Show washington D C AUTO CUT that fan far fared dared cut of 26 per cent in auto production drew no cheers from war department chiefs to them it was a big disappointment first of all the cut looks a lot bigger than it actually is for one thing the carefully did not reveal in its hoopla press releases release was the fact that even with this curtailment auto production still will be 10 per cent greater than in 1938 and 1939 in other words notwithstanding fhe increasing shortage of strategic raw materials such as steel rubber alloys and other metals auto production is to continue at levels higher than in the peaceful years of 38 and 39 another reason for the army gloom was that it wanted an immediate cut of at least 50 per cent for months war department heads pleaded and argued with mo auls for drastic curtailment on the ground that the material going into pleasure cars are desperately need ed tor for planes tanks ships guns and other vital armaments but for months the masterminds did absolutely nothing finally in july scrappy director leon henderson who has seen eye to eye with the army on this issue from the start took the bull by the horns and ordered a 50 per cent slash reaction was to hit the ceiling it refused to accept the ruling and while battled behind the scenes with autos continued to roll off assembly lines in record breaking numbers however hendersons bare knuckling finally took effect the 26 per cent cut is a little less than half of what the army and henderson wanted but it is 6 per cent more than original figure TANKS FOR BRITAIN some time ago the merry go round revealed that a chief objective of lord Beaver brooks visit was to get more tanks tanks for iran tanks for egypt tanks eventually for an invasion of the continent beaverbrook Beaver brook particularly wanted the new powerful 32 bonners thit that soon will roll off the chrysler assembly line at the rate of a month it can now be revealed that the british supply minister will not go home empty handed he will take aach back with him very cheering assur ances regarding the division of these tanks between the U S and british armed forces but that the end of his tank problem allotting tanks to the british in this ibis country is one thing but delivering them across the atlantic is another in fact the problem of transporting large numbers of 32 ton tanks is the toughest shipping problem maritime experts have faced since the magnetic mine which ravaged shipping until the de magnetizing devices were evolved in a nutshell here is the problem for every shipload of light 12 ton tanks sent to england or aar africa i ca the same ship plus nearly three fourths of another ship would be required to transport the same number of 32 1011 ton tanks in other words they are bigger translated into specific figures figure that 26 ship convoy which landed light tanks at alexandria three months ago would have had to consist of 44 vessels to carry the same number of medium tanks with shipping scarcer than hens teeth a difference of 18 ships is an extremely important factor also the necessity of traveling in slow colv convoys further reduces the amount of shipping available some experts estimated this reduction as high as 50 per cent in addition the british sometimes take an excessively long time to unload cargoes so the tank problem thus also becomes an acute shipping problem one bright spot in the situation is the great reduction in ship losses in the last 60 days since the extension of the U S neutrality patrols but the basic problem of securing more cargo bottoms still remains note since january 1 U S shipyards have turned out a to total i al of 56 cargo vessels MERRY GO ROUND army officers are singing the h e praises of century foxs coxs D darryl a rr y 1 zanuck and many movie moguls for their big job in filming reels of army training films this was the first time training films have ever been taken and hollywood did them for 40 per cent of what it would have cost hollywood itself to do the job in other words the army only had to pay union labor and cost of film hollywood supplying the studios studies production overhead and everything e ery thing else the washington diplomatic corps is goggle eyed over mrs warren new book the good neighbor murder her husband is head of the export import bank which loans millions to the good neighbors ors dr 1 I lubin brilliant white house defense expert is the most off iced official in washington he has an office in the white house another in the labor depart department departie me nt as head of the bureau of labor statistics a th third ird in the labor division of and a fourth in the treasury as an adviser to secretary |