Show weekly news analysis U S extends its patrol to protect aid to britain shipments ity by edward C wayne EDITORS NOTE watal aben opinions are ar expressed in in these aie columns they are an those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper U US S ATTITUDE toward war in this country the reaction to the loss of the greek campaign was sharp the forces of the isolationists immediately took to the air held a giant mass meeting in new york which was marked by violence outside the hall and paced by charles A lindbergh took an 1 I told you so attitude urging the nation to believe that british defeat of the nazis was not only impossible but that british loss of the war was a certainty and that it if america gave S al k an K CHARLES A LINDBERGH ile he took the air all out aid to britain that we too would suffer through this defeat president roosevelt frankly infuriated furia ted by this attitude and these utterances had secretary hull and secretary knox take to the radio and prepare the way for a statement by the president which ripped the defeatists up the back and made it plain that the government would have none of this attitude the administration they said was frankly committed to all out aid to britain and would go its way toward this goal instead of retrenching tren ching on this policy as urged by the lindbergh coterie it was boldly announced that the government would extend its aid still more vigorously singling out lindbergh especially for administration ire the president in a press conference characterized him as an appeaser ana and defeatist and used the word copperhead in making a comparison with earlier days in american history aftermath of the presidents remarks regarding lindbergh was the news that he announced his resignation as a colonel in the U S army air corps reserve he said he was greatly disturbed at the implications made by the president regarding his loyalty toward the united states he had been an officer in the reserve air corps since 1927 year of historic flight to paris PATROL extended the navy said the president now was engaged in extending the neutrality patron 1000 miles out into the atlantic and that its protection to american shipping especially to vessels carrying aid to britain would know no boundaries on the seven seas this brought the question of convoys out into the open which the president had simply leaped over in his statement taking the stand that discussion of convoys was beside the point as he considered it the navys job to keep the waters 1000 miles off the american coast safe for all shipping at the same time he made the rather cryptic statement that he had information that the nazis already were setting foot on greenland and that the united states would deal with this phase of the situation which indeed brought the war mighty close to this country in the meantime newspapers took another poll of the senate on the question of convoys and found that body to be in favor of convoying supplies to britain though only by I 1 H I 1 G H L I 1 G H T S in U S defense news C L administrator henderson of the office of price administration and civilian supply requested manufacturers of farm implements not to increase the prices of farm machinery at this time mr henderson pointed out that in announcing the steel price schedule he had stressed the wide range of finished products of which steel is a part and the importance of maintaining stable prices in these finished products C L The th enady navy assigned assigned d to great britain 20 small fast torpedo boats under the lease lond lend program and secretary knox said U S and canadian officials are discussing a mutual program forthe construction in canadian shipyards of additional small craft for britain 41 commerce secretary jones speaking in new york said the nations defense effort is better than good but no matter how fast defense production climbs it will not be fast enough to meet the need nor to satisfy our state of mind C treasury secretary announced an agreement setting up a fund of contributed by the U S and contributed by chinese government banks to stabilize chinese currency A joint statement by mr and dr T V soong of the central bank of china described the agreement as a operative cooperative co agreement between friendly nations that are working together in many ways fl 4 the president issued a statement that the british red cross has ap pealed through the american red cross for up to 1000 young american doctors to serve in british military and civilian hospitals fl L deputy production director batt also speaking in new york asked the nations industry to do much more than it has in the defense enort effort and to do it without looking to see whether the oth other er fellow is doing his share mr batt said the public will have no sympathy with any halfhearted half hearted or faint defense efforts C L the war department appointed a 14 man civilian board to review amortization applications of industries receiving army defense contracts and seeking to write off against taxes the costs of added facilities the senate approved legislation authorizing the secretary of war to waive statutory requirements for performance bonds on de tense bense supply contracts fl L treasury secretary requested congress to extend to all government departments authority to award cost plus fixed fee contracts in order to 1 speed such contracts 2 spread defense work and 3 curtail free publicity of contracts awarded on competitive bidding a vote ot of 50 to 45 if convoying meant active part participation I pation in the war as many claimed the informal canvass of the senate showed the temper of congress at any rate included in the tentative list opposed to convoying conveying were 25 of the senates 28 23 republican members the only official act connected with the subject of convoying was the tobey resolution and they were rk 1 P 15 SECRETARY OF NAVY KNOX he took TO the air seen as supporters of this measure adding to this the nonintervention intervention non democrats and some other scattering votes and tobeys resolution which would forbid convoying conveying could only look for 45 votes the tobey move however was not considered so vital by some senators these holding that president Roosevel ts executive power as navy head would permit him to put a convoy plan into effect by executive order with no sanction by the senate or house asked or needed GREEKS out closing days of the greek campaign were stirring the british made a noble stand of three to four days at thermopylae pass histo historic ric rendezvous with heroism of leonidas in ancient days only to lose the pass after heroic resistance and after inflicting admittedly hea heavy vy casualties on the invading nazi hordes the second great stand was made on mount gerantia Geran eia the british high command after a careful advance study of the terrain finding places to defend that the germans had claimed were impossible there was hardly a question even in british