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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne Terrific Fighting Marks Nazi Thrust Into Jugoslavia and Greek Territory; British Lose Bengasi to Axis Forces But Capture Addis Ababa in Ethiopia t (KOITOIi'S NOTE When opinion are expressed In these eotamns, they are those of the news jtnulyst and not nece&aiirlly of tbia newspaper.) (Released by Western Newspaper Union.. BALKAN DRIVE: Under Way With Adolf Hitler's charge to "car-ry "car-ry the war to Britain wherever she may be" ringing in their ears, the Nazi soldiers that make up his armies smashed across the frontiers of Jugoslavia and Greece. Early reports of the fighting in the Balkans were vague, scattered, incomplete. in-complete. Nazi claims indicated that their movements were on schedule. sched-ule. Greek sources at first claimed the Nazi heavily armored machine was bogging down. One of the first objectives by the German forces was reached when d r mdrl trnnno anrl r a rh 1 1 1 i st H TP- BRITISH: Lose Bengasi The evacuation of Bengasi, capital and port of Libya, was admitted by the British, who reported that the withdrawal was "according to plan" and that Gen. Sir Archibald Wavell was merely "picking his battleground" battle-ground" on which to meet the Nazi-reinforced Nazi-reinforced Fascist troops. Later dispatches seemed to indicate indi-cate that the Australia-New Zealand army in Africa had halted the Nazi-Italian Nazi-Italian drive, for it was said that "the situation was well in hand," and the shooting down of six German Ger-man planes and the damaging of two others was reported officially. ported they had broken through to the Aegean sea in eastern Greece. This movement was said by military experts to cut off Greece from her potential ally, Turkey. Even as the German troops moved toward the Jugoslavian and Greek borders announcement was made that Russia and Jugoslavia had signed a new "non-aggression" pact. British were hopeful that this was further indication of what appeared to be a trend of Soviet movement away from the Hitler sphere of influence. in-fluence. In Jugoslavia before the fighting began be-gan there were last minute moves to "placate Berlin," and a last-minute notice from Berlin that these peace overtures "came too late." But Jugoslavia apparently was standing for something far bigger and wider than her own narrow physical confines. con-fines. Jugoslavia was becoming a byword for courage and daring throughout a Jittery world. However, on the same day came war offlce warnings to the- British public not to be surprised if there were further withdrawals, saying that it was officially doubted if the "halting" of the German-Italian advance ad-vance was permanent. Better news for the British however how-ever was the announcement that the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa had been taken from the Italians without a struggle. This capture came as a climax to eleven weeks of hard fighting to smash Italians African empire to bits. IRAQ: Stages Coup There was a military coup d'etat in Iraq, historic Bagdad being the scene of a governmental overturn staged by army forces led by Rashid Ali Gailani. The coup was viewed differently in various quarters, Bagdad itself, two days later, announcing that one of AFTERMATH: Of Seizure The ordering back to Italy of Naval Attache Alberto Lais of the Italian legation was a sensational aftermath of the seizure in American Amer-ican harbors of Italian and German vessels. The first step was the seizure of the vessels and the jailing of 875 members of the Fascist and Nazi crews. This was closely followed by the revelation in the state department depart-ment that Lais would be declared "persona non grata" to the American Amer-ican government and that his return re-turn to Italy would be demanded. Lais had previously described himself as more than 75 per cent American and he is married to an American woman and their handsome hand-some daughter lives with them in Washington. But Secretary Hull's report, which gave no details, showed plainly that Lais' "25 per cent Italian" heart had prevailed on him to participate actively in the attempted sabotage of the Fascist vessels. I Ait 1?' A I , -1,0 ' i I J - r 1 1 t i shaky spots like certain South American Amer-ican countries which saw in the sudden sud-den reversal of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes against the government govern-ment which had signed up with the Axis a sign that Nazi Gerrnany might not have a sinecure in conquering con-quering Europe. They saw that even in the midst of the Nazi-dominated Balkans a certain cer-tain country, surrounded on four sides by enemies, could have the bravery to stand up to these enemies ene-mies and to defy them, with all their superior power, to cross their rocky borders. Not that anyone figured the Jugoslavs Jugo-slavs would be a "pushover" for the Nazis, in fact, the Nazi position was none too good, for most of the terrain ter-rain held by them was hostile, and Britain, with 10 to 15 divisions of men, well provided with armored equipment and airplanes, were dug in just south of the Bulgarian border, This, the secretary said, was an unfriendly and illegal act, and for that his recall was demanded. Mr. Hull also revealed that the United States had sent a flat and uncompromising "No" to the Axis demand that the ships be returned and the crews released. Yet it was not expected anything would be done with the vessels until the incident had had time to cool down. It was not the only serious naval reverse for Italy, the British having claimed that they had practically put II Duce's fleet out of commission in the Mediterranean, declaring that nine vessels, including two battleships, battle-ships, had been sunk, besides others believed put out of action due to damages suffered in the naval battle. This is Emir Abdul Huh, regent of Iraq, who ruled for five-year-old King Feisal II and is reported deposed