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Show WEEKLY MEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne I Nazi Advance Guard Enters Bulgaria; ' Japan's Arbitration Offer Rejected By Britain; Far Eastern Crisis Grows; Defense Board Speeds Up Arms Work 1 f I (EDITOR'S NOTE When enlnlena are expresned In these columns, they I are those ef the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) I I (Released by Western Newspaper TTnlrm PEACEMAKER: An Offer Japan offered to be the peacemaker peacemak-er of the world and arbitrate all disputes. dis-putes. The offer came in a statement state-ment from Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka. Churchill conferred with U. S. authorities and then called in the Japanese ambassador. His reply re-ply was one word: "No." Meanwhile the Japanese "peacemakers" "peace-makers" in Indo-China were mopping mop-ping up on their job. Having instigated in-stigated a conflict between Thailand (Siam) and the French rulers of Indo-China, Japan stepped in and "enforced" an armistice, taking for itself the rich port of Saignon. While the terms of the armistice were being developed into a peace treaty, Japanese soldiers extended BALKY BALKANS: And an American As Adolf Hitler's advance guard slipped into Bulgaria from Rumania there was none to stay them. Clad ' In civilian overcoats which they did not remove but trom which protrud- ed sleek military boots, members of the German staff took over the principal prin-cipal hotel of Sofia and the main , Bulgarian resort town 40 miles away. Where before anti-Nazi signs had been scribbled on walls and Bulgar national songs were heard, now orchestras or-chestras turned to Viennese waltzes and raised their right arms, palm open. Bulgarian army generals came to the Sofia hotel with bundles of maps under their arms. All day and all night they and the boot-clad men poured over them. There was only one show of hostility. hos-tility. But it was a beaut while it lasted, which was about an hour. George H. Earle, American minister minis-ter to Bulgaria and former governor of Pennsylvania, was in a night club just around the corner from the embassy em-bassy building. The place was filled with the mysterious boot-clad, civil-lan-overcoated foreigners. The governor gov-ernor didn't like the tune the orchestra orches-tra was playing and asked them to switch to "It's a Long Way to Tip-perary." Tip-perary." One of the mysterious strangers took ofTcnse. Earle said later he was a major of the German general staff. Words were passed and finally final-ly Earle said the major threw a bottle bot-tle at him, which he warded off by covering his head with his arm. The former governor has never been known to pass up a chance like that. In the World war he commanded a submarine chaser. ' - " ;" . " " v .o,:::..;::';v!". .' V.-' PIG BOATS: In the Atlantic Hitler made another speech. It was more eloquent in what it did not say than in what was said. Der Fuehrer pictured an impressive spring campaign against England's life lines in the Atlantic. None got up and left the meeting, although some, hearkening back to the same speech in January, may have thought to do so with the expression, expres-sion, "Here's where we came in." In reality, the speech made in the Munich beer cellar where Naziism was born, was a tactic admission that Hitler's air power, his original major weapon on which he risked war, had failed to produce decisive results. And between the lines of the speech can be read the admission admis-sion that British sea power is gripping grip-ping the Axis countries even tighter than it did last fall. So Hitler, during the winter months, has been building a new type of U-boat, known as "pig boats" to naval men. In Norway, Denmark, Den-mark, Belgium, The Netherlands and in France all the vast ship building yards have been turning out pocket submarines during the winter months. How many the Germans have on hand is not known, but best estimates are 1,000, with hundreds more ready to be delivered before summer. No nation has nearly this many undersea craft. The United States has but a- few hundred and England even less. Germany last fall was estimated to have almost 500 standard stand-ard size submarines. But submarines sub-marines do not fight submarines. To sink them, fast cruisers and destroyers destroy-ers are necessary. Britain, even with the 5 destroyers obtained from the U. S., will have a difficult time to cope with the situation, if even a fraction of that number U-boats begins to prey on the sealanes that bring her food and munitions. Explanation Mussolini also made a speech. Whereas Hitler seemed scornful of wavering within the German lines, II Duce seemed less sure. He blamed discontent on Jews and Masons Ma-sons and dwelt on the indissoluble ties that bind Italy to Germany, which is a nice way of putting it now that German censors are in charge of communications leading from Italy to the outside world. He had a new explanation for the disasters in Africa. Marshal Grazi-ani Grazi-ani earlier blamed failure on lack of mechanical equipment in the Fascist forces. Mussolini said, however, how-ever, that the British succeeded because be-cause they achieved numerical superiority. su-periority. Since all British reinforcements re-inforcements to Egypt pass within 50 miles of Italian naval and air bases, II Duce seemed here also to be making an admission of the ineffectiveness in-effectiveness of his battle forces. MISCELLANY: fl. In the main hall of the Kremlin, Krem-lin, in Moscow, a national conference confer-ence of the Communist party was in progress. Members charged that production in several key industries was delayed due to buck-passing and overwhelming red tape. The Central Cen-tral Committee hinted shake-ups. The dismissals followed quickly. Among those losing