Show 4 U 0 VR W washington D C RUSSIAN RIC RELATIONS LATIONS IMPROVE the diplomatic grapevine reports that inter allied relations with russia well now this are going pretty 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 subsurface sub surface irritation was over the mediterranean council through which russia the united states and br britain etain were to confer regarding italy north africa and the balkans the russians snubbed earlier in in the summer regarding preliminary italian armistice terms took the mediterranean council seriously and appointed as their representative andrei 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 is a man of national stature capable of making mediterranean decisions without consulting moscow but to represent the united d states on the mediterranean bouncil Eo council uncil secretary hull sent ed wilson U S ambassador to panama wilson is a thoroughgoing thorough going competent 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 was to act as a glorified messenger and report everything back to washington the british representative senta tive was to do the same in other words churchill and roosevelt were to make the decisions and the much publicized mediterranean council was to be a mere reporting agency this immediately roused russ russian lan wrath they had welcomed the council appointed a top man so for a moment they considered withdrawing however for the sake of allied harmony they stayed on and are giving the mediterranean council il a trial 0 0 0 POOR PA IPA WATSON toughest job white house secretary maj gen edwin pa watson of the white house secretariat has to tackle each day is keeping the presidents appointment schedule on time frequently will sit talking to an old friend for 15 or oi 20 minutes over the allotted time and that snarls the white house schedule for the rest of the day this is hard on the generals nervous system especially when bigwigs 0 from the war or navy departments are waiting to discuss military matters on such occasions watson is not above barging in and breaking up the conference the other day when the presidents old friend governor bob kerr of oklahoma was overstaying overstating over staying his time through no fault of his own watson walked in and began to parade nervously about the room well heres the undertaker mr president grinned kerr catching the hint if one of your callers gets so he move pa will move him roosevelt laughingly motioned watson to a chair sit down and talk to us for awhile general he said were having a very interesting conversation with a sigh watson took a chair a 0 BACK TO NORMALCY Indu eagerness to get back to peacetime operation operation is seen in the deluge of mail received by the chemical division of theme of every letter is unlace the straightjacket straight jacket 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 has exercised over the industry and also because of the tremendous future of plastics and other developments in the chemical field controls are so tight that no materials may be bought or sold with out clearance with and in the course of getting clearance the applicant 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 tha t 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 aae ae limited to war needs but when this restriction is removed the demand for chemical materials will be terrific and profits will go 90 through the ceiling a I 1 CAPITAL CHAFF L the argentine government had already retracted its ban on the jewish press even before president dept roosevelt denounced the ban fl foreign fortion economic administration which does a lot of business with latin america is worried over the fact that its initials FEA mean ugly in m spanish a theres a new breath of life in state department press conferences since ed took cha charge rg lajesse L jesse jones biess has hast t held z a presa conference for more than a y year ear |