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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne Pro-Axis Jugoslavia Rule Overthrown As 'Boy King' Peter Assumes Throne; Mediation Board Acts to End Strikes In Industries Delaying U. S. Defense (EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) ' (Released by Western Newspaper Union, t I . r : ' '".. -. ! T v.- " --Si i lw 1 ' L 1 J i Z J The American flag flies from a police ' car overturned by workers during the strike of workers at the "parent plant of the Bethlehem Steel company. (See below: Strikes) j YUGOSLAVIA: Coup Joining the Axis powers by the government of Jugoslavia was one thing. Getting the people to swallow swal-low this action was another. The sign-up, following periods of governmental collapse and revivifl-j revivifl-j cation, was the signal for demon-! demon-! strations over the entire country, I created and given its autonomy aft- er World War I by the Treaty of Versailles. Serbs, Croats joined in the outburst, out-burst, and there were parades through Belgrade with young fellows carrying what American and British flags they could find, vocally and loudly criticizing the government for j failing the public in its hour of need. Then, two days after the signing of the pact came the dramatic report of a coup d'etat by which the army overthrew the evident pro-axis government gov-ernment of Regent Prince Paul. King Peter II, not yet 18 years old, assumed the throne and a government gov-ernment was sworn in which was pledged to defend Jugoslavia's independence. in-dependence. The nation's army was immediately massed and dispatched to battle stations along the country frontiers. Britain and Greece hailed these reports as "great news" and Adolf Hitler Immediately demanded a statement of the new government as to their attitude toward the pact the two countries had signed but 48 hours earlier. But from Bulgaria came reports that the Nazis were not waiting for a reply to Hitler's demand. German Ger-man forces in that country reportedly report-edly began a swift movement toward the Jugoslav frontier. General Gen-eral sentiment in Sofia, Bulgaria's capital, was that the installing of a pro-British and pro-Greek government govern-ment In Jugoslavia would precipitate precipi-tate a general Balkan war. As the war fever rose steadily in Jugoslavia and as the people cheered the new regime that had its army lined up in defiance of the Axis, the ever-stormy Balkans took the spotlight spot-light of World war II. No mattor what the outcome Jugoslavia had at least tendered a serious diversion to the timetable of Adolf Hitler. Defeating De-feating Jugoslavia would be no simple task, many military experts predicted. It was assumed that the great northern plains of the nation would have to be abandoned as they would offer easy going for the swiftly moving mechanized Nazi legions. Real battle would come, it seemed, in the mountain terrain of central and southern sections of the country. coun-try. Jugoslavia has a comparatively comparative-ly good army, and is considered the best of the small Balkan nations. It numbers 1,200,000 men. The U. S. reaction to the new government gov-ernment In the tiny Balkan nation was Immediately favorable. The state department assured Jugoslavia that It would assist that nation in resisting any aggression. STRIKES: And Night-Sticks The resumption of work nt the Harvill plant, bottleneck of Pacific plane building, provided no respite for Uncle Sam's headaches in production pro-duction spasms, for Washington frankly was expectant of strikes in 12 more vital plants. No. 1 was not long in coming, for the main plant of the Bethlehem Steel company. In Bethlehem, Pa., was next. The big polls got busy and found that the public was con- I 1 I; v i I i I ' " " ; Here is Wendell .Willhie (right) with MacKenzie King, Canada Prime Minister, as the G. O. P. 1940 presidential presiden-tial candidate stopped in Toronto. (See below: Will tie) siderably inclined to blame labor leaders rather than management for the enormous increase in strikes. The present strike held in its grip more than a billion in war orders, including a large percentage for home defense. Police nightsticks clubbed the strikers into submission at the outset, permitting non-strikers entrance through picket lines, but it was evident that this was only the start of a widespread labor movement to fish for higher wages through the moment of public necessity. ne-cessity. Chief lack of sympathy with this attitude was seen in the ranks of relatives and friends of those taken in the selective service. These lads, most of them working for $21 a month and food and clothing in Uncle Un-cle Sam's uniform, were resentful of labor striking for increases from 50 to 75 cents an hour as at the Harvill plant. They said so, in letters home, and parents and friends joined enthusiastically enthusi-astically in the protest. Many congressmen con-gressmen and senators reported receiving re-ceiving such letters and telegrams. Polls showed public sentiment almost al-most unanimous against such strikes, and blaming largely the labor la-bor leaders rather than the plant owners. The new national mediation board, headed by Dr. Dykstra, just moved to it from selective service, seemed to have the Bethlehem strike as the first pitched into its lap, and what it would do with this situation challenged chal-lenged public attention from the outset. out-set. This board moved swiftly in the Allis-Chalmers strike at Milwaukee