OINK, YOUR HONOR. From Time magazine’s Miscellany section -- "In Fort Wayne, Ind., when Artemus Knuckles sued to get back a wandering pig which a neighbor had confiscated, his lawyer, David Hogg, cited a decision by Circuit Judge Martin L. Pigg."

posted by Michael 6:16:00 AM

. . .

THE PRESS HAILS THE SPEECH. And they seem to get just how important it was, too. Some comments --

New York Herald Tribune -- "A masterly statement of the actual case now actually before the American people ... it is the call to all citizens to make the sacrifices which action demands ... to this the American people can give its unequivocal assent ... the President has laid down the broad and solid foundations on which action may and should be taken. The action must now follow."

Mobile Register -- "Mr. Roosevelt’s proclamation of an unlimited national emergency – the virtual establishment of the country on a wartime basis – should awaken this semi-conscious nation to the perils that confront it and galvanize a unity of purpose and effort that heretofore has been unattainable."

Boston Herald -- "That the message will tend to make active American participation in the war more probable is obvious, even if there is no formal declaration from Washington or Berlin. Should the specified provocation be given, the United States will act promptly and vigorously."

Providence Journal -- "In his commitment of the United States to the defeat of Nazi Germany seeking domination of the seven seas, and to the delivery of American armaments to Britain, President Roosevelt ... went as far as words could possibly go. But the President knows that what Germany and England are looking for from the United States is not words but action. The President’s declaration of a total emergency will be significant as he makes use of the powers he assumes. His words could not be stronger. His commitments could hardly be more binding. But now action must give meaning to his words and to his pledges."

posted by Michael 6:12:00 AM

. . .

Thursday, May 29, 1941

ROOSEVELT’S ELASTIC DEFINITION OF "DEFENSE." President Roosevelt’s fireside chat Tuesday night was the most important presidential speech since Woodrow Wilson’s address to Congress in April 1917. Maybe he didn’t call for a declaration of war, but in his proclamation of "unlimited national emergency" he marked a line in the sand and made it clear that Hitler would invite war with the U.S. if the Nazis went after Iceland, Greenland, the Azores, the Cape Verde Islands, or Dakar. He re-established America’s insistence on freedom of the seas, an "ancient doctrine" trampled in recent years by the Neutrality Act. He wisely rejected the isolationist insistence that America cling to an inflexible, textbook definition of what constitutes our national interests --

"I have said on many occasions that the United States is mustering its men and its resources only for purposes of defense -- only to repel attack. I repeat that statement now. But we must be realistic when we use the word ‘attack’; we have to relate it to the lightning speed of modern warfare....Nobody can foretell tonight just when the acts of the dictators will ripen into attack on this hemisphere and on us. But we know enough by now to realize that it would be suicide to wait until they are in our front yard. When you enemy comes at you in a tank or a bombing plane, if you hold your fire until you see the whites of his eyes you will never know what hit you. Our Bunker Hill of tomorrow may be several thousand miles from Boston. Anyone with an atlas and a reasonable knowledge of the sudden striking force of modern war knows that it is stupid to wait until a probable enemy has gained a foothold from which to attack. Old-fashioned common sense calls for the use of a strategy which will prevent such an enemy from gaining a foothold in the first place."

This goes well beyond earlier rhetoric about "aiding Britain short of war." The President declared flatly that the Nazis have designs on the Americas, and posted a keep-out sign on the entire Western Hemisphere. And he went further than ever with pledges of support for the British, promising "every possible assistance" to them and promising to extend and strengthen the U.S. naval patrol of the Atlantic, which now ranges 3,000 miles.

But he remained Rooseveltian in the bad sense of the word, too, dodging the critical question of convoys. He said vaguely that "all additional measures necessary to deliver the goods would be taken," and Press Secretary Early "explained" afterward that the President was not talking about "the obsolete convoy system, but to better and more effective patrol work." Whatever that means.

posted by Michael 6:04:00 AM

. . .

POSSIBLY A PANT-LESS PATROL. From Time magazine's Miscellany section -- "In Denver, Highway Police Supervisor Joseph Marsa, faced with the fact that the department had no money to repair the force’s thinning trouser seats, said his men might soon be forced to ‘call politely out of the car window to traffic violators.’"

posted by Michael 7:28:00 AM

. . .

