Show weekly news analysis democrats meet amid rumbles of naval action in west indies by roger EDITORS NOTE when opinions at r expressed in in these colun columns iDs they ste are those of tie the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper STORMY ISLAND martinique ott on spot in chicago the democratic convention was meeting to nominate the 1940 candidates in martinique american airships previously sold to france formed the prime reason for a british blockade and the rush of several american destroyers to the scene for observation what had the one event to do with the other much since the monroe doctrine occupied both the attention of the platform makers at chicago and the foreign departments of several nations A rather pointed exchange 0 of viewpoints on the monroe doctrine was made between secretary of state hull and the hitler foreign office europe for europeans america for americans the berlin statement seemed to say skeptics were not reassured they believe they already saw evidence of fifth column work in some of the americas the entire episode also prompted much isolation talk in the U S and threats of the formation of a third party avowedly isolationist were heard U S CAMPAIGN Un warming arming up now that the democrats have met in convention the campaign is due to warm up plenty with or without a third party ticket right up to the convention opening senator wheeler of montana kept right on saying he would seek the democratic nomination at chicago no matter what roosevelt was up to john lewis of the C 1 I 0 thought that wheeler was the only man who could beat willkie wheeler felt apparently patently ly that both roosevelt and willkie were interventionists and that he had inherited the classic mantle of the late senator borah and the magnificent elder lafollette wendell willkie tried to show himself democratic of course with a small D he limited campaign contributions to and no more than 10 apiece in cash he said he wanted no cash contributions from corporations and asked tor for a hurricane of one dollar bills he added that he going to reward his wealthier backers with diplomatic jobs or anything else like that congressman joseph W martin jr of massachusetts republican leader ot of the house was Will kies kles NAMES N A M E S in the news george bernard shaw thought that hitler should be supplied by england with food so they could all fight it out to a finish was G B S turning into an insular war hawk aa C cross eyed ben turpin plenty beloved died in hollywood at the age of 71 C L pat mckenna died too he had been white house doorkeeper door keeper from roosevelt to roosevelt he was 65 everybody that knew him liked him C max alax aitken son of the british hearst lord beaverbrook Beaver brook a self made canadian won the distinguished flying cross for double cross ing four german aviators he shot them all down or at least that was his story british flyers have shot down german planes in or around the british isles since the start of the war germany demanded that the no nor r depose their king haakon VII who had fled to england the ex allies previously deposed bel king leopold and so the esq UA D E lopie J ewari COBB sq mi population tion WEST liibbe 0 imenes ayi aea 93 sq mi I 1 at bort 5 MARTINI UE po uia tion here you see martinique uncomfortably close to the panama canal and the united states here there had been tran shipped U S manu fractured airplanes for france before that country succumbed to the hitler juggernaut here british war vessels were maintaining a blockade to keep the planes from falling to germany and here american naval craft were dispatched to make observations here was a new and complex angle to the monroe doctrine I 1 selection for campaign manager when the democratic convention opened jim farley aside from presidential talk was also discussed as prospective head of a new york big league baseball team at that time there was little belief he would again accept the national chairmanship which he held since 1932 II 11 ENGLISH WAR extraordinary this is a most peculiar war russia dips in and out olit of it at will against the poles against the baits against the rumanians against the finns against the capitalists of the world italy stays out talks big and then stabs a man in the back although some claimed vociferously it was tactless of mr roosevelt to put it that way but there were stranger things than that your correspondent was the first new york radio commentator to predict flatly that france would quit the british and make a separate peace with hitler there was nothing very novel about that the british army sent only 10 divisions men to france and then lost 1000 royal cannon and all the royal tanks french conscripts were twice the age of the british conscripts and there was the age old crowned heads kept a falling england was packed with them C earl harrison philadelphia attorney got the job for fingerprinting finger printing aliens and registering them under the new federal law which begins to operate by september 1 harri son said no witch hunting and planned an extensive alien educational program fl L G vernor rogers was the first man to advocate willkie for president according to an adequate researcher rogers is a new york syndicate executive he did it in a letter of march 3 1939 which would make him the ultra original will king there are however plenty of other candidates for the no 1 will king job fl airs Mr sWendell wendell willkie said that mr wendell willkie liked fried chicken and apple pie mrs tells mr that apple pie is bad for him she like it much friction between the french and british officers then the unbelievable happened war broke out between old marshal petain and winston churchill it was over the french navy fourth largest in the world it was to be de mobilized for duration of the war according to the armistice terms but the british did not believe it so they attacked the french fleet at oran in algeria and also at alexandria egypt the british sank french battleships seized many more of them and killed about 1000 french sailors it was a rather ghastly business the french were furious and petain broke off relations with england the germans sat back and smiled with satisfaction so did the italians whose heroic mediterranean fleet took absolutely no part in the tragic battle of oran things were going from bad to worse background there has always been a pro brit ish and an anti british faction in french politics through the the anti british group were in power and france and germany were on very decent terms in 1904 the pro british faction got control and agreed to the entente cordiale with edward VII ot of england this led directly into the first world war during this war clemenceau led the pro british faction and caillaux