Show weekly news analyse U S discusses peace allies will impose if hitler Is de defeated bated by joseph W la bine EDITORS NOT EWhen when opinions opinion are r expressed in ia these columns they the are those of the sews news analyst and not cot necessarily of et the newspaper THE WAR good start 1 7 I regret that after 2000 years of mankind sunday morning should find the prime minister in the position of announcing that men are on the eve of living like beasts such were the sentiments ot of john mcgovern leader of parliaments independent labor party ills his was the lone dissent that fateful morning when neville chamberlain his peace efforts at a hopeless end declared war on germany A few hours later france followed suit and by nightfall most of the british empire was also in line by that time the rest of the wor world ld clamored to declare its neutrality too busy was neville chamberlain to notice that barbara hutton fled the romantic isle of capri or that american radio spon x THE PRIME MINISTER INISTER 51 A fine sunday morning SOTS sors were about to complain over too many program interruptions for CBS and NBC news bulletins nor did he notice that thousands of lon dons pet dogs and cats were painlessly exterminated lest they prove a burden during evacuation said one weeping pet owner its a damn shame it ought to be hitler on the end of this leash such was the man on the streets background for war since 1936 he had accepted its inevitability yet the awful reality of legalized brute force somehow left him benumbed he watched without passion as brit ains popular winston churchill and anthony eden both toes foes of appeasement pea were given cabinet posts to solidify public sentiment he slowly built a halo around the chronology these were the events and dates that led to war in 1939 AUGUST 21 german soviet aggression non pact announced day after trade pact is signed AUGUST 23 hitler expands demands on poland which are refused AUGUST 27 hitler outlines policy to french premier dala dier AUGUST 28 britain stands firm on negotiation for all points AUGUST 2930 29 30 notes exchanged but peace dwindles AUGUST 31 hitler invades poland without declaring war SEPTEMBER I 1 france britain send ultimatums ultima tums demanding germany withdraw troops from poland SEPTEMBER 3 receiving no answer britain declares war at 11 a m france following at 5 p m 1 head of prime minister chamberlain whose frantic umbrella waving of the past two years had at least postponed the war he may have wept over the news that french troops marched to the front almost tenderly hating war yet fervent in their ambition to smash hitler and all that he represents but as such things happen british and french men on the street were whipped into war frenzy the next morning steaming to montreal the liner athenia was torpedoed off ireland with 1450 refugee passengers aboard providing enough provocation to make even the tender french soldiers hate germans in general as well as der fuehrer paris and london heard polish civilians were suffering frightfully as adolf hitler headed for the eastern front and the first major battle just getting underway in upper silesia after two days of fighting the world war of 1939 had developed into a decidedly unorthodox conflict british warplanes war planes flew over nuremberg but dropped nothing heavier than propaganda leaflets urging the german people to discard der fuehrer nazi antiaircraft anti aircraft guns failed to bark back the same day french soldiers on the maginot line were reported to have set placards atop their pillboxes pill boxes carrying this message to german soldiers in the west wall we wont shoot if you dont but there was good evidence that this evident lack of hostilities appeared only on paper the lid of censorship clamped down over both france and britain screening what the french war office called contacts on the western front all three major powers were evidently reluctant to invite revenge by bombing london paris and berlin yet the germans admitted british bombers had attacked their fleet at wil helm shaven where and how if france and britain had any cut and dried plan for rushing aid to their beleaguered beleaguer ed ally poland they took their time executing it best guesses held both democracies were stymied not only by hitler but by the silence 0 of other key nations germanys germanas Germ anys west wall and frances maginot line apparently made the western front a bulwark of stati cism both other routes of getting to poland were bere iere perilous via the baltic though british battleships tle ships blockaded that sea a baltic expedition would be no pushover troop and supply ships must fight the famous and pestiferous submarines must hold their breath against cunningly placed mines and must land at gdynia polands bolands Po lands only port which might be in german hands by that time landing against an enemy has always been a major military problem and already the polish corridor has been nipped by german troops not only that but russia has naval strength in the baltic and might decide to join the cause via the mediterranean strangely silent as war opened were both of hillers Hit lers erstwhile continental friends spain and italy the allies hoped hillers Hit lers sellout sell out to russian communism would keep francisco franco and italis benito mussolini out of the conflict but no one could tell despite neutrality proclamation and italis resumption of sea traffic with mediterranean neutrality french british aid to poland might go through the mediterranean and black seas land at Ru manias port of constanta and thence reach warsaw but rumania like all balkan countries was intent on neutrality at home in the U S which has watched Eu ropes wars tor for almost years observers were far enough from the forest to see the trees though president roosevelt pointed out no american has the moral right to capitalize on the conflict every economist knew it would probably start a boom cash and carry neutrality would make the U S support britain and france which dominate the seas opening new markets for farm products and steel but such a neutrality would also accentuate the already marked U S sentiment against hitler confounding isolationists by making the nation a virtual silent ally of the ANTHONY EDEN winston churchill also came allies should enough american non combatants be killed via torpedoes the flame of 1916 and 1917 might again blot out reason hence the president urged the U S to weigh its facts with care end next to neutrality the most moot question among americans concerns the eventual end of hostilities no longer does anyone but a fanatical anti german see justice in the versailles treaty of 20 years ago which wrung lifeblood from the reich and placed it in such dire straits that a hitler was welcomed with open arms but will versailles be repeated unless russia jumps to ger banys aid unless mussolini and franco junk their apparent neutrality a warto the end would probably find germany collapsing under economic stress hitler no 