and greek circles of making a successful stand but the valiant valant australian and new zealand soldiers fought a rear guard action that military men said would live in in history main objective of the british after the port of piraeus was shown to be impossible as an evacuation port was to gain the southern portions of greece and make the final stand on crete and other islands the flight of the government from athens prepared the greek people for the eventual occupation of the historic capital by the nazis yet the greeks with unswerving devotion to their cause seemed not dismayed by the loss of their capital but seemed willing to fight on to the end as did the british churchill churchill had prepared the british for the bad news of the greek campaign and toward the close athens dispatches frankly admitted that the final stages of the fighting were simply rear guard actions while there was again raised in england among the people the cry of too little and too late the people of australia seemed little inclined to criticize but on the other hand seemed proud of the achievement of their armies the loss of the greek campaign was more of a shock to those in the united states who had been hoping that american aid through the lease lend bill might turn the battle yet from more considered sources came the word that the greek defense should not be viewed in that light but rather from the standpoint of a general harassing and delaying action against germany three persons held that it should be taken into account how severe the nazi losses had been that they were heavy were frank admissions from berlin and how germany only had been able to win through enormous air superiority the cost to the nazis of having to transport food and men and munitions tor for the final weeks almost entirely by plane must have been enormous in fuel alone which germany was unable to spare the surprise expressed by king george of greece at the sudden surrender of the army of spirus which precipitated the close of the nazi greek campaign and just preceded the flight of the government to crete caused the commanders later to tell part of the story STRIKE situation president roosevelt rolled up his sleeves and sailed into the coal strike personally bidding fair to handle this as he had other problems under his personal urging negotiations were resumed and a settlement finally reached in the midst of all this particularly when the united automobile workers C 1 I 0 threatened to shut down 60 odd plants of general motors engaged in nearly half a billion of defense orders for motorized equipment came a vigorous outburst against secretary perkins the rumor was published that miss perkins resignation was on president Roosevel ts desk and one senator urged that if it were not true that secretary perkins should resign and that if it were true the president should accept it what was needed in thit post was not a woman but a two fisted iran with the intestinal fortitude to deal with labor troubles this outburst against miss perkins was almost immediately followed by her prompt certification of the threatened auto strike to the mediation board thus practically washing her hands of the matter the company held that a work stoppage of non defense portions of factories would naturally and inevitably result in full stoppage faced with this evidence miss perkins dictated and signed a statement which started the dispute between the general motors corporation and the united automobile workers of america threatens to burden and obstruct the production or transportation of equipment and materials essential to national defense and cannot be adjusted by the commissioners of conciliation of the department of labor the mediation board promptly sent this message to both corporation and unions affected and set an early date for a hearing this had the immediate result of producing a union agreement to call off the strike pending some effort by the board to make adjustments NAVY buys an airfield for an uh undisclosed disclosed sum believed to be about 9 the navy bought floyd bennett airfield in new york intending to establish on its acres the nations biggest naval air base the deal it was announced would still permit the use of the field as an emergency landing field for commercial aviation if laguardia field was closed the field with square feet of hangar space will be put into service at once and will navy ot of fici ficiala als pointed out bring naval aviation closer to the most important scene of its activities the north atlantic at present the chief naval air bases in this country are pensacola fla on the east and san diego calif on the west coast the need of an important base of greater size than anacostia close to washington D C brought about the deal with new york city and brings the r in force to the air above lo 10 long ng 3 sound miscellany PIRAEUS the haras formerly one of harold Vander bilts yachts was sunk by a german dive bomber as it was seeking to evacuate a large number of civilians trying to return from greenes Gree ces mainland to their island homes one bomb burst in the vessels hold and practically the entire passenger list was lost TOKYO in the role of an axis salesman back from a trip to the factory foreign minister matsuoka of japan informed the japanese people through the press that the lot of the worker in germany is a happy one and that the people of that nation like the cyst system em tha takes complete governmental arol of all their activities r NEW YORK fritz Kr kreisler elsler master violinist was victim of a traffic accident near his home as he was on his way to luncheon he was struck by a truck and his skull fractured washington getting ready to make use of seized german italian and danish vessels the government ment was reported taking steps to seek unified action by all pan amer ican can nations OTTAWA two of the officers in charge of the german prison camp have been relieved of their duties following the break in which 28 escaped it was finally announced that two of the fugitives were killed and the other 26 recaptured some had reached the american border but did not get across CAIRO british forces were pointing to two major activities as a possible turning point in the battle of north africa which had been going heavily against the british forces lately one was that a terrific artillery attack had forced the nazi forces to tall fall back from in front of besieged bobruk and the other was the naval bombardment of tripoli regarded in high british military circles as a continuing event of greatest importance we the people 1 A W 1 e 0 o 5 mr A here is a poster being issued by the office for production management of the defense commission in washington for k use in street cars busses arit arity subway trains etc it calls at to the governments rearmament drive and urges ures ur es mr public to heed that WE WEI the people ARM ARAI FOR DEFENSE released by western 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