led the anti british group clemenceau put caillaux in jail for advocating an early peace the pro britons called the anti britons defeatists anglo french victory in 1918 made the pro britons stronger than ever but the antis were gathering strength with the collapse of 1940 they came back into power for the first time in 36 years since 1904 As to the french people they are divided and probably have no special love for either big neighbor HOME FOLKS an indian named rain in the face a full blooded sioux with a super aristocratic name was pinched in central park new york he got a suspended sentence on a charge of washing cars in that sylvan glade of sun and shadow they arrested wilhelm kunze fuehrer of the bund since the previous arrest of fritz kuhn two other bundis ts were arrested with kunze on a charge of wearing uniforms of 0 a foreign nature and circulating cu racial hate literature PARIS TODAY no glamour paris the reports said was not so glamorous these days the french cops and firemen still were on duty but something was gone one thing that was gone was two thirds of the population which was scattered all around france the french municipal administration carried on but three german colonels headed the three police departments in the cafes the german soldiers sang lieder there was a blackout at night and a curfew at 10 p in lutetia Parisi orum as the romans called the place did not like that curfew once there were a dozen paris papers now there were four le matin paris coir and two new ones one of them anti semitic all were anti british the paris banks were closed and the german troops were always buying tobacco beer hard stuff and chocolates A german movie theater was running for the field grays and some of the german officers brought their families to town there seemed to be very little friction between invaders and inhabitants the germans were reported especially as purchasers of picture postcards and silk stockings anglo french naval warfare helped the situation along they said DEFENSES the program for defenses passed the mark which is a lot of money said the national economy league confusion still seems the order of the day in washington the navy department contracted for 44 vessels including 13 submarines 11 cruisers 20 destroyers and a seaplane tender this meant a two ocean navy or in other words two navies it meant a 70 per cent increase in the navy in the next six years the indicated lineup was as follows united states two navies next japan then england italy and russia france and germany now have virtually no navies to accomplish anything with the rest of the worlds navies are so much petty junk and why they have them at all nobody knows the proverbial swiss and irish navies continue to non exist meanwhile the american national debt went up to almost 43 billions and we spent started in 1910 t wendell willkie paul mcnutt life is a funny proposition after all said a popular song in the early part of the century it was sung rather lustily about 1910 the time that wendell willkie republican presidential candidate and paul mcnutt democratic aspirant were students at indiana university they were at opposite political ends then too only then it was willkie who was socialistic and leader of the rabble the barbs while the mcnutt faction was the so called aristocratic and greek letter fraternity group in Will kies unior senior year however they effected peace willme willkie becoming a member of mc nutts butts frat the betas in 1940 the frat brothers are again fighting each other politically nearly 10 billions during the fiscal year when roosevelt came into office the national debt was a 20 billions unemployment r wo y depression and adolf hitler hay aza come high plattsburg PLATTS BURG N Y once again yet some civilians who believed in preparedness went to plattsburg Platts burg N Y for a month of military training it was to be at their own expense it was a revival of the platts burg idea of 1915 16 this 1940 bunch were between 25 and 50 years of age it cost them apiece at 20 cents per meal some of them were first world war officers winthrop rockefeller grandson of old john D and son of john D jr was put on kitchen police duty which was abolished in the british army some time back there were tour four Platts burgers per tent and many them were wall street specimens specimen sN the equivalent the coffee mugs had no handles newbold morris president of the new york city council was there said col james muir in command of the platts burg barracks this is a fine body of men PEACE 1940 in the air there were recurring rumors ot of peace which kept on raising its 11 ugly head the german attack on england had been delayed from day to day and nobody quite knew why chamberlain remained on the job in the british government and so did other appeasers appease rs sir samuel hoare new british ambassador to spain was friendly with laval of france dictator franco at madrid marshal petain and certain conservative serva tive elements in germany the argument went something like this england was too small and highly built up and populated to fight in germany was tired too and its losses had not been light america was not coming in and russia was not going to start a balkan war or so it seemed to the critics the british empire as such really was not in much da danger nor was the third reich nor the united states peace in our time began to look like about the first of september to set an approximate date in other words just a year of war A rough and bloody presidential election cost the lives of more than persons in riots through mexico all sorts of customary threats were L circulating willy nilly in the highly charged mexican air manuel camacho was pseudo radical and anti american juan almazan was pseudo conservative and varied from pro american to very anti anti grin go medicos cos national sport is twisting the U S capitalists tail with one variation taking john bull by the horns rumania went completely nazi with king carol still on his horse there were anti semitic riots laws and british technicians were fired from the oil fields and elsewhere many of the rumanian nazis wanted to oust carol entirely the radical hindu patriot subhas chandra bose was arrested in calcutta by the british canada was about to issue a lic lick hitler stamp with a caricature dria c the little corporal in a national drive for war work funds sponsored in toronto and d halifax it was a cute idea the british and italians continued to argue as to whether air marshal italo balbo the last of the three musketeers had been een killed in action as seemed likely or was murdered by the minions of mussolini tough general graziani took balbos place as governor of italian north africa released by western newspaper VW anlon |