Mil-waukee which has been holding up much defense rearmament It ordered or-dered the company to summon its 7.800 force back to work immediately. immedi-ately. : Chief pub... indignation over the strikes was directed at C. I. O. organizations, or-ganizations, with Congressman Dies claiming that the labor troubles could be traced directly to "Reds." This also was the public focus after William Green, head of the A. F. of L. organizations, disclaimed any anti-defense attempts, and proved it by sending his men through C. I. O. picket lines in one instance. WILLKIE: Keeps 1 1 and In Wendell Willkle, avowedly keeping his eye on the next presidential race, was keeping himself before the public pub-lic by making a personal goodwill tour of Canada. He was greeted with wild enthusiasm enthusi-asm In Toronto and in Montreal, his first two stops. In the first he appealed for all American ships, naval and merchant, mer-chant, for Britain that can be spared, and "that means giving until It hurts." This remark was cheered to the echo. In Montreal, the next day, he was showered with ticker tape and given a triumphal entry into the city. In Montreal his theme was similar. simi-lar. He said: "Give Britain ships until the airplanes air-planes start to roll and give Britain superiority in the nir then, good-by Hitler, you're on the way out." He said further: "This is a test as to whether the democratic enterprise system can outproduce the totalitarian enslaved method of production. Well, I put it up to you, now. I put It up to the business men of America to prove It. I think they can. If I did not think they could, I could not believe in liberty." NAZIS: Spread Sub Zone A spreading of the submarine-active submarine-active zone to include Iceland and a considerable portion of the North Atlantic westward toward the shores of the United States was another sensational announcement that caused watchers on the "when shall we get in" front anxious moments. They started making maps of the 42-degree line of longitude, and showed how close it is to the American Amer-ican neutrality zone area. It did not touch yet, but was coming perilously perilous-ly close. It meant that if American naval vessels took up the convoying of aid-to-Britain ships to the end of the neutrality zone, they would be within a very few miles (as oceans are reckoned) of the lines where they might expect action from German submarines. One news analyst, after a tour of western plane factories, reported that heavy bombers, at the rate of four or five a day, were being flown across the continent and thence to Britain under the lease-lend bill, and that still more than these were being be-ing delivered to the army, but that it was thought a good portion of these were going overseas as well. There was little danger to this type of shipment except from adverse ad-verse weather and mechanical failures fail-ures over the ocean. But Americans Ameri-cans were concerned over what was going to happen to American shipping ship-ping and to foreign bottoms carrying aid to Britain. The British, losing heavily at sea, were issuing a request to the Norwegian Nor-wegian government to turn over to it about 100 vessels now plying American and Latin-American waters, wa-ters, so that they could be added to the transatlantic trade. First ship to leave this country for Iceland following the announcement announce-ment of the additional blockade zone was the freighter Godafos from New York. The New York-Reyjavik run was started after the German invasion in-vasion of Denmark cut Iceland off from her parent country. Three small freighters and three small passenger steamers now operate on that voyage. Whetlier they would continue or not remained to be seen. DEFENSE: 42 Billions With the passage of the $7,000,-000,000 $7,000,-000,000 bill implementing the British aid bill b a vote of 61 to 9, total moneys allotted in one way or another an-other for national defense or British and democratic aid in Europe reached the staggering total of 42 billions of dollars. Most of the floor debate (seven hours) on the seven billion bill was devoted to explanations by various senators of why they had voted against British aid and now were switching to vote for U.s bill giving the bill the funds President Roosevelt Roose-velt asked. OPM, the Oftlce of Production Management, furnished the figures. The direct government outlays, including in-cluding the seven billion, reached the total of $.19,100,000,000. In addition addi-tion came British orders of more than three billions, bringing the grand total to past the forty-two billion bil-lion mark. Of these huge sums not more than 3Vi billion actually have been spent. But nn enormous part of the whole has been contracted for, and factories the length and the breadth of the land were being built or were "tooling up" to carry out the contracts. con-tracts. In fact, of the 42 billions, OTM says that nearly 30 billions already have been appropriated or contracted, contract-ed, and that nine billions represents tlie budget alluwance for 11)42. FOOD: Becomes an Issue Almost coincidental with recent news that America would send food to unoccupied France for distribution distribu-tion under the watchful eyes of the American lied Cross, who were supposed sup-posed to see that none of it got into the lunula (or mouths) of Germans, came wold that this distribution already al-ready had begun, and that the Red Cross workers were satisfied that nil of It was going to French men, women wom-en and children. |