will speak for 2,021,-845 2,021,-845 of the 3,787,877 members. C. I. O. will remain substantially under the thumb of Mr. Lewis, Sidney Hill-man Hill-man of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, and Philip Murray of the Steel Workers' committee. Wlute House Attorney General Homer S. Cum-mings' Cum-mings' retirement from the Roosevelt Roose-velt cabinet was not unexpected, for the 69-year-old Californian has often sought refuge from official Washing ton the past 12 months. Though efforts ef-forts have been made to attach political po-litical significance to his move (he is the first New Deal cabinet member mem-ber to retire voluntarily) it is understandable un-derstandable that Mr. Cummings should desire to return to private law practice. But his retirement does arouse speculation about other cabinet changes. Secretary of the Navy Claude A. Swanson has been ill, and may be succeeded by Assistant As-sistant Secretary Charles Edison. Madame Secretary of Labor Frances Fran-ces Perkins has lost the good graces of both C. I. O. and A. F. of L., and many observers predict her resignation. resig-nation. Secretary of Commerce Daniel L. Roper, though unpopular with business, has made it plain he will not resign. Meanwhile, Washington Wash-ington whispers say that Harry Hopkins, WPA administrator, and Michigan's defeated Gov. Frank Murphy are both considered as potential po-tential cabinet timber. Agriculture The 1938 farm program was not put into effect until many U. S. producers pro-ducers had their crops under way. This has been one explanation of its failure, and next year the agriculture agri-culture department plans to give the plan its "first complete test." Details: The program will involve $712,000,000. Minimum bounties to co-operating farmers include 3.6 cents a pound on cotton, 14 cents a bushel on corn, 27 cents a bushel on wheat, 22 cents on rice, 3 cents on potatoes, $3 a ton on peanuts. Compared Com-pared with this year's 290,000,000 acres, 1939's program will be confined con-fined to about 280,000,000 acres in the hope of reducing surpluses. Biggest Big-gest slash of all will come in wheat, which was harvested this year from 71,000,000 acres, and which would be restricted to 60,000,000 acres next year. For soil conservation payments pay-ments the government has a half-billion half-billion dollars available, with another an-other $212,000,000 for price adjustment adjust-ment payments. Only catch to this program is that congress' new Republican Re-publican minority may interfere. Politics To elect 8 new senators, 81 house members and 13 new governors in the November elections, U. S. Republicans Re-publicans had to pile up a large total to-tal vote. Figures now available show that in 24 states the G. O. P. had 51.5 per cent of the popular vote, compared with 40.1 per cent two years ago. Not included in the survey thus far are southern states, traditionally Democratic. |