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Show SEDITION: Dictator in Democracy WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne War Action Shifted to Balkan States As Hitler Moves Toward Dardanelles; British Forces Sweep On in Africa; Churchill Plea: Send Tools, Not Men (FDITOIl'S NOTE When opinions are expressed tn these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necearUy of this newspaper.) (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) I s ? t ... i '', - " , i I - " A. out of the other side of their mouth. King Eoris, who had ridiculed the German army, was silent Across the Waters On the other side of the Mediterranean, Mediter-ranean, in Africa, the British were sweeping the Italian troops before them. It appeared as though the rival armies would hold securely the opposite shores of the great inland sea. Marshall Grazianl and his Fascist legions were retreating so fast that British armies had chased them out of virtually all of Libya and were faced with the question of pursuit APPEAL: Hut Not for Men Winston Churchill in an address to the empire, but phrased also for U. S. consumption, said the British did not need American armies this year, next year or ever as far as he could foresee. But England does need munitions, he said. "Give us the tools, we'll finish the job," he appealed. There was Indication that the tools were arriving. In January U. S. factories had a quota of 700 war-planes war-planes and at midmonth expectations expecta-tions were that the quota would not be met by 30 per cent. But this was an error. Survey showed 1,000 planes were produced. If half of them went to England, as the President Presi-dent promised, England was getting what it needed. The amounts will increase. But Adolf Hitler was carrying out his threat to "torpedo" American help to Britain. The planes are being be-ing flown to England, via Iceland. German bombers raided Iceland and bombed the airfield there. Iceland is 1,000 miles from the closest German Ger-man air base. In four more hours the swastika-emblemed craft could reach the North American continent. Senate Goes On In Washington the house passed the lease-lend bill for aid to Britain. The senate began discussion with the expectation that talk would not cease before the end of February. "If this keeps up," said Senator Glass, "the Germans will be here before we get done debating." Home from a survey of war-torn Britain came Wendell Willkie to ap- l Li ; 1 ; ; I H hi -Si i , i i A ' r '.3 FULGENCIO BATISTA For him, two events one blessed. Fulgencio Batista, president of Cuba, is a study in contrasts. In 1933, he organized a revolution, squashed the rule of aristocrats. At any time thereafter he could have become president. He chose instead, to accept promotion from army sergeant ser-geant to colonel and head the army. But under his behind-the-scenes dictatorial regime, Cuban citizens had their civil rights extended, schools were built, peons given land and the national administration put on a business basis. Last year Batista Ba-tista decided to seek the presidency. He could have seized the office with little trouble. Instead he resigned from the army, campaigned in American style and gave the island its quietest election in history. But there has been unrest in Cuba, and the crop of rumors of new revolutions revo-lutions have been on the usual weekly week-ly quota. Last summer when Rotary International held its convention in Cuba, many delegates were so impressed im-pressed by the rumors that they went to bed each night with trepedi-tion. trepedi-tion. Many of the delegates from the United States came home alarmed. They told of Nazi penetration pene-tration in the island, how newspapers newspa-pers openly confessed German subsidy, sub-sidy, how German lotteries were being be-ing operated, with the winners impressed im-pressed the largess came from the German government. They said German U-boats were being supplied sup-plied along isolated spots of Cuban territory. The facts may be true or otherwise, but many delegates were impressed. Through it all, Fulgencio Batista showed no signs of being alarmed. Then suddenly as this winter's tourists tour-ists were at their height, one night they saw sandbags being erected around the presidential palace and machine guns being mounted on public pub-lic buildings. Batista was holding conference with his leading military commanders. Batista announced that all civil rights were suspended. The following day a Cuban army plane landed at Miami, Fla., and there alighted CoL Jose E. Pedraza, chief of the Cuban army; Lieut. Col. Angel A. Gonzales, commander-in-chief of the navy, and Col. Bernardo Garcia, chief of the national police. With them were their families. Back in Havana, Batista announced an-nounced they had resigned after he caught them in certain unnamed seditious se-ditious acts. Civil rights were returned re-turned to the people. Cuba was quiet again. There was still more rejoicing the following day. Senora Eliza Godi-nez Godi-nez de Batista, wife of the president, presi-dent, gave birth to a daughter in the presidential palace. President Batista Ba-tista announced immediately that every child born on the island that day would receive a ten-pesos note, and a five-pesos savings account in the Cuban Postal Savings. An average av-erage of 350 babies are born each day in Cuba. STRIKE: , But Not at Once Demands for vacations with pay rejected, executives of 14 railway labor unions have notified President Roosevelt that a vote to strike will be taken during February. There will be no strike at once. The existing ex-isting agreement between the unions un-ions and the nation's