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Show NA I drew Pearson Washington, li. U. RUSSIAN RELATIONS IMPROVE The diplomatic grapevine reports that inter-Allied relations with Russia Rus-sia are going pretty well now. This is certainly true on the surface, and while some irritations have occurred below the surface, both sides have shown a real tendency to try to get along. Most serious sub-surface irritation was over the Mediterranean Council, through which Russia, the United States and Britain were to confer regarding re-garding Italy, North Africa and the Balkans. The Russians, snubbed earlier in the summer regarding preliminary Italian armistice terms, took the Mediterranean Council seriously and appointed as their representative Andrei An-drei Vishinskl, the famous prosecutor in the Russian purge trials. This was the equivalent of sending the most outstanding member of the U. S. Supreme court or the leading lawyer of England. Vishinski is a man of national stature, capable of making Mediter-ranean Mediter-ranean decisions without consulting Moscow. But to represent the United Unit-ed States on the Mediterranean Council, Secretary Hull sent Ed Wilson, Wil-son, U. S. ambassador to Panama. Wilson is a thorough-going, competent compe-tent diplomat who can handle any routine job and- handle it well. But almost no one outside diplomacy or Panama has heard of him. He has no national stature and he cannot act on his own. Immediately it developed that Wilson Wil-son was to act as a glorified messenger mes-senger and report everything back to Washington. The British representative repre-sentative was to do the same. In other words, Churchill and Roosevelt Roose-velt were to make the decisions, and the much publicized Mediterranean Council was to be a mere reporting agency. This immediately roused Russian wrath. They had welcomed the Council, appointed a top man., So for a moment they considered withdrawing. with-drawing. However, for the sake of Allied harmony, they stayed on and are giving the Mediterranean Council Coun-cil a trial. POOR 'PA' WATSON Toughest job White House Secretary Secre-tary Maj. Gen. Edwin ("Pa") Watson Wat-son of the White House secretariat has to tackle each day is keeping the President's appointment schedule sched-ule on time. Frequently FDR will sit talking to an old friend for 15 or 20 minutes over the allotted time, and that snarls the White House schedule for the rest of the day. This is hard on the general's nervous nerv-ous system, especiaUy when bigwigs from the war or navy departments are waiting to discuss military matters. mat-ters. On such occasions Watson is not 'above barging in and breaking up the conference. The other day when the President's Presi-dent's old friend. Governor Bob Kerr of Oklahoma, was overstaying his time through no fault of his own Watson walked in and began to parade pa-rade nervously about the room. "Well, here's the undertaker, Mr. President," grinned Kerr, catching the hint. "If one of your callers gets so he doesn't move, 'Pa' will move him." Roosevelt laughingly motioned Watson to a chair. "Sit down and talk to us for awhile, general," he said. "We're having a very interesting conversation." conversa-tion." With a sigh, Watson took a chair. BACK TO NORMALCY Industry's eagerness to get back to peacetime operation is seen in the deluge of mail received by the chemical division of WPB. Theme of every letter is: Unlace the straightjacket and give us a chance to expand. This pressure hits the chemical division more than any other because of the tight control which that division divi-sion has exercised over the industry, and also because of the tremendous future of plastics and other developments develop-ments in the chemical field. Controls are so tight that no materials ma-terials maybe bought or sold without with-out clearance with WPB, and in the course of getting clearance, the applicant ap-plicant must state a lot of intimate facts about his business, including buying price, selling price, profit, and inventories. The real meaning of the complaint is that the industry is not worried about paper work so much as it is worried about limitation on profits. Under government control, prices are held down by the fact that sales are limited to war needs, but when this restriction is removed, the demand de-mand for chemical materials will be terrific, and profits will go through the ceiling. CAPITAL CHAFF C. The Argentine government had already al-ready retracted its ban on the Jewish press even before President Roosevelt Roose-velt denounced the ban. C. Foreign Economic administration, which does a lot of business with Latin America, is worried over the j fact that its initials, FEA, mean "ugly" in Spanish. C. There's a new breath of life in state department press conferences since Ed Stettinius took charge. C Jesse Jones hasn't held a press conference for more than a year. |