and fleeing for his life after the military coup d'etat. , i - ilk 1 If, s - - r F - the main features of the new government gov-ernment would be fulfillment of all international obligations, particularly particular-ly with Britain. Previously it had been hinted in dispatches from London, passed by the censor, quoting Soviet circles in London as saying that it was "believed "be-lieved the coup d'etat was inspired by the Axis, and that the objective was going to be the establishment of Nazi air bases in Iraq. This naturally was disquieting to London, as if carried out it would place Nazi airplanes in a position of dangerous proximity to the Red Sea and the Suez canal, the defense of which had been going well for Britain. Brit-ain. STRIKES: Mostly CIO The calling of a strike against the plants of "Big Steel," the United States Steel corporation, by C.I.O. unions proved that the labor situation situa-tion was still acute, although the soft CONVOY: Big Issue . The question of whether or not American naval forces should convoy con-voy war shipments to Britain was becoming very much of a moot question ques-tion in congress, with indications that the anti-convoy vote would lose. It had been confidently predicted that American naval ships would convoy shipments to Britain "at least halfway across the Atlantic." Senator Sena-tor Tobey, chief opponent of this plan, even during the debate of the lease-lend bill, had a bill to ban convoys con-voys slated for consideration before the senate foreign relations committee. commit-tee. But a poll of the committee showed that only 8 out of 23 committeemen com-mitteemen would support the measure. C. Fotitch. Jugoslav minister, leaves the If hite House after calling upon President Roosevelt to thank him for his message to the boy monarch of Jugoslavia, King Peter. Yet President Roosevelt said discussion dis-cussion of the matter, in press conferences con-ferences "was premature." It still seemed, however, likely that the Tobey resolution against convoying would not be allowed to die in committee, com-mittee, as many members felt that a senate vote would be the only way of settling the question once and for all. Chairman George of the committee commit-tee had repeatedly said that he would not favor American convoying unless the nation was actively and formally in the war. Senator Pepper, Pep-per, an ardent advocate of aid to Britain, had taken the stand that other methods, giving of convoying ships to Britain, ought to be tried before convoying is resorted to. The mere appearance of the question ques-tion out in the open air, however, showed that a probable campaign of preparation of the public mind for convoying was going on. This attitude of bowing to the administration's ad-ministration's lease-lend powers was expressed by Senator Gillette, Iowa, who said that while he did not favor convoying himself, he was unwilling un-willing to stand in the way of the President's full administration of British aid. While the lease-lend bill states specifically that nothing in the bill can be construed as giving the President Pres-ident the authority to order American Amer-ican convoying, legal authorities in Washington said they were of the opinion that he has that power as head of the army and navy. ready to give Jugoslavia and Greece more than lip-service if, as, and when the attack should come. What part the United States was playing could not be said, although President Roosevelt said that lease-lend lease-lend aid was being sent to "more than one country," which might include in-clude Britain and Greece, or Britain and Jugoslavia, or all three. Just before the statement from the White House was made, however, the President had conferred with the Jugoslavian minister. How well prepared Jugoslavia was seemed to be a moot point Food was short, but so it was in all the Balkansin Bal-kansin all Europe, for that matter. The numbers of the army were large, estimated at from 1,200.000 to 1.500.000, but these figures the Battle of France showed might mean much or little. There were many who believed, that the Jugoslavs, who have the advantage ad-vantage of having the crucial Danube Dan-ube river run through a portion of their country, the part of the river which is so rapid and hemmed in by mountains that a canal bears shipping ship-ping at that point, might explode huge charges of TNT in the mountainsides moun-tainsides and render river and canal unfit for shipping for many months. Already they had blown up many important bridges in the valley of Vardar, and had shown a grim determination de-termination to make a fight out of the Nazi invasion at all points. i-uii auiAe was seiuea, ana tne men went back to work digging the important im-portant fuel out of the ground. Just 48 hours before the settlement settle-ment was reached, four men were shot to death in Harlan, Ky., a bloody center of previous strike rioting. Just before the settlement of the bituminous coal strike, it was estimated that 530,000 men were out of work in the United States as the result of strikes, adding considerably to the number of man-days lost in the national defense. Philip Murray, head of the C.I.O., called the strike against U. S. Steel, declaring that the companies had refused to heed a demand for a 10-cent 10-cent an hour wage increase. The company has 261,000 wage earners. The C.I.O. also wants a closed shop. The Ford strike had closed the biggest single industrial plant in the nation, employing 86.000 workers. Its gates were marked by many scenes of violence as pickets battled with workers. Back of these front-line scenes were back-stage battles. The Ford counsel obtained an injunction against the strikers, and the strikers promptly subpoenaed Henry Ford, Edsel Ford and Manager Bennett to appear in court. The next move saw Ford Attorney Capizzi making a court motion that all labor board citations against the company be thrown out as the C.I.O. union was dominated by Communists. |