Class 1 railroads, rail-roads, hiring about 750,000 men, provides pro-vides for mediation machinery. But even that period is likely to be exceeded, George M. Harrison, head of a committee of union leaders, lead-ers, said about 30 days will be necessary nec-essary to take the Vote. Should a strike be authorized by the ballot, Harrison would fix the date for it. MISCELLANY: C When Jacksonville, Fla., sees snow it's a rare day. Until this year the last flakes were seen in 1936. Since 1871 there have been just 10 days on which snowfall was recorded. This year is one for the record, snow arriving in thin flakes on February 9 and continuing for almost an hour. C Mr. and Mrs. Nick Brown of Fargo, Far-go, N. D., became the parents of quadruplets. As commercial offers came in, their father went into court and had the family physician and himself named guardians. The court also will pass on any contracts or agreements offered by agents. C The Larkins and the Weirichs of Memphis, Tenn., like to keep their marriages in the family. Several Sev-eral months ago two of the Weirich brothers married two of the Larkin girls. Now Hazel, last of the Larkin Lar-kin girls, has married you guessed it VirgiL last of the Weirich boys. ADMIRAL DARLAN Marshal Petain was bowing. Into French Tunis. There Gen. Max-ime Max-ime Weygand waited with 450,000 French troops. Which way he would swing was not clear. But in Vichy aged Marshal Petain was bowing to the instructions of the Fascist-minded Fascist-minded Admiral Darlan and it was believed Pierre Laval might soon return from Paris to take over the helm of government. Spain's General Gen-eral Franco was en route through southern Europe for a conference with Premier Mussolini. It was said Mussolini would make a supreme effort ef-fort to get Spain into the war on the side of the Axis and permit an attack at-tack on Gibraltar. In eastern Africa, the Italians also were losing fast. Hemmed in on all sides by British troops and Ethiopian warriors they knew not which way to retreat. Meanwhile British bombers raided raid-ed Italy. They dropped 300 tons of bombs and naval shells upon Genoa where Winston Churchill said a Nazi army was preparing to embark for Africa. The spring campaign had begun. OH-GAY-PAY-OO: In the U.S. A chambermaid -in a second class Washington hotel opened a guest's room and found a man sprawled over the bed in a pool of blood. She called police. They found a pistol in the man's hands and notes in Russian, Rus-sian, German and French, signed Samual Ginsberg. A certificate of suicide was issued and police prepared pre-pared to write off the case after notifying no-tifying a New York lawyer who was named in the dead man's notes. But it wasn't that easy. The hotel guest was identified as Gen. Walter G. Krivitsky, former high ranking authority in the Soviet secret service. serv-ice. An early Communist, General Krivitsky had taken part in many secret negotiations. Once he was chief of the Communist party's secret se-cret police in western Europe. General Krivitsky had incurred the displeasure of the Stalin regime. When his associates went before the firing squad he fled to America. Here in a series of magazine articles arti-cles he began to expose what he said were the plans of the Communist Commu-nist Internationale for world revolution. revolu-tion. He foretold the agreement that later was signed by Stalin and Hitler, he said the American Communist Com-munist party was under orders from Moscow, he named some of their followers in the U. S. army and navy. Since then he has appeared before be-fore the Dies committee with additional addi-tional revelations. But he told close friends that his life was in danger. He traveled under cover and hid his wife and young son in isolated areas. Just a week before his death he told friends that the most dreaded dread-ed killer of the Russian secret police, the OGPU (pronounced Oh-Gay-Pay-OO) had arrived in America. WINSTON CHURCHILL . . Wot tliis year, next year, or ever." pear before the senators. He said Britain can halt an invasion. But he urged that the U. S. send them more destroyers. He said five to ten a month will be necessary to keep the sealanes open. SPRING: In the Balkans Spring and Adolf Hitler came to the Balkans. The fuehrer's great criticism of World war tactics was that Germany permitted itself to become involved on two fronts at the same time. He has always avoided this. Whether his movement into Bulgaria Bul-garia and toward the Dardanelles was an indication that he did not intend to move against England immediately im-mediately was not clear. But It seemed apparent that Germany's next campaign would be toward the Mediterranean. For months hundreds of thousands of German troops have been moved into Rumania. The revolution ttet ousted King Carol put Nazis in control con-trol of the government These native na-tive Nazis quickly put themselves under order of Germany. Rumanian oilfields and railroads became subject sub-ject to their direction. First news of the infiltration of German soldiers into Rumania came in a speech by Winston ChurchilL Sofia denied it, but within 24 hours neutral sources made it known that thousands of German soldiers in uniform, but wearing civilian overcoats, over-coats, were passing the border into Bulgaria. Then came swarms of Nazi transport planes with parachute para-chute troops. Bulgarian railroads suddenly restricted civilian traffic. Bulgaria had depended upon "Russia "Rus-sia for protection. It was a false hope. Moscow sent an envoy to tell Bulgar ministers not to expect them to fight. Bulgaria and Turkey, who had spoken big but not mobilized their troops, suddenly began to talk |
