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Show little Nations' Skeptical ( Of Future Peace Terms 'v , Oppressed Countries Fear That Hatred or yf i Indifference to Them Will Dominate ' t 5 J Proposals When War Ends. 1 U i J .j " J By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. VVNU Service, 1343 II Street, N-W, Washington, D. C. Like voices crying in the wilderness wilder-ness the little nations of the world are supplicating America. They have been searching our oratund declarations of the peace aims of the United Nations to see just how much we have, actually, promised to "the little people." And they are not sure at the present writing that it is very much. Sooner or later the United States must go on record in black and white, in simple, straightforward English, as to what we can offer besides glory and honor and gratitude grati-tude and sympathy for the men and women who have already felt the yoke of war. I had that brought home to me the other night. It was nearly three o'clock in the morning. The slim, earnest gentleman gentle-man opposite me with the slightly foreign accent had lost track of time and it seemed as if the ancient clock on the bookcase was discreetly muffling muf-fling its chimes. I was in no hurry for I knew I was hearing the soul of a nation speak. "You must remember," my companion com-panion was saying, "there are just two kinds of nations in the world today, the big ones and the little ones. And the little ones whose borders bor-ders are not now the scene of actual fighting or those that are still battlefields battle-fields or may soon be all are filled with fear. Most of them have already al-ready felt the boots of invaders. And 1 they fear that the great machine will roll over them again, that they will be obliterated and that when the peace comes, they will be forgotten. for-gotten. The big nations will make the peace." The next day I read the statement out of the Finnish legation that "Finland "Fin-land wants to stop fighting as soon as the threat to her existence has been averted and guarantees obtained ob-tained for her lasting security." At about the same time, there was made public in London the proposals pro-posals for revising the constitution of the government of the Netherlands Nether-lands empire which would advance the autonomy ci me Netherlands "r J East and West Indies and other pos sessions. I had already heard a Hollander from Java state in most emphatic terms that plans would be carried through to give the Javanese an equal standing with all other citizens citi-zens of the Netherlands empire after the war. He pointed to the fact that one Javanese had already held the post of foreign minister in The Hague before the days of the invader. in-vader. The Finnish statement and the Dutch intentions are both evidence of how those two small nations are trying now, to assure the "big" democracies that regardless of present pres-ent conditions they only seek to maintain, main-tain, or where it has to some degree been lacking, to attain, the democracy democ-racy which they claim is as sincere as ours, whether they are under the oppressors' heel, as Holland is, or are maintaining a lopsided, precarious precari-ous neutrality like Spain, or even fighting against one of the Allies like Finland. (Finland is not at war with any country but Russia.) I think it is also evidence of the growing certainty of the part of the small nations, even those surrounded surround-ed by Nazi bayonets, that it is only a question of time until the United Nations will triumph. And they are afraid that war hatreds or indifference indiffer-ence to the fate of the little nations will dominate the peace. They are afraid most of all that the United States will withdraw from the scene as we did after the last war leaving only a blueprint for peace, the League of Nations, and no power to enforce its decisions. The Atlantic Charter to them is not a very specific document. Newspaper Man- And War Hero You have no idea how many farmers farm-ers are in the aviation corps. Neither had I until I talked with a small town boy. I have mentioned him in this column before. It was an interview I had with Sergt. Robert Golay, printer's devil and hero of the first American unified uni-fied flight over enemy territory in Europe the now famous raid over Holland on July fourth for which I young Golay, aerial machine gunner, with others, was decorated. Golay is now instructing other small (and large) town boys in the art in which he has become proficient, pro-ficient, technically he is an "armorer" "armor-er" or so started on his military career. Before he went into the army, Golay was a newspaper man a small town newspaper man, which means an "all-around" one. Not just a reporter an all-around newspaper man on the Fredonia Daily Herald. Bob was a composer on the floor, was getting pretty good with a linotype lino-type machine. Of course, like all newsmen in a town of five thousand he sold a little advertising, collected bills, made out statements, wrote sports and covered an -occassional wedding. He was trying to make himself a newspaper man so that later he could work his way through Kansas university. The Background A printer has to be nimble-fingered. nimble-fingered. He has to be precise. Bob wasn't thinking of that when he decided to get into the war. What he really was thinking of was all those flights in barnstorming planes that he had taken at the county fair and anywhere he could get when he had the two dollars for a ride. He was thinking of the Schneider cup races and the other flights he had followed, of Byrd's trip to the Antarctic and the stories of Lindbergh's Lind-bergh's early career. But naturally he asked the advice of his boss, Ben Hudson, who is publisher of the Herald. Hudson is a veteran of World War I. He served in the infantry. I don't know, but maybe the air corps is as far as you can get from the infantry in-fantry among the combatant forces, Hudson recommended the former. So Bob went to Chanute Field in Illinois and signed up. He soon became be-came an armorer and went to England Eng-land as part of the aviation ground force. Gunners have to know about guns and be able to demonstrate. Bob could. Gunners have to volunteer volun-teer for the job. They aren't assigned. as-signed. Bob did and was accepted. That's how he happened to be in the turret when the U. S. air corps unit made its first independent raid over occupied Europe. And because of "coolness" under enemy fire, they gave him a medal and a pair of gunner's wings. Golay is going to have a tour of duty instructing for a while. When he doesn't know. He'll be glad, he says, to go anywhere in this "wonderful world" he's ordered, "but" (and there was a serious look in his brown eyes in spite of the smile, when he said it) "I'm a small town boy and I like it." "Like being back home," said Sergt. Robert L. Golay when he obliged the photographer by returning return-ing to the type case he gave up for a machine gun. WPA Nursery Schools Six million dollars, earmarked by congress in the 1942-43 WPA Appropriation Appro-priation act for extension of WPA nursery schools, will make possible the release of more than 50,000 women wom-en for vital war work, according to Mrs. Florence Kerr, WPA assistant commissioner. "In peacetime, WPA nursery schools were limited to children of low-income families who could not afford to pay even a small amount for child care, but In response to the more urgent demand, emphasis for some months has been placed on service to children in war production pro-duction areas," Mrs. Kerr explained. ex-plained. "Without nursery school service, it would be impossible to utilize the labor of many women who today are performing tasks essential es-sential to the war effort. Parents who are making good wages pay for this service in the WPA nursery schools to their children on a sliding scale commensurate with their ability." The current program, initiated in 1933, today serves about 55,000 children chil-dren in 1,250 nursery schools, Mrs. Kerr said. Approximately 300 locations loca-tions in defense areas, where large numbers of mothers have entered industry, in-dustry, already are being benefited. Mrs. Kerr estimates that some 1,200 additional nursery schools will have been established for children of working mothers by the end of '42. |