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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS BY JOSEPH W. LaBINE Soviet Presses New Conquests As World Looks Elsewhere; Nazi 'Ally' Is Sole War Victor (EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are expressed in these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) Released by Western Newspaper Union. ' RUSSIA: Cat and Mice Six weeks after it started, the war of 1939 had apparently been won by Russia, a noncombatant. The soviet held two-fifths of Poland and controlled con-trolled the little nations of Lithuania, Lithu-ania, Latvia and Estonia whose German Ger-man populations were repatriated by the Fatherland in what was Nazidom's Nazi-dom's most ignominious defeat. In all these countries Russia won important im-portant naval bases (see map) which gave her control of the Baltic sea and constituted a direct threat against Scandinavia. Lithuania, the last to capitulate, even accepted a part-Communist social order. Finland was next, her delegation opening consultations in Moscow while the folks back home evacuated evacuat-ed cities, strengthened the army and Q Bases Acquired by Russia 3 Finish Bases Coveted by Russia ism alpisiijiiii gi I AALAND 111 HOGLAND ISL. (S jh islands iiiiiiiiiiiinjnnHm M mate: 189,000,000 bushels. Including Includ-ing winter wheat there will be an aggregate of 740,000,000 bushels, plus 254,000,000 carryover. Total: 994,-000,000, 994,-000,000, of which about 700,000,000 will be needed domestically. THE WAR: From Rostrum: Said France's Premier Daladier: "If Hitler really wants a durable peace it must be based on the security se-curity of nations, guaranteed reciprocally, recip-rocally, without the danger of surprises." sur-prises." Chimed in Britain's Prime Minister Minis-ter Chamberlain: "It is for Germany Ger-many to make her choice . . . Either Eith-er the Germans must give convincing convinc-ing proof of the sincerity of their desire for peace ... or we must preserve our duty . . ." Said Adolf Hitler: "The decision of peace or war lies with others. We simply have a grave determination determina-tion to fight." From such a hopeless deadlock there seemed no alternative except a fierce war. But the still, small voices of peace began rising everywhere. every-where. In Germany it was the mysterious mys-terious mobile radio station urging that Hitlerism be discarded. Ivi France it was a few "defeatists" who were promptly slapped into jail. But in London it was little David Lloyd George, World war prime minister who only a week before had startled commons by demanding that Britain give careful consideration considera-tion to Hitler's peace offers. Arguing Argu-ing that a collective pact among all European nations need not be "dependent "de-pendent on the word of Herr Hitler," Hit-ler," Lloyd George was rumored leading a campaign against advocates advo-cates of "war at any price." Taking a cue from the earlier speech in which Lloyd George had counseled U. S. leadership in a world peace move, Herr Hitler first had his throttled press give the British Brit-ish statesman a build-up, then released re-leased a plea that America might help prevent Europe's frightful "bath of blood." But the U. S. was choosy; the White House and state department would think carefully before volunteering. At the same time, other Britons looked askance at the allies' apparent appar-ent plan to wage war only on the western front. Could anybody win from such stalemated positions? On Land There was every indication Germany Ger-many planned to open a fierce thrust on the western front, thus retaliating re-taliating against spurned peace offers. of-fers. Paris heard that Hitler had summoned his generals, ordered them to clear the French off Nazi territory and to drive swiftly through Belgium and Switzerland in a great offensive. The first part of this order or-der was evidently borne out when "suicide squads" of grenadiers were thrust wave after wave against French outposts. Scouting planes appeared ap-peared over the lines taking photographs. photo-graphs. Strangely, many a Nazi raid appeared to have a solitary aim to capture prisoners and thus get information. At Sea Fireside generals have long fought the battle of warship vs. bomber. Before October is out, the victor may be known. Authoritative Ger- CONGRESS: Talk Fest Washington's important news was not that the senate had refused 65 to 26 the resolution by New Hampshire's Hamp-shire's Sen. Charles W. Tobey to split the arms embargo repeal issue away from the rest of the pending neutrality bill. This was not big news because the administration administra-tion bill seemed a cinch to pass whenever the final vote came. Much bigger news was the fact that the issue of war vs. peace vs. , ;-,- 111 RUSSIA IN THE BALTIC Why fight to win a war? prepared to fight demands for Soviet bases on Hogland island and the Aalands. (There were signs of joint U. S.Scandinavian S.