their official heads was Maxim Litvinoff, former foreign commissar, and Paulina Shemyonovna Zhemchuzhina, wife of Premier and Foreign Minister Molotoff. C. The annual Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards for outstanding acting in the films went to Ginger Rogers for her performance per-formance in "Kitty Foyle" and to James Stewart for his role in "The Philadelphia Story." C There was confusion at Mrs. Roosevelt's press conference The 40 or more women reporters were sitting in the Madison Room at the White House when past the door walked a bathrobe-clad male figure. He heard the female voices and fled. It was Harry Hopkins, presidential guest. Someone closed the door. YOSUKE MATSUOKA For him, a one-word reply. their influence in Indo-China until the French rulers became mere puppets. pup-pets. Stores were filled with Japanese Jap-anese products and residents who refused re-fused to buy them were beaten and jailed. Just west of the Indo-Chinese sphere of influence is the Philippines and just south are the Dutch East Indies, chief source of United States tin and rubber. The Japanese turned covetous eyes on that spot. If that source of supply would be closed to United States shipping, America's entire defense effort would be threatened. Big Stick Washington said nothing, but carried car-ried a big stick. The U. S. fleet was known to be somewhere in the vicinity. Gen. George C. Marshall, chief of staff of the army, also had a big stick. Hundreds of army fighting fight-ing planes left the West coast for our Pacific possessions Hawaii and the Philippines. More important, the house voted funds to fortify the islands of Guam 1 and Samoa, the U. S. Gibraltars In the Pacific. The same proposal was defeated in the house two years ago for fear of offending Japan. MEN AT WORK: Full Speed While congress spent precious weeks in prolonged debate on the lease-lend bill to send war materials to Great Britain, the defense commission com-mission got in some mighty speedy licks. The arming of the nation's forces has entered the third P of the plan, priorities. The other two are procurement and production. Stettinius' Job Priorities is the job now. It will do no good to produce 40 airplane engines and no airplane tail assemblies. assem-blies. The defense commission must regulate production so that every item down to the last eraser on a lead pencil arrives just at the moment mo-ment it can be used. The task is under the direction of E. R. Stettinius Jr. Aluminum and machine tool industries were first to feel the effects of his order. By authority of the navy speedup law passed last June, Stettinius directed direct-ed that both industries put aside all other labor and devote their entire energies to filling defense contracts. After defense contracts are under way, commercial production will be rationed. But until such time as the government has. sufficient aluminum, alumi-num, for instance for planes and j tanks, there will be little or none for streamlined trains, kitchen utensils or even tooth paste tubes. Meanwhile procurement and production pro-duction must be stepped up to meet new demands. How this was being done was reflected re-flected in the news of the day. Consider: Con-sider: C A new 8-inch railroad gun capable capa-ble of hurling a 2G0-pound shell 18 miles was delivered to the army's proving grounds at Aberdeen, Md. The gun weighs 225,000 pounds. C The three of the army's four mechanized divisions, still not supplied sup-plied with arms, are receiving scout cars. One was displayed in Washington Wash-ington and two brave congressmen consented to ride in it The driver took them straight up the Capitol steps. 7 GEORGE H. EARLE Waiters and Bulgars were enlisted. After the war he took up aviation, cracking up several machines but always getting into another and flying fly-ing off just as quickly as possible. ! He is an expert boxer and has not refused to make use of his fists be-; be-; fore. Earle said he "injured the man's features." Reporters who were present pres-ent said the battle lasted for an hour with bottles, chairs and tables N - being used in the melee. The mys terious foreigner was aided by re-" re-" inforcements which consisted of certain cer-tain other boot-clad and overcoated gentlemen. Earle enlisted the waiters wait-ers at the restaurant, where he was known and various and sundry Bul-, Bul-, . gars who were present. Police had a hard time with both sides for the next hour. AIR CRASH: ' Number Four Last August the commercial air lines of the country had established a no-accident record of 17 months, but with the midnight crash of an Eastern Airlines sleeper plane near Atlanta, Ga., the number of accidents acci-dents in the intervening six months was raised to four. When searchers, near dawn, reached the scene of the crash they found seven persons killed, nine others injured. Among those found dead was a member of congress, con-gress, Rep. William D. Byron of Maryland, and among the severely injured was the famed World war flying ace, Eddie Rickenbacker, president of the company on whose plane he was riding. Also killed were the pilot, the co-pilot and steward of the plane's crew. Next day a report from Balboa, n. Canal Zone, told of the cash of a U. S. army bomber into Panama bay. An immediate search, first re-, re-, ports said, failed to disclose any trace of a crew of seven. SPAIN: Ex-Monarch Dies Spain's former monarch, King Al fonso XIII, died of a heart ailment after an illness of two weeks. He died in his Rome hotel room which had been his exile home for the past 10 years. He reigned as king of the Spanish people for 29 years, during which time at least eight attempts were made to assassinate him. His reign ended in April, 1931, when he i left the throne, saying that . . . ' "I no longer have the love of my people." |