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Show ; WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne ! U. S. Extends Its Neutrality Patrol j To Protect 'Aid-to-Britain' Shipments; i Germans Drive British From Greece; ! Lindbergh Resigns Air Corps Post fFDITOft'S NOTE When opinions are expressed in these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) iRinawiH by Western Newspaper Union. ) U. S. ATTITUDE: Toward War In this country the reaction to the loss of the Greek campaign was sharp. The forces of the isolationists immediately im-mediately took to the air, held a giant mass-meeting in New York, which was marked by violence outside out-side the hall, and, paced by Charles A. Lindbergh, took an "I told you so" attitude, urging the nation to believe be-lieve that British defeat of the Nazis was not only impossible, but that British loss of the war was a certainty, and that if America gave "all-out" aid to Britain that we, too, would suffer through this defeat. de-feat. President Roosevelt, frankly infuriated in-furiated by this attitude and these utterances, had Secretary Hull and Secretary Knox take to the radio and prepare the way for a statement state-ment by the President which ripped the "defeatists" up the back, and made it plain that the government would have none of this attitude. The administration, they said, was frankly committed to "all-out" aid to Britain, and would go its way toward this goal. Instead of retrenching re-trenching on this policy, as urged by the Lindbergh coterie, it was boldly announced that the government govern-ment would extend its aid still more vigorously. Singling out Lindbergh especially for administration ire, the President, Presi-dent, in a press conference, characterized char-acterized him as an "appeaser" and "defeatist" and used the word "copperhead" in making a comparison com-parison with earlier days in American Amer-ican history. Aftermath of the President's remarks re-marks regarding Lindbergh was the news that he announced his resigna- Included In the tentative list opposed op-posed to convoying were 25 of the senate's 28 Republican members. The only official act connected with the subject of convoying was the Tobey resolution, and they were seen as supporters of this measure. Adding to this the non-intervention Democrats, and some other scattering scat-tering votes, and Tobey's resolution, which would forbid convoying, could only look for 45 votes. The Tobey move, however, was not considered so vital by some senators, sen-ators, these holding that President SECRETARY OF NAVY KNOX He "took TO the air" Roosevelt's executive power as navy head would permit him to put a convoy plan into effect by executive execu-tive order, with no sanction by the senate or house asked or needed. GREEKS: STRIKE: Situation President Roosevelt rolled up his sleeves and sailed into the coal strike personally, bidding fair to handle this as he had other problems. prob-lems. Under his personal urging negotiations negotia-tions were resumed, and a settlement settle-ment finally reached. In the midst of all this particularly particu-larly when the United Automobile Workers (C. I. O.) threatened to shut down 60-odd plants of General Motors, engaged in nearly half a billion of defense orders for motorized motor-ized equipment, came a vigorous outburst against Secretary Perkins. The rumor was published that Miss Perkins' resignation was on President Roosevelt's desk, and one senator urged that if it were not true that Secretary Perkins should resign, and that if it were true the President should accept it. What was needed in that post was not a woman, but a two-fisted man "with the intestinal fortitude" to deal with labor troubles. This outburst out-burst against Miss Perkins was almost al-most immediately followed by her prompt certification of the threatened threat-ened auto strike to the mediation board, thus practically washing her hands of the matter. The company held that a work stoppage of non-defense portions of factories would naturally and inevitably inev-itably result in full stoppage. Faced with this evidence, Miss Perkins dictated dic-tated and signed a statement which started: "The dispute between the General Motors corporation and the United Automobile Workers of America threatens to burden and obstruct the production or transportation of equipment and materials essential to national defense and cannot be adjusted by the commissioners of conciliation of the department of labor." Thp mprtintinn hna,- Y.rtmtl-.. i UUt Closing days of the Greek campaign cam-paign were stirring. The British made a noble stand of three to four days at Thermopylae pass, historic rendezvous with heroism of Leoni-das Leoni-das in ancient days, only to lose the pass after heroic resistance and after inflicting admittedly heavy casualties on the invading Nazi hordes. The second great stand was made on Mount Geraneia, the British high command, after a careful advance study of the terrain, finding places to defend that the Germans had claimed were impossible. There was hardly a question even in British and Greek circles of making mak-ing a successful stand, but the valiant val-iant Australian and New Zealand soldiers fought a rear-guard action that military men said would live in history. ' Main objective of the British, after the port of Piraeus was shown to be impossible as