Show f R 0 washington D C BRITISH FLEET FOR U S LOANS L W chip robert secretary of the democratic national committee has a plan for refunding war debts also for selling more supplies to the allies and at the same time ensuring western hemisphere defense briefly put it is to take a mortgage on the british fleet in lieu of war debts in other words the british would make a small token payment then promise to turn their fleet over to the united states on the war debt in case of default in return the johnson act would become inoperative and the united states would uld extend immediate war credits behind this of course is not so much the matter of war debts but the very real fear that the united states may lose its greatest bulwark of protection the british fleet how important the british fleet is to american defense is only just percolating to the general public real fact however is that the united states is not now prepared to defend both the pacific and atlantic coasts and will not be prepared for four more years it would take at least that long to build a second fleet note another plan receiving informal consideration by some of the insiders is to repeal the johnson act and give immediate credits to the allies in return for a mortgage on the french and british possessions in the western hemisphere 0 a GREENLAND AIR BASE you can write it down as certain that should hitler send an air expedition to greenland or occupy it otherwise roosevelt would oppose that occupation if necessary with the armed forces of the united states however should hitler get to greenland first the united states would have no adequate airplane force or naval strength in the atlantic to dislodge him if hitler took greenland or iceland the united states would have about as hard a time him out as the allies had in rooting the nazis out of norway military axiom emphasized by this war is once the enemy gets control of a seaport or an air base it is going to be twice as hard almost impossible to get him out so you may see something done by the united states about greenh greenland in the not too distant future hemisphere DEFENSE these are days when the united states is supposed to be bending every effort to ordinate coordinate co the defense of the western hemisphere days when president roosevelt impresses upon congress the vulnerability of the panama canal and latin america to airplane attack boiled down to cold fact however the united states has done very little toward operating cooperating co with latin ameri america C a on western hemisphere defense for instance four years ago brazil asked the united states to permit the leasing or sale to south american neighbors of decrepit destroyers st rusting in philadelphia and san francisco harbors since the world war but congress threw up its hands in horror of rearmament nt and said no then in march 1939 a bill was introduced in congress permitting latin american nations to build ships in U S navy yards and buy certain equipment from the U S army and navy which would not conflict with our own national defense all paid for in cash the bill passed the house of representatives but hung up in the senate and there it still hangs in fact it has been stymied for a year by senator LATIN AdIE AMERICAN RICAN CRITICISM meanwhile latin american nations not understanding the american parliamentary system by which one man sometimes can thwart the fest rest of congress are critical saying U S operate cooperate co note the senate foreign relations committee also has buried the argentine sanitary convention which permits the entry of dressed lamb from patagonia the antarctic end of argentina where hoof and mouth disease does not exist 0 0 HOW HITLER FIGURES to understand the present tactics of germany you have to go back to a remark attributed to hitler before the war really got serious it the war lasts four years I 1 would lose men it is better to lose men in three months hitler is determined to push the war to a quick finish this summer no matter how long and tragic may be the stream of coffins going back from the front hitler has ample supplies to last through the summer but not beyond so if the war drags past the autumn germany is lost MERRY GO ROUND if you want to read a sizzling book on 0 n politics get the recently published 1 is ed rascals in democracy by kansas political writer W G chugs bugs ton |