Show GENERAL HUGH so JOHNSON mol fw V U S DODGES ISSUE here are some hunches I 1 got while traveling and get sufficient dope to expand into columns it if the british can search an american air clipper in a british port and take off her mail t to 0 ce censor asor it and can stop an ameri american c an ship on the high seas and force her to go to a british por port t to be searched why cant they stop an american air clipper on the high seas an and d force her to go to some english base it if the british can do that why cant the germans if either of them do that what are we going to do about it it would be just as easy for a high speed fighter to force big passenger planes to jump through hoops as for a surface warship a merchantman if international law permits that in the second case it permits it in the first the truth is that international law permits it in neither case by act of congress we voluntarily gave up most of our neutral rights on an the high seas to avoid incidents but we give them all Is it right for our state department to give up by acquiescence what congress did not yield by legislation we seem to have avoided the bermuda issue by causing our transatlantic clippers to fly nonstop non stop across the atlantic but if a stop at bermuda for fuel was advisable in the interests of safety are we risking ships and lives to avoid insisting on the inviolability of our mails it if we are what is going to be the feeling in this country if one of these fine ships is lost that is one hunch here is another why dont the allied air forces drop a few explosive eggs on the krupp works at essen there was a lot of smelly rumor after the world war about the immunity from any kind of attack on german plants ants in which the french had financial interests I 1 am reluctant to credit any of that ghoulish stuff but it is hard to understand this inactivity an explanation of why the germans attacked english docks harbors and industries by air is that they are not yet equipped with enough fighting planes with sufficient range of action to protect their bombers but that explanation go for the french and british laying off the krupp plant which is the very heart and lungs of german army equipment it is within easy bombing distance from french bases and a few well placed pineapples could at least seriously annoy it and mr hitler it our business to give any kibitzer advice about a war in which we have no part also there may be a perfect explanation of this inactivity but if there is such an explanation and it is not inconsistent with some other vital military interest to give it it certainly would be good public relations practice so far as this country is concerned to make it known the odor of phoniness in and about many aspects of this war gets richer as the weeks go by it is all to be explained by a return to eighteenth century strategy when battles were few and inside baseball of economic and diplomatic jacking hijacking hi and poker playing decided the result in those days armies were mere fragments of warring nations wars without battles could go on for years without shattering whole economic structures that is no longer true with entire nations mobilized for war now nations must seek prompt military results or promptly collapse from internal weakness NEW WR WAR MACHINES the world war produced many new weapons and methods flame smoke gas tanks ze ps mass air fighting depth and air bombs submarine detectors and so forth none of the underground inventions seemed to promise much the suggested machinery was too light to do much more than gimlet and scratch that need no I 1 longer be the case I 1 think we shall see some real subterranean tactics if this war goes unhappily on the reason why the world war burrowing and trenching drenching tren ching machines be better was that there then any such compact and potent self moving power plant as the modern diesel engine to pull push and heave even after it was well developed in this country no engineers seemed to realize the weight and strength of the massive machinery that it could move and operate like the airplane and nearly all inventions in agricultural machinery that principal was recognized by an amateur who is now cashing in on it in a big way I 1 saw a yellow spidery looking steel monster driven by a track lay ing diesel powered tractor which can and does crunch its wa yinto a forest and uproot trees up to 20 inches in diameter somewhat as you would pull a turnip beside it stood another land leviathan dragging steel hooks as massive as the heaviest anchor flukes it can plow an 8 foot furrow through rocky land and shale and leave it so thoroughly broken up that its neighbor a super trench digger can follow and leave behind a trench dug half as fast as a man can walk |