Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS BY JOSEPH W labine intensified warf warfare are started As germany at last realizes futility of peace overtures EDITORS NOTE when opinions are expressed in these columns they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily ol 01 this newspaper released by western newspaper union war EUROPE of 01 diplomacy biggest news on the diplomatic front was wishful thinking in lon don and pans paris to the effect eff act that italy was swinging away from ber hn lin to form a strong balkan peace bloc meanwhile adopting a policy of benevolent neutrality toward the allies there were good rea sons for such a move because italy has strong trade interests in the balkans where russia is trying to win an upper hand backing the rumor italian news papers continued heaping insults on communism partially spiking it however was authoritative editor virgina gayda whose 11 II Gi ornale D italia termed prime minister chamberlain chamberlains s refusal to call off the war a dangerous no meanwhile germany continued last minute efforts to avert war hav waited until the final hea heart rt I 1 breaking moment in the hope anat prime minister chamberlain would capitulate U S aid asked i dally was not forthcoming such j desperate efforts could only mean I 1 that germany had been surprised perhaps to her ultimate ruin by al i lied 1 e de determination t erni mation for reco recourse e der fuehrer redoubled his efforts to cement tr trade ade relations with russia now busy elsewhere after getting all she h wanted ante from germany big lon question g geef es t quest question now that the allies had ad sh shunned e I 1 peace where was the co ope operation atlon germany and russia had threatened only two weeks be I 1 fore 0 ore I 1 procla proclaiming armistice day president roosevelt revived europe s intervention hopes by asking americans to look took for or ward to a time when a just and endur ing peace shall be established war on land in air on the western front 65 german divisions were massed from the sea to the rhine significantly 30 of them stood opposite holland and belgium satisfying the experts that s offensive will follow 1914 F it j L 4 6 Z 4 L ROYAL OAK sunk men and an omen tactics intensified german pres sure was not long in coming in a single day it drove the french back to their own soil on a four mile front in the moselle valley but at a cost of to 1000 I 1 casualties and the loss of 20 tanks but bigger news came from the air berlin s first bombing scare arrived one evening as nazi house wives were meditating on lard sand for next morning s break fast included in the week s suggest ed ration menu twenty thousand feet up anti aircraft artillerymen spotted a raider shot down in the panic the plane turned out to be a lost german bomber britain had a genuine scare next day fourteen german bombers in evaded english soil for the first time their objective the huge naval base and bridge at firth of forth near edinburgh scotland when the melee was over britain counted 52 killed or wounded and slight dam age to one cruiser four nazi bomb ers had been brought down war at sea in 1651 britain Brit ains s fugitive king charles 11 II hid in an oak tree at Bo after the bat tie tle of worcester A few years later proud britons named a warship aft er their revered royal oak the ship was promptly sunk by the dutch in 1667 ten more royal oaks carried the ill omen the last going into action at jutland less than a month after being commis signed weathering this battle she was damaged at valencia in 1937 last year the 10 craft was sunk in a british film labeled torpedoed this month the royal oak was really torpedoed and sunk carrying to the bottom her ill omen and some men this was only one part of a week end s terrific warfare at sea berlin claimed the same submarine which sank the royal oak also damaged britain s battle cruiser repulse but icile he admiralty said it be bothered I 1 denying all these re ports six other british and french freighters went to davy jones lock er within three days but on friday the thirteenth the british navy sank three U boats at home rome the official paper vie dell aria arta revealed an ambitious nazi scheme to blow britain s navy off the sea by allotting planes to bomb each warship fireside fighters of the long theorized war of airship vs warship agreed the nazis had made a good start russian education in the U S john public dincov ered for the first time that soviet russia had a president to mich ael kalmin kalinin who is dictator josef stalin s no 1 puppet franklin roosevelt expressed a hope for con tallied peaceful russian finnish re lations many another nation was also learning about soviet russia a 20 old bear which has be I 1 gun to feel its strength 1 scandinavia having won domma domina f tion of the baltic states lithuania estonia and latvia the soviet turned to finland and demanded j military naval bases A finn na me dr juho kusti kivi m went ent to moscow and I 1 russian re quests guests while t h e f 0 ik s back home rushed bobi 1 libation liza tion lined up a firm anavian bloc to stock holm swe dens vener KALININ able king F FOR D R addressed him gustav summoned denmark s king christian norway s king