an evacuation r CHARLES A. LINDBERGH He "took the air.n tion as a colonel in the U. S. army air corps reserve. He said he was "greatly disturbed" at the implications implica-tions made by the President regarding regard-ing his loyalty toward the United States. He had been an officer in the reserve air corps since 1927, year of historic flight to Paris. PATROL: Extended The navy, said the President, now was engaged in extending the neutrality neu-trality patron 1,000 miles out into the Atlantic, and that its protection to American shipping, especially to vessels carrying aid to Britain, would know no boundaries on the seven seas. This brought the question of convoys con-voys out into the open, which the President had simply leaped over in his statement, taking the stand that discussion of convoys was beside be-side the point, as he considered it the navy's job to keep the waters 1,000 miles off the American coast safe for all shipping. At the same time he made the rather cryptic statement that he had information that the Nazis already were setting foot on Greenland and that the United States would deal with this phase of the situation, which indeed brought the war mighty close to this country. In the meantime newspapers took another poll of the senate on the question of convoys, and found that body to be in favor of convoying supplies to Britain, though only by a vote of 50 to 45. If convoying meant active participation in the war, as many claimed, the informal canvass of the senate showed the temper of congress, at any rate. port, was to gain the southern portions por-tions of Greece and make the final stand on Crete and other islands. The flight of the government from Athens prepared the Greek people for the eventual occupation of the historic capital by the Nazis. Yet the Greeks, with unswerving devotion devo-tion to their cause, seemed not dismayed dis-mayed by the loss of their capital, but seemed willing to fight on to the end, as did the British. Churchill had prepared the British for the bad news of the Greek campaign, cam-paign, and toward the close Athens dispatches frankly admitted that the final stages of the fighting were simply sim-ply rear-guard actions. While there was again raised in England among the people the cry of "too little and too late," the people of Australia seemed little inclined in-clined to criticize, but on the other hand seemed proud of the achievement achieve-ment of their armies. The loss of the Greek campaign was more of a shock to those in the United States who had been hoping that American aid through the lease-lend bill might turn the battle. Yet from more considered sources came the word that the Greek defense de-fense should not be viewed in that light, but rather from the standpoint stand-point of a general harassing and delaying de-laying action against Germany. The cost to the Nazis of having to transport food, and men and munitions mu-nitions for the final weeks almost entirely by plane must have been enormous in fuel alone, which Germany Ger-many was unable to spare. The surprise expressed by King George of Greece at the sudden surrender sur-render of the army of Epirus which precipitated the close of the Nazi-Greek Nazi-Greek campaign and just preceded the flight of the government to Crete caused the commanders later to tell part of the story. uuuu piwuiyuj sent this message to both corporation corpora-tion and unions affected and set an early date for a hearing. This had the immediate result of producing a union agreement to call off the strike pending' some effort by the board to make adjustments. NAVY: Buys an Airfield For an undisclosed sum, believed to be about $9,000,000, the navy bought Floyd Bennett airfield in New York, intending to establish on its 387 acres the nation's biggest naval air base. The deal, it was announced, would still permit the use of the field as an emergency landing field for commercial com-mercial aviation if LaGuardia field was closed. The field, with 62,500 square feet of hangar space, will be put into service at once, and will, navy officials of-ficials pointed out, bring naval aviation avia-tion closer to the most important scene of its activities, the North Atlantic. At-lantic. At present the chief naval air bases in this country are Pensacola, Fla., on the East and San Diego, Calif., on the West coast. The need of an important base of greater size than Anacostia, close to Washington, D. C, brought about the deal with New York city, and brings the navy in force to the air above Long Island sound. MISCELLANY: PIRAEUS: The Haras, formerly one of Harold Vanderbilt's yachts, was sunk by a German dive bomber as it was seeking to evacuate a large number of civilians trying to return from Greece's mainland to their island homes. One bomb burst in the vessel's hold and practically the entire passenger list was lost. TOKYO: In the role of an Axis salesman back from a "trip to the factory," Foreign Minister Matsu-oka Matsu-oka of Japan informed the Japanese people through the press that the lot of the worker in Germany is a happy one, and that the people of that nation like the system that takes complete governmental control con-trol of all their activities. NEW YORK: Fritz Kreisler, master violinist, was victim of a traffic accident near his home, as he was on his way to luncheon. He was struck by a truck and his skull fractured. |