-Scandinavian action to bloc Russian conquest of Finland. In Moscow, U. S. Ambassador Laurence A. Steinhardl was reported to have expressed his government's govern-ment's "earnest hope" that nothing may occur to affect injuriously peaceful peace-ful relations between Russia and Finland). Fin-land). Germany's retreat from the Baltic was not Herr Hitler's only setback. While Russia offered him assistance with one hand, her ships sailed from the White sea bearing timber for England in exchange for rubber and tin, thus consummating a new trade agreement with Hitler's most bitter enemy. If the British gloated over this apparent ap-parent victory, they soon changed their minds. Red army units in the Caucasus mountains facing Persia and Turkey were reinforced. The Soviet looked hungrily at Afghanistan, Afghanis-tan, British-dominated, and the gateway gate-way to British India. Capitulating to this southerly threat, Turkey rushed to initial a pact with Russia, planning to sign agreements with France and Britain the next day. Net effect would be to neutralize the eastern Mediterranean and the Black sea, freeing Russia to do as she pleases in the Baltic. Observers agreed that if Germany wants to destroy western democracies, democra-cies, Herr Hitler's pact with Russia has been a good start. But like the wily cat who strikes while the mice fight among themselves, shrewd Dictator Dic-tator Josef Stalin may destroy a lot of oher things unless Europe's war is stopped immediately. AGRICULTURE: Report Card If U. S. corn supplies reach 110 per cent of normal, AAA legislation requires a referendum among producers pro-ducers on establishing marketing quotas. For the past month corn estimates have bobbed up and down, mostly down on the strength of drouth reports. But by early October Octo-ber enough returns were in to place the estimate at 2,532,000,000 bushels. Last year's record carryover was 546,000,000 bushels. Total: 3,078,-000,000 3,078,-000,000 bushels, which is about 48,-000,000 48,-000,000 above the marketing quota level. Still there would be no referendum, ref-erendum, for on September 13 (the specified date for determination) indicated in-dicated supplies were conveniently below the level. But there was every ev-ery sign the department of agriculture agricul-ture will ask big corn acreage reductions re-ductions next year, probably from this season's 94,000,000 acres to about 90,000,000, provided warring Europe doesn't buy too many hogs. Other crop news: CCotton: In the Carolinas it was good, helped by heavy August rains and a dry September. Louisiana also had a good crop, but in Texas and Oklahoma dry heat had stopped development, caused premature opening and attracted the weevil scourge. Result: The department of agriculture cut its September 1 crop estimate by 452,000 bales. New estimate: 11,928,000 bales. C. Wheat: Spring wheat estimate was increased 4,000,000 bushels over September 1 forecast New esti- MISSOURI'S CLARK "Idiotic, moronic, unpatriotic . . neutrality had stirred an unprecedented unprece-dented free-for-all in congress and elsewhere at a time when national unity was the watchword. There was angry speech-making, too much of it, fraught with a bitterness that might have made the U. S'. look slightly silly and indecisive in time of crisis. Missouri's Isolationist Bennett Champ Clark took the senate floor to maintain that the Tobey vote was no test. He stayed to make a speech on how the President's "limited emergency" proclamation has been used for dictatorial, warlike moves. Case in point: Placing the Panama canal under military control, an action ac-tion Senator Clark said was valid only when the U. S. is engaged in war, or when war is imminent. A speech the night before by Assistant As-sistant Secretary of War Louis Johnson John-son next attracted the senator. Mr. Johnson had said the U. S. army is as vulnerable to German mechanized mechan-ized legions as was the Polish army. Commented Mr. Clark: "In my judgment no more idiotic, moronic, unpatriotic remark ever has been made ... To compare the situation situa-tion in the U. S. with the situation in Poland ... is an attempt to alarm our people . . . which to my mind is beneath contempt." Next came Nebraska's Repealist Edward R. Burke in a speech denouncing de-nouncing Hitlerism, predicting a revolution for Germany and urging the U. S. to cast its lot with the allies by providing every assistance "short of supplying men and money." I fV : DAVID LLOYD GEORGE This little man wanted peace. man circles said Nazi planes had dropped 10 bombs in a single raid on British vessels blockading the North sea. Since the allies wanted no peace, the raids would continue. Commented the official German news agency: "The time of unqualified unqual-ified British control of the seas is gone forever." (At Amsterdam, Netherlands, a Dutch seaman came home to announce he had sailed from New York on the long-missing German luxury liner, Bremen, had helped ploiv her through cold northern seus while she flew the Soviet flag, and helped dock her safely safe-ly at Russia's Arctic ocean port, Murmansk.) |
