Show aa I 1 E BRITISH washington D 0 american naval observers who have been trying to pierce the maze of german claims and british denials regarding battleship sin kings come to one conclusion the germans have not sunk nearly as many ships as they say they have but the british navy is not in too good shape either what actually h happened is that a good many british warships have been damaged and have had to go to drydock dry dock this takes them out of battle for weeks or even months temporarily it is just as effective as sinking them As of today five british battleships are in drydock dry dock and one is sunk this much Is definite there may be others sunk as claimed by the germans but if so U S naval observers have not been able to confirm it since britain has only 15 battleships the wounding of six is a serious blow and gives considerable support to the contention of seel secretary of the navy edison that th the e Z time out for statesmanship by thomas battleship now must take its place with the horse and buggy like the fighting elephants used by hannibal battleships are super powerful but expensive to maint maintain ain hard to maneuver fast enough to dodge the less expensive airplane note one reason for or the constant german claims of sinking british warships is to wring dent denials a from the british which will re reveal ai just what their naval strength is actually aviators usually cannot tell when they sink a vessel they cant afford to remain in the vicinity to see whether it sinks nor do the germans know just how strong the british are in certain areas such as the mediterranean and the north sea so they try to get revealing denials from the admiralty NAZIS IN BRAZIL the roosevelt administration is doing a lot of talking about cementing relations with south america and unquestionably the nazi menace below the rio granders Grand etis a cause of legitimate concern but behind the scenes the united states is muffing buffing a lot of important moves one of these Is the development of brazils dealt wealthy hy iron ore deposits several months ago the state department part ment arranged for the united states steel corporation to investigate the development of these mine mines and the building of a steel P plant lant near them six U S steel corporation experts went to brazil reported enthusiastically to their board of directors subsequently the reconstruction finance corporation offered to advance money for the development of the mines the U S government was to put up approximately one third of the cash the brazilian government about one third and the U S steel corporation was to put up the rest however U S steel wanted to know what guarantees it would have in case of a repetition in brail in the future of the mexican oil expropriation policy the state department part ment replied that it could gl give ive no guarantees so the U S st steel eel balked following this germany a always in need of raw materials offered to transfer part of the skoda munitions works which it had seized in czecho slovakia to brazil and set up a nazi steel mill but president vargas and foreign minister aranha both strongly pro american refused however the brazilian army which is strongly pro german is pushing them in the opposite direction and unless the united states ates steps into the picture with another proposal it may eventually wake up to find a powerful nazi munitions works established at its doorstep MERRY GO ROUND latest book read by mrs roosevelt health is wealth by dr paul de kruif crusading physician remarked a capitol doorkeeper eyeing the powerful build of rep vince harrington of iowa that guy certainly would make a swell football player ile he was right harrington was a teammate of the fa a notre dame four horsemen josephus daniels has attended every democratic national convention since 1892 this year he will fly up from mexico city for or the convention |