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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne 64 Killed in Rumanian 'Blood Purge'; Hitler Forms New League of Nations Until Soviet Russia Scowls at Bulgaria; U. S. Food Industry Faces Investigation (EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are- expressed in these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily ol this newspaper.) I "Ji"ri by Western Newspaper TTninn LEAGUE OF NATIONS: Neiv Memberships Adolf Hitler was lining up states for what Berlin termed a modern League of Nations when he met up with Bulgaria. He had signed three nations to the Axis alliance, although it must be admitted all of these long had been in the Axis sphere of influence and their formal initiation could not be expected to occasion any great surprise. sur-prise. First came Japan, which for more than four years was allied by treaty with Germany and Italy. Japan enrolled en-rolled anew. Then came Rumania, which two months before was taken over by Iron Guard Gen. Ion An-tonescu. An-tonescu. Antonescu signed up formally, for-mally, but the signature gave Germany Ger-many no more oil than it had been getting since the war began. Then Slovakia attached its signature to the dotted line. Slovakia is the splinter splin-ter state left after the Nazis hacked away the Czechs and the Bohemians. Then came King Boris of Bulgaria. He listened, went home and said he would send a delegation to carry KING BORIS OF BULGARIA His 'Red Brother' scowled. out the arduous duties of treaty signing. sign-ing. But no delegation arrived in Berlin. It was intimated in Sofia that Bulgaria had received covert advice from Russia that the Big Red Brother wouldn't be pleased at all to have German troops in Bulgaria, Bul-garia, 250 miles from the Dardanelles. Darda-nelles. The German ministry of propaganda and public enlightenment enlighten-ment said Germany hadn't wanted Bulgaria anyhow. There was some whispering that all the fuss and feathers on the diplomatic dip-lomatic front was just a means of covering up Hitler's lack of activity on the military front Experts guessed that perhaps Hitler had heard some segments of the German people were not at all impressed with his failure to invade England and the spanking being taken by Mussolini in Albania. Diplomatic "victories" might fill the bill for a time and cover up the situation until spring, when a mtire determined attack at-tack on England is generally expected. ex-pected. Blitzgreek "Have you heard of Mussolini's new secret weapon?" one diplomat in Switzerland asks another. "No," said the man addressed. Then leaning forward and cupping his ear, "What is it?" The first diplomat places a hand at the side of his mouth to simulate a whisper, and replies, "It's the German army." At the end of the third week of Benito Mussolini's invasion of Greece, the Italians found themselves them-selves halfway back through Albania on their way home. The progress being made by the Fascist legions produced more humor in neutral sources than respect Outnumbered and outequipped, the Greeks fought a type of war that seemed to have the Italian version ver-sion of the blitzkrieg dazzled. The Greeks refused to come out In the open and give battle In force. Instead In-stead they maneuvered through the Macedonian peaks catching the Fascists Fas-cists on their flanks and from the rear. Losses were not high on either side, but the Fascists were forced to retreat from Koritza to Pogradez to Argiocastro, surrendering base after base and leaving behind tanks, combat cars, automobiles, motorcycles motor-cycles and even bicycles. British troops, airmen and ground combat soldiers, arrived on the mainland of Greece, thereby placing plac-ing British soldiers again on the European continent, the first time since Dunkcrque. Should the Italians be unable to take up a defensive line before retreating re-treating to the plains of western Albania Al-bania nearer thf. Adriatic coast, they might not be able to maintain their position anywhere in Albania. The Greeks were sure they could chase Mussolini entirely out of Albania. Neutral observers were not that sanguine. RUMANIA: Blood Purge Anarchy stalked the Balkan nation na-tion of Rumania, as members of the fascist Iron Guard party executed at least 64 political enemies. Without With-out benefit of official sanction from their leader. Premier Gen. Ion Ai tonescu, self-appointed execution squads raided a jail where political prisoners were held and led them before the tomb of the founder of their party, Corneliu Codreanu, and there put them to death. A Rumanian communique admitted admit-ted the killings and stated that the government "disapproves." It is understood that the section of the Iron Guard party which has taken the law into its own hands, believes their founder, Codreanu, to be a martyr, and their action has been taken to avenge his killing during King Carol's regime. Admittedly they are paying off their chief political score by this method, now that they have driven the king from his country. STRIKE: In Defense Plants At opposite ends of the nation, strikes in two factories engaged in airplane manufacture for the army attracted national attention. At Downey, Calif., production was halted halt-ed for 12 days in the Vultee Aircraft factory when the aircraft division of the C. I. O. automobile workers demanded de-manded higher pay. Chief trouble seemed not to be over the higher wages, which were granted, but to an insistence on the part of the corporation that an agreement be reached guaranteeing there would be no strike for two yean and that in the meantime all disputes be settled by arbitration. The strike came in for debate in congress when demands were heard in the house that a law be enacted forbidding labor to strike in any plants where defense contracts were being filled. Attorney General Jackson Jack-son also referred tn the strike in a dispute with Representative Dies (D., Texas) over methods of procedure proce-dure in handling subversive influences. influ-ences. The attorney general said the FBI was aware that the Vultee strike was "being prolonged" due to Communistic influence. The strike was finally settled after Dr. John R. Steelman, chief of the department of labor's conciliation service, and R. J. Thomas, national lum.iwijinjwj.n n-i. ' .umiMi 1 'V : .. n ' ... ,V WV? ". ' I . y i 1 - J7 : : .