1 would be vanquished but can anything short of another peace without honor such as woodrow wilson suggested keep a hitler no 2 from rising out of the ruins PANAMA CANAL safeguarded extraordinary steps have been taken to guard against espionage and possible sabotage at the panama canal the nations lifeline of defense washington officials stressed that the assignment of additional guards at strategic locks and control houses is purely precautionary and that there has been no indications of foreign plots against the canal the safeguards coincide with start of a huge defense program including construction of another air base extra antiaircraft anti aircraft and coast batteries enlarged garrisons and supplementary locks the posting of extra guards at vital spots along the canal is part of the general preparedness pa redness developed by the army and navy to meet an emergency details of the new vigilance measures are being treated as military secrets similar steps to guard against foreign spies and sabotage have been taken during recent months in aircraft factories arsenals and other government or private plants engaged in manufacture of war materials ASIA about face most embarrassed by dussias Rus sias aggression non treaty with adoll adolf hitler were communists in other lands who talked themselves silly trying to justify their new bedfellow socialism second greatest embarrassment ras tell fell to japan which only a few weeks ago was busy insulting U S british and french interests in the orient confident of her a anti nt 1 Commit ern pact with italy and germany still more confident after she signed a trade treaty with germany tokyo suddenly found herself friendless when the reich adopted comrade stalin highly nervous was the japanese pre press ss as european hostilities got underway while war planes continued to bomb in an ain effort to close the chinese war promptly the tokyo cabinet sat in extraordinary session splendid isolation was the advice of tokyo newspapers newspaper s but there was good evidence japan was willing to turn about and woo tor for democracies friendship BUSINESS outlook good war conditions are accepted today as a nominal business factor rather than a series of of f temporary economic shocks as has been the case in the past according to the magazine banking the magazine reported a general hopeful outlook for business in spite of the war conditions business is beginning to see daylight and solid ground although althou gh stir still wary it stated improvement has been fairly general but statistically trade still falls short of levels reached two years ago the magazine cited four factors which it said are responsible for quite a noticeable spirit of hopefulness on all sides of these it stated one is the perfectly obvious change tor for the better that has come over public opinion regarding business A second factor is the unexpected nature of the improvement and consistent activity of the summer months third on the list of enczur encouraging aging items is the low point of most inventories it said adding that the present business reaction to war conditions as a normal business factor constituted the fourth POLITICS neutrality well remembered in in washington Is the hot july night franklin roosevelt called the senate foreign relations committee into his white house oval room discovered he had insufficient votes to force a change in the present neutrality law and sent the senators away with ac that full responsibility tor for the failure rested on their shoulders even better remembered is the august day at hyde park when franklin roosevelt tirades against an adjourned congress pointing out it had made two enormous bets 1 that his lend spend bill was needless because private enterprise could do the job alone 2 that no neutrality revision was needed because there would be no war in europe before next january when congress meets again by september 1 tour four months before the next normal session the president might have boasted that congress had already lost one bet there was war in europe see column one which gave mr roosevelt and secretary of state cordell hull a severe headache under the present neutrality law they had no alternative but to declare an embargo on implements of war for belligerents just as good a neutrality tra lity in the eyes of roosevelt hull and sen key pittman chairman of the senate committee is the cash and carry variety un der which any belligerent able to reach a U S port could buy and carry off all the implements ot of war he wanted not at all impossible as war broke out was the special congressional session mr roosevelt has long threatened in such an eventual eventuality it but if he thought congress w give him a free hand indeed 1 it thought this free hand might help him keep the U S out of war and th thus us pave the th e way f tor or a t third hird term in 1940 he was badly mistaken gallup polls of public sentiment found such an assumption wrong on two counts 1 last april a gallup poll showed 57 per cent favoring a change in neutrality by early september it had dropped to 50 per cent indicating the nation was less and less sure that the administration is right 2 also in early september another poll showed 71 per cent favored a special congressional session in case of war comments revealing that the public would feel safer that way whether this sentiment discredited the P dents ability constituted a voi vosa g confidence in his rebellious congress neither or both was any blodys guess emphatically minus political import however were the steps mr I 1 ft IZ KEY PITTMAN cut but does the public agree roosevelt took clamped down immediately was the arms embargo confiscated were the passports of 0 all americans returning from europe while the state department terminated all U S tourist travel to the continent belatedly came the official proclamation of american neutrality next day the navy department part ment pondered the advisability of assigning naval convoys to mer chantlen chant men transporting U S citizens from war zones at the same time attorney general frank murphy began seeking ways to tighten statutes regulating profiteering during war time still to come were new farm policies to deal with the new situation though an advisory advery council was being formed vid drw AVIATION record in 1937 san Francis cos frank fuller won the bendix trophy by racing from burbank to cleveland in 7 hours 54 minutes last year he finished second to jacqueline cochran who nevertheless failed to break his record this year frank fuller came back not only winning Yi nning the race but breaking his own record only 7 hours 1 14 4 minutes 19 seconds out of burbank he brought his two year old plane down at cleveland refueled and raced on to bendix N J thus winning total prize money of next day as the races got under way at cleveland 31 year old lee williams of redondo beach calif CalA crashed to his death in t 0 mile greve trophy race whit tas d as won by a fellow californian art chester released by western newspaper anlon |