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Show S '-Sj WHO'S I J- NEWS V ' THIS V' WEEK By LEMUEL F. PARTON (Consolidated Features WNU Service.) NTEW YORK. Paul Reynaud, ' who was asked to form a new French cabinet, and successor to Premier Daladier, put through the French - Brit- Premier Desires ish monetary British-French and economic Monetary Union aord last December, and, even before the start of the war was an advocate of a close financial union between the two countries as the first bulwark of their joint defense. For several years, he has been studying English Eng-lish finance and history, insisting that both nations must abandon their old plan of remaining apart in the matter of monetary and economic relationships. He is a lawyer, financier and economist, minister of finance since October, 1938. In the chamber of deputies, he represents repre-sents a "big business" section of Paris and has contended vigorously vig-orously against "governmental meddling in business." In 1935 and 1936 he made a courageous fight for the devaluation of the franc, an issue which is always loaded in France and always sidestepped by more cautious politicians. His business sagacity sagaci-ty was demonstrated in the summer sum-mer of 1929, when he warned all and sundry that a big smash was coming, and withdrew all of his securities from the market. mar-ket. He is as direct, decisive and fiery as Daladier is ponderous and meditative, medi-tative, and for many years has been making prophecies more gloomy than Cassandra's foredoom of Troy, as he urged France to prepare for the worst. He parts his hair in the middle, strings with the Alliance Democratique, a center group, and has never been classified as either right or left. He is said to be "too intelligent to be liked," and does not seem to mind. He is small and alert, only slightly gray at 60, carefully care-fully groomed and the master of a verbal short jab which seldom invites in-vites a return engagement for anyone any-one inclined to mix with him. He was a holdout on Laval's deal to give Mussolini a green light in Ethiopia and in this connection warned France that it had better be looking to its empire. In politics poli-tics since 1919, in the chamber since 1928, he was previously minister of finance in Tardieu's cabinet. He comes of a family high in the mountains moun-tains of Barcelonnette, of a clan which has extensive holdings in several sev-eral foreign countries, including Mexico. DUILDING more stately mansions for his soul, Fritz Mandl, the Austrian munitioneer, runner-up for Zaharoff, was interrupted by Adolf ... , , Hitler. In a New Arms Plants New York Are Being Built municipal By Fritz Mandl court- an Aus" trian architect archi-tect sues Mr. Mandl for payment for designs for a new wing on his Alpine castle, when he was married to Hedy Lamarr, the screen star, now the wife of Gene Markey, Hollywood Holly-wood producer. The castle and the plans were a war casualty, but Mr. Mandl is sitting pretty in Argentina, the hidalgo of a great estate, and getting a fast running start with new steel and munitions plants in the land of the pampas. He fooled Hitler. His great arms plants, including the Hirt-enberg Hirt-enberg plant, were supposed to be worth about $60,000,000. That was a nice, fat grouse for the Nazi nimrod, but when Der Fuehrer moved in, he found the great plants just a hollow shell, the securities long since liquidated liqui-dated and Mr. Mandl at a safe nose-thumbing distance with his former fortune remaining more or less Intact. Now 40 years old, round-faced and merry, he was a playboy in his youth, but stayed on the job in his later years. The munitions works were a family holding, founded by his grandfather, Sigmund, and expanded ex-panded by his father. Alexander. He was an associate of the fallen Prince Ernst Ruediger von Star-hemberg Star-hemberg in the Vienna putsch of 1934 not at all interested in political politi-cal ideologies, and smarter than the prince in both making a get-away from Hitler and from Germany as well as being able to save his fortune. for-tune. NOT a refugee fortune, but the makings of a new one appears J in the operations of Arnold Bern-I Bern-I stein, who also found a hole in the Nazi line. A freighter of the Americanized Ameri-canized Arnold Bernstein shipping lines burns at Baltimore, but it was insured and his newly recruited ships are running cargos to Europe and his fleet is expanding. He came here last October, from a Nazi jail, where a tangle over the mysterious blocked marks had landed him. At 51, a tall. pale, thoughtful man, be gets a new start. |