-y , : ' 1 ' . i ' V ,i REP. MARTIN DIES A dispute with the Attorney General. president of the union, made hurried hur-ried trips by plane to the scene. Eastward, at the New Kensington, Pa., plant of the Aluminum Corporation Cor-poration of America, a dispute between be-tween the firm and the Aluminum Workers union, C. I. O., shut down production. The issue was refusal of one man to pay $12 back dues and an alleged threat passed by the dues-ower against a union official who tried to collect It The union demands the man be discharged. The company refused to comply. C. I. O. chieftain Philip Murray gave the situation his personal attention, his first real job as national leader. AID TO BRITAIN: Money Needed ----- --vr-j I ' ' i I ,:sI-: .. llllf "; .. '71171 iSS:::::::;; :'; . . ': 1111; ' :: MM-SffSi Jc;- st I : ' : I I I '''',' AMBASSADOR LOTHIAN He had a frank statement. Lord Lothian, British ambassador to Washington, returned from London Lon-don with a frank statement that his government has spent almost all the American money it can lay its hands on. He intimated that if the United States is to continue to give aid in the form of supplies, some method soon must be found to finance further fur-ther orders. He said virtually all the gold and American securities of British ownership had been sold in the U. S. markets to obtain the American dollars already used. The Johnson act forbids American credits to any nation which defaulted default-ed on its 1918 war debts. Pro-British groups here have urged the act be repealed but Lord Lothian refused to comment on this. President Roosevelt also made it known that no administration source had advocated the Johnson act be abolished. In reply to some criticism that the United States was not giving giv-ing sufficient aid to Britain, the President declared that such assistance assist-ance had about reached the maximum maxi-mum possible under present industrial indus-trial capacity. He told reporters if any way to make airplanes faster could be found, he would like to know it "You can't give orders one day and have planes the next," he said. In London there was talk in semiofficial semi-official circles that eventually it might be well to offer the United States possessions of British crown colonies in the- Caribbean in exchange ex-change for munitions. INVESTIGATION: Food Prices Following up the inquiry into home building several months ago, the department de-partment of justice has decided to inquire into what it believes is monopolistic tendencies in the nation's na-tion's food markets. The home-building investigation ended in 99 indictments against 1,538 contractors, manufacturer's association associa-tion and labor union executives. The objectives of the food-price inquiry will be two-fold, said the department: depart-ment: To lower the price of living and to protect the farmer who buys retail and sells wholesale. Processors and distributors, the department says, receive about 50 to 60 per cent of the consumers' dollar. In the fish, cheese, poultry and retail grocery markets, it is charged, prices are fixed by fictitious auctions. The canning and bread industry are declared to engage in price-fixing. CONGRESS MOVES: A'o Adjournment When house and senate refused to quit and go home, architects of the Capitol served notice to get out before be-fore the roof came down on their heads. The architects were not thinking in the terms of heated wrath. Rather they were concerned with cold snow. The roof of the Capitol long has been regarded as too weak for safety. safe-ty. Plans had been made to strengthen it during the recess of the seventy-sixth congress. But congress con-gress refused to recess. It did move, however, to give workmen a chance to get struts in place before snows arrived in Washington. MISCELLANY: C The Pan-American Airways Clipper Clip-per plane set out for Honolulu on the Pacific crossing the other day, the 442nd such trip. There was no special ceremony, but that trip was an anniversary flight the fifth year that passenger air service has been in existence on the largest ocean route. ft England and Germany continued to swap air raids. The British paid nightly visits to ports along the coast from Trondhcim to Loricnt and smashed at electrical power plants, munitions factories, airplane fields and rail lines in Germany, Holland. Belgium and France. The Germans Invented a new word, "Coventrated," "Coventrat-ed," for towns given concentrated assaults like was given Coventry, Southampton, Bristol and Birmingham, Birming-ham, they said, were "Coventrated." ft Gov. Payne H. Ratner, when he was a Kansas state senator, introduced intro-duced a bill which permitted absentee absen-tee voting. It became law. At the election this year the law stood Ratner In good stead. Seeking reelection re-election over William II. Burke. Democrat, he apparently lost the state. But when the absentee ballots bal-lots were counted 16 days later, they gave him stilllciont strength to win by 41!7 votes. ft Oscar Strauss, Viennn composer, left his beautiful, blue Danube. He arrived In America, which he Intends In-tends to make his home. |