haakon and finland s Pr president eident kyosti kal ho lio to decide scandinavia s attitude it was expected the finns would surrender a few islands but not the strategic arlands which russia cov ets baltic estonia s gen johan lai doner assured the people their na tion was still free but there were signs to the contrary among them the premier resigned and a new cabinet was established mean while lithuania which received a better break from moscow than ei ther latvia or estonia winning rule over the former polish city of wil no decided to demand that ger many grant her extra territorial rights in the harbor of memel which adolf hitler seized last spring the lithuanians hoped russia would back their request balkans hungary feared that russia s baltic conquest would be followed by demands for ruthenia the ukrainian province seized from czechoslovakia czecho slovakia early this year ru mama mania had similar worries over Bes sarabia the petroleum rich area she took from russia after the world war moreover rumania heard re ports that russia might try to set tie tle balkan troubles at her ex expense pene taking both Bes sarabia and ruthe ma nia and placating the hungarians and bulgarians by giving each a slice of land they lost to rumania after the last war this it was reliably stated held a top place among demands russia tried to force down the throat of turkey s foreign minister cukro acting as mediator for all balkan states had re port edly refused not only to sell ru mania short but also to recognize russia s polish grab create a neu aral balkan bloc under german rus sian domination or break turkey s alliance with britain and france russian troops were massed on her borders but the turks stood so firm that many a diplomat felt she held the balance of european pow er her position turkey would stay neutral if the allies fought russia but she would join the allies it if italy took sides with germany with 2 troops under arms con trolling the strategic Darde nelles and holding considerable influence over other balkan states the turks were not to be slighted CONGRESS peace V 7 ea cea neutrality was making a bum this month out of many an otherwise I 1 se efficient statesman each day the lower house of congress assembled halfheartedly listened to a few pointless speeches and went its way to washington s cocktail rooms and ancl bars there was nothing else to do until the senate finished wrangling with neutrality and sent the bill over meanwhile that happy day i was drawing I 1 senators passed the word j mark in their debate on isolationism v vs cash and carry though they were ere still going strong compromise 1 was w W s in the air to replace the pre mature victory song of embargo re pea realists lists some of the incentive came from outside such as col charles A lindbergh s second radio speech in which he plumped for retention L 0 of th the e a arms r m s embargo bargo howard coon ice ley y president re s den t of the national asso clation of manufacturers pointed out ou t that th t industry d astry is opposed to war and realizes s the falseness of war pro profits fi ts this gave north dakota dakotas s sen gerald P neutrality nye a new talking point thus far isolationist propaganda has tried to convince the nation I 1 that cash and carry neutrality will get america into war but the cam laign failed to jell so isolationists found a more potent weapon by dramatizing the post war depression that will inevitably follow if U S industry expands to serve warring europe said mr nye with pretty fair logic I 1 dare the senate to find 10 of 50 leading industrialists who will wish to the of the last war boom A few minutes later when senator nye returned to the old song that administration neutrality proposals are a step toward war he found himself confronted for the first time with Ne nebraska braskas s 78 year old sen george W norris who had a few things to get off his mind this charge that the president presidents s lecorn emendation men dation would lead to parti cipa tion in the war is without foun dounda da tion whatever I 1 know this bill won t please hitler but are we going to ask him what to doa are we s NORMS NORRIS LEFT AND NYE are we going to ask hitler going to be so afraid that we will offend him that we are going to re fuse to act within a few days action seemed imminent the arms embargo was a cinch for repeal but on other issues there was compromise chair man key pittman of the foreign re lations committee abandoned the 90 day credit clause which critics charged was a circumvention of the johnson act forbidding loans to war debt defaulting nations re strict sanctions ions on U S shipping would be relaxed to permit operations in bel li gerent areas far removed from the war sector 0 i e australia new zea land and other french british colo nies on this point pi presidential discretion will probably be the rule LABOR building probe at washington indictment of a la a bor union charged with delaying work on government buildings opened the coast to coast U S at tack on reputed trade restraints in the building industry among cities to be probed chicago new york seattle and cleveland the allega hon tion that union jurisdictional figh fights ts are hamstringing a building revival |