CRETE’S NO "REHEARSAL." Writing from London in Sunday’s New York Times, Robert B. Post ridicules the notion that the invasion of Crete is a "rehearsal" for an all-out German assault on the Britain Isles, but indicates that it is a kind of laboratory where the Germans are trying to use their air superiority in a bold new way. This, he says, is one of the reasons why right now British officials are "confused, worried, and speculative" --

"Crete, of course, is a most valuable strategic point, if the Germans want it -- and it appears they do want it -- to supplement their attack from Libya on Egypt and the Suez Canal. A good chess player puts one piece in position where it can attack in any one of several directions. A good chess player sacrifices minor chessmen to protect that piece. That , it appears, is exactly what the Germans are doing, and if the minor chessmen are thousands upon thousands of German soldiers there are still millions of German soldiers left. One reason for the uneasiness over the Crete battle is the obvious fact that this is the first time the Germans have ever depended on air alone. Up to now the Germans have used their air superiority as preparation for infantry. That infantry, of course, has been aided by tanks and motor-cycle battalions moved by truck. But this is the first time German has ever tried to take an objective by air and air alone. Of course, they have tried to reinforce air-borne with sea-borne troops. Apparently the British have beaten off this attempt and still reign in the Mediterranean, though at heavy cost. But Crete is not over yet. Dive-bombers, parachutists and all, the British still seem to be holding out. The Germans seem quite willing to sacrifice almost incredible numbers in order to take the island. Only the future will tell who will win this important battle. It is important not so much because Crete is a strategical point but because the relative values of air power and sea power are being tested, perhaps as they have never been tested before. To a nation that has always neglected its defense in most ways but has never neglected its navy quite so much as its other arms, this test is most important."

Mr. Post adds that British strategists see the German attack as a stepping-stone toward other invasions in the Near East -- "It has been generally suggested that the attack is Crete is a sort of ‘dress rehearsal’ for an attack on Britain -- of the long-expected invasion. In the view of most persons here who are in a position to know, no theory could be sillier. The conditions are entirely dissimilar as far as Crete and Britain are concerned. Furthermore, the ferocity of the German attack seems to preclude the possibility that it is being carried out as a sort of ‘exercise.’ If the Germans can take Crete, they will undoubtedly go on to Cyprus, or at least try to go on there. From London, at least, it appears the Germans want to strike south and east at Iraq and Iran by way of Syria."

posted by Michael 7:27:00 AM

. . .

Tuesday, May 27, 1941

GERMAN BREAKTHROUGH IN CRETE? After several days of back-and-forth fighting, radio reports this morning say the Nazis have smashed British and Greek positions on the island of Crete, west of the capital city of Canea. Unofficially, British sources are also now saying that the Germans are landing tanks on the island by air, though nobody in Crete apparently has seen any German tanks in combat yet. Hitler seems to be indicating his willingness to take the island at any cost, judging from today’s and yesterday’s dispatches. German casualties are described daily as "heavy," and there is much hand-to-hand fighting, especially around the Nazi-held Malemi airport. The R.A.F. now claims about 300 German warplanes destroyed in the week-long battle, with very little loss to the British.

But the German high command is crowing that Nazi units are advancing "everywhere," and the high command generally don’t boast unless there’s something to boast about. Also disconcerting is a boast by unnamed Berlin officials last night that the British Eastern Mediterranean Fleet "may be considered to be destroyed," with eleven cruisers and eight destroyers put out of action by Nazi dive bombers. But the German high command hasn’t said anything about this yet, and it’s anyone’s guess just how much truth there is to this particular victory claim.

posted by Michael 7:26:00 AM

. . .

A MODEST PROPOSAL. From the New Republic’s Bandwagon section, quoting an informal discussion by U.S. Army officers at Camp Hunter Liggett, California, as recorded in the New York Herald Tribune -- "‘In mock wars, troops are too slipshod about the way they expose themselves,’ explained the officers. ‘They commit blunders because they know they are not facing danger. If even one bullet in every 10,000 were real, they would fight as though they were engaged in real war. They would be cautious. Fighting would be realistic and of great value.’"

posted by Michael 5:33:00 AM

. . .

THE PRESIDENT’S SON IN IRAQ. A story in Saturday’s New York Times inspires a strange what-if. Here are the details --

"Capt. James Roosevelt returned by air to Cairo this evening after having been bombed and machine-gunned for four days in Iraq. The first strafing of the President’s son occurred as he and Maj. Gen. Thomas, of the United States Marines, were nearing Fallujah by automobile. German planes flew over and dropped bombs that fell nearby. Planes also machine-gunned the British camp, bullets hitting all around the Roosevelt party. This continued for several hours daily for four days."

