| Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS by edward C wayne seven billion dollars to at aid d britain Is first step under lease Leas alend eLend act 15 england admits spring blitz Is here re following terrific raids on london L n EDITORS NOTE when opinions are expressed in these columns they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of thi newspaper released by western newspaper union 17 k 1 ilk f 4 I 1 o 4 0 VICHY FRANCE frenchmen of a few years ago would never have hav fir fl reamed earned that this scene might take place in their homeland but here her it is gen neubronn neubrunn Neu bronn von eisenburg who as nazi inspector keeps a sharp eye on left of the french army salutes as he reviews a i french honor guard on his arrival at vichy BRITISH aid A id into law under the eyes of watchful photographers tog raphers president roosevelt wielded six pens made the british aid bill called by its opponents the lend spend give bill and then turned in his chair and told newsmen he would ask for as the initial appropriation under the measure i while this announcement struck with bombshell bomb shell force as the greatest american peacetime peace time appropriation request in history the congress apparently was willing to go ahead and match the presidents desire for speed with some action of its own this was evident when the bill returned from senate to house with an even dozen amendments attached representative martin of massachusetts minority leader jumped to his feet pleaded for unity and for action and received a most unusual tribute from his colleagues he received what is known as a standing ovation from the entire house the lower branch of the congress responded respond ed to this brief talk by voting to 71 to accept the changes put in by th the upper house then vice president wallace and speaker sam rayburn put their penned signatures to the printed measure and off it went to the president hardly had it become law and within an hour after the president had asked for the seven billions statisticians were busy trying to tell the public what this amount meant in purchased goods and services one of these put it this way it would equal a strip of 10 bills reaching times around the world it would buy empire state buildings at 50 million each or it would build bridges at or dread at or 2350 submarines light tanks 28 four motor bombers also would pay the entire cost of public education in the U S for three years or provide a 50 U S bond for every man woman and child thus given a visual picture of what the sum meant it was figured that the first job would be for the president to provide tor for england as much as possible under the law of the existing military and naval equipment up to the limit set in the bill it was pointed out that this amount would come out of the seven billion total for as soon as say of aid had been sent from existing equipment the army or navy would be reimbursed that amount and would then be able to purchase replacements the rest of the will go into purchase contracts for eventual aid to britain greece or other nations which are opposing nazi aggression gres sion these contractual obligations must be on the dotted line by 1943 but can be carried out through 1946 LONDON hit flit hard terrific series of air attacks on 1 jEn england gIand especially on london plus tremendous losses at sea brought forth the frank statement in com mons that the spring blitz promised by hitler was now fully under way government leaders expressed in the outcome balancing against ship losses unannounced and damage inflicted on german naval and undersea strength not to mention loss of planes Y I 1 more than italian and nazi aircraft have been downed with a loss of about 2200 british airplanes the air ministry said since the beginning of the war this it was claimed is a significant ant and important inroad into the first line strength of both air armadas but a more severe blow to the italians with about 1500 planes downed than to germany with about put out of action the naval chiefs in london emphasized the british need of ships particularly ticul arly naval vessels paid a glowing tribute to the work of the 50 former U S destroyers obtained in swaps for bases and one authority said we have enough trained men to man the S navy if it could be turned over to us not that he meant he said that the navy should be turned over but he pointed the manpower that britain ain has trained as compared with the available ships As to the effects of air raids on london and other british cities the loss of life again was be becoming becoming coLing heavy guardedly it was disclosed that buckingham palace again had been struck portsmouth was a special attack object and there was heavy loss of life there 1 STRIKES grow apace As labor troubles multiplied in the united states in defense and projects including the huge bus drivers walkout in new york it was reported that william S knudsen finally has been driven to considering the draft industry provision in the powers of his office as production manager to end the allis chalmers affair among others increasing concern was shown by production chiefs in the national defense when figures showed a 27 per cent increase in strikes during the past 30 days this gave a disquieting tone to the situation over and beyond any single disturbance or group of troubles some of the danger spots were in the midwest some in the east the allis chaar ers strike was past a month and a half and still deadlocked when miss perkins sent john R steelman head of the conciliation service personally to direct a last minute effort to end the trouble before invoking the draft of industry which would take over the plant thus instantly outlawing the strike several plants of the international harvester company were down because of strikes the vital coal and steel industries were in the midst of threatening conferences between worker and employer the brill plant in philadelphia was down holding up a big ammunition order for shell casings there was an auto strike in oakland statistical review of the situation was headache enough for production chiefs the thel number of strikes in janary as compared with december being as against and the became more ominous when it was shown that the five year average for january was only and for december only total man days lost in january totaled as against lost in december and here the figures on past years was more favorable as the five year average of man days lost in january was TURKEY scene of bombing dramatic was the entrance of former bulgarian ambassador from england george W rendel into turkey after his flight from sofia rendel and his staff walked into the lobby of the pera palace hotel there there was a flash a roar and the cries of wounded and dying T the he smoke cleared away to find rendel still unhurt several members of his staff wounded and two men killed one of them a turkish secret service m man an assigned to guard the ambassador bas twenty three in all were wounded by the blast which badly wrecked the room in which the crowd was gathered but as in the munich bombing which hitler escaped the chief target of the turkish bomb mr rendel was unscratched his aides said there was no doubt that it was a deliberate attempt at assassination and its occurrence at the very time when turkey was debating its position in the expected forthcoming invasion of greece by the nazis I 1 served further to entrench istanbul on the front pages of the press gendels Ren dels attractive daughter 20 who was standing near the blast in the hotel lobby told the story in a few words when she said As far as I 1 could tell the floor just flew up she is a calm soul having driven her father through the streets of sofia during the german occupation in an automobile flying the british flag it was later revealed that an attempt was made to blow up the train on which rendel and his party were traveling to istanbul this was proven when it was found that the handbags which contained the explosive had traveled d on the train with the rendel party but failed to go off the nazis denied that the bombs had been planted on the train saying the rendel baggage had been loaded under the eyes of scores of gestapo agents however british sources later replied that another unexploded bomb had been found in baggage unloaded from the train JAPAN peace move whether it was under the frowning menace of axis guns both in the west and in the far east or whether it was sincere but noteworthy at any rate was the statement issued by the indo chinese french government following the ratification of the peace treaty with thailand siam in this peace treaty japan was the peacemaker and mediator back of her mediation efforts however was a huge fleet which was moved into waters off french indochina indo china during the height of the thailand indo chinese war reports from saigon when the peace was finally terminated giving thailand huge slices of indo chinese territory along the borders were that the peace was more satisfactory than the french government had hoped for it was stated that in saigon it was expected that even larger c ces s of territory would have had to have been made if japan had not intervened immediately foreign minister matsuoka announced that he would shatter japanese precedents by taking a trip to europe to confer with his axis partners von wiegand writing from shanghai saw in this project a chance that japan would seek axis particularly ticul arly nazi mediation in an effort to end the japanese chinese war |