One wonders just what the repercussions would have been if Nazi warplanes had killed President Roosevelt’s own son, albeit in a war zone. How many minutes would it have taken for one of the isolationist papers to get out an extra, hinting darkly that Captain Roosevelt was deliberately placed in harm’s way in Iraq as some kind of Administration plot to stir public demand for a U.S. declaration of war?

posted by Michael 5:31:00 AM

. . .

THE HATE-AMERICA-FIRST MOVEMENT. It seems the America First crowd are getting embarrassed by the fact that their propaganda "line" so frequently echoes the arguments coming out of Axis capitals. So, they resolved to do something about it at their big rally in New York City, taking every opportunity to point out how anti-Fascist they are. Chairman John T. Flynn denounced a local Nazi known to be in the audience as "a stooge for Hitler." Senator Wheeler claimed to "greatly admire" the English. Norman Thomas denounced one of President Roosevelt’s strongest supporters, Senator Pepper, for advocating policies "worthy of Hitler himself." The Chicago Tribune’s "news" story by William Fulton enthused that the gathering was "a typical American crowd, much like the throngs in a big league ball park on ladies’ day."
All well and good, and happily patriotic. But this was an isolationist meeting, so eventually you could count on someone taking to the podium to say something really, really dumb. Colonel Lindbergh to the rescue! --

"We deplore the fact that the German people cannot vote on the policies of their government – that Hitler led his people into war without asking their consent. But, have we been given the opportunity to vote on the policy our government has followed? No, we have been led toward war against the opposition of four-fifths of our people. We had no chance to vote on the issue of peace and war last November than if we had been in a totalitarian state ourselves. We in America were given just about as much chance to express our beliefs at the election last fall as the Germans would have been given if Hitler had run against Goering."

In other words, democracy’s a fake, America is in truth ruled by a coterie of "war mongers" acting on behalf of foreign interests, and we’re morally on par with the Nazis. It’s not a new argument, and it’s been made many times since the war began – generally in newspapers like the Volkischer Beobachter. So much for the anti-Fascist rhetoric.

posted by Michael 5:29:00 AM

. . .

Sunday, May 25, 1941

A PRETTY SLOPPY "REHEARSAL." I’ve heard a number of commentators surmise that the German assault on the island of Crete is a "dress rehearsal" for the invasion of Britain -- although if that’s the case the population of the British Isles can breathe a lot easier. There’s growing evidence in Saturday’s papers that the Nazis’ daring paratroop invasion of the island has failed, especially now that the British have recaptured Candia and Retimo, the two towns previously taken by the Germans from the air. And although a Friday Associated Press dispatch indicated that the Luftwaffe had gained mastery of the air over Crete, this morning’s radio reports say the R.A.F. is back in action there, sending long-range bombers and fighters to attack the German airfield at Malemi, where fourteen Nazi troop transports are said to have been blown up. Also, according to the A.P., a British naval squadron scored a smashing victory by breaking up a convoy of vessels taking a 5,000-strong German force for a surprise landing on the island. "Not a single German managed to reach the embattled island to reinforce the airborne Nazis already there," says the A.P.

One can only guess how many thousands more of Germans will die in the next few days, if Hitler persists in these tactics, as well he might. But imagine how much greater the scale of bloodletting would be on the German side if this were a much larger air and naval invasion, and directed against England herself. No doubt that if this is a "rehearsal," it’s giving Berlin plenty of cause for concern. I wonder, though, if it’s not more proper to call the attack on Crete a "stepping-stone" -- toward an occupation of Cyprus, and then a head-on Nazi invasion of Syria and Iraq, bypassing the Turks altogether.

posted by Michael 5:21:00 AM

. . .

STOP THE PRESSES. From Time magazine’s Miscellany section -- "In Manhattan, a three-year survey of the sophomore psyche proved the average Columbia sophomore felt the reality of campus life compared unfavorably with the movie version."

posted by Michael 6:02:00 AM

. . .

Thursday, May 22, 1941

WILL RUSSIA JOIN THE AXIS? It’s bad enough that Vichy France is moving to full-scale collaboration with Hitler and that Marshal Petain is now willing to say out loud he believes Germany will win the war. It’s worse when Soviet Russia, which unlike Vichy is truly an independent state, gives up any semblance of neutrality and helps the Nazis move into the Near East, if press dispatches from the region are to be believed. An editorial in the current number of the New Republic warns us to be prepared for a joint effort between the Soviet and the Axis powers to smash the remaining democracies --

"Ever since the arrangement between Hitler and Stalin at the beginning of the war, some have hoped that the Soviet Union, having collected its gains in Finland, the Baltic States, Poland, and Rumania, would turn against its new-found ally. This change would come, it was predicted, when Nazi aggression veered toward the Balkans and the Middle East.....It begins to appear, not only that these hopes will be disappointed, but that the Soviet Union is drifting into full partnership with the Axis. Though the Kremlin showed modest disapproval over the German conquests of Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, it did so after they had become irretrievable. But it did not act, and what is more important, it apparently prevented Turkey from acting while there was yet time. It opened a back door into the Axis for itself by the neutrality pact with Japan. Stalin’s assumption of the premiership has been interpreted as a preliminary step to the personal conferences customary among Axis dictators. Now he is not objecting to, and may even be assisting, German penetration into Asia Minor. The significance of these facts is far more than strategic. They mean that the Soviet Union wants to see Britain defeated in this war, and as quickly as possible. More than that, they imply that Stalin does not intend to fight Hitler in the near future. For if he did, he surely would not collaborate with his future enemy by aiding in the destruction of a possible ally, and by giving his opponent new military bases, new sources of oil and potential control over Russia’s only warm-water outlet."

The bordering empires ruled by Berlin and Moscow might one day clash, though "this eventuality seems to be far away,"say the editors. What is more important is that, contrary to long-held wisdom, there’s really no great reason nowadays for Hitler and Stalin to fight one another -- "The idea that there is some fundamental conflict between the government of the Soviet Union and that of Nazi Germany is a tenacious one. There is indeed an unbridgeable ideological conflict between Nazism in its original formulation and communism as preached by the Third International....[But] communism and Nazism are alike as two peas in their means – the technique of disciplined conspiracy, the one-party state, the complete contempt for everything that stands in their way, the primacy of power, the acceptance of all evil so long as it may be used, as they think, for a good end. And these methods have completely eclipsed the ideological formulations of both, so that now the differences in theory are of no real account, while the similarities of behavior make them natural allies who can coöperate for proximate ends."

If this is the case -- and there’s no reason to think otherwise -- then the war is now closer than it’s been since early 1940 to becoming an ideological conflict, a titanic struggle of democracies versus dictatorships. At that time, Britain and France came very close to sending troops to Finland to fight the Russian onslaught, while opposing the Germans in the west. Now, with the U.S. moving ever more closely to a full partnership with Britain, we might find ourselves facing a unified league of the world’s great dictatorships -- Germany, Italy, Japan, and Russia. It’s a sobering prospect, and all the more reason for President Roosevelt to take stronger measures to get America ready for rough days ahead.

posted by Michael 5:59:00 AM

. . .

OF HIS PEERS? From Time magazine’s Miscellany section -- "In Denver, Colorado Attorney General Gail Ireland ruled that before being condemned to death a vicious dog was entitled to trial by jury."

posted by Michael 5:05:00 AM

. . .

HOW MUCH HAS VICHY PROMISED HITLER? In Sunday’s New York Times, Edwin L. James discusses some of the quid pro quos between Berlin and Vichy, and passes along a particularly sorry lie from Petain’s regime which I hadn’t heard yet --

"When after the recent visit of Admiral Darlan to Hitler, there were given out reports that the cost to the French of the German army of occupation was to be reduced, that the line of demarcation between occupied and unoccupied France was to be relaxed and that 250,000 French prisoners of war were to be released, it was a perfectly good guess that Vichy had given something in return. Exactly what the Petain regime promised through Darlan is not known, but the brief radio address of the Marshal on Thursday gave an indication that it was serious. He said the public was scarcely able to judge the situation and asked for implicit faith in what he was doing. No one who knows him could believe that Petain loves the Germans....Yet there is ample evidence that the Marshal still thinks that Hitler is going to win the war....It is too early to say what Darlan has promised, but the use of the Syrian airdromes is an evidence which is disturbing. The Vichy statement that the German planes which used the Syrian airfields made ‘forced landings’ is bathetic."

Mr. James also indicates the northern Iraq city of Mosul is a particular Nazi target -- "It is too early now to say what scale effort the Germans and the Italians can make in the eastern end of the Mediterranean. The British naval forces are still strong and with Turkey out of it, the occupation of the Near East by Axis forces presents many difficulties. It is reported, without definite confirmation, that von Papen, the German Ambassador to Turkey, has just given Ankara a set of Nazi demands, including one which asks the right for the passage of German troops through Turkish territory. Many reports say the Turks are getting cooler towards the British, but from London still come hopes that that the Turks will not hook up with the Axis. The situation is complicated in the extreme, with the Germans quite evidently trying to shape up a campaign which would give them a hold on the Iraq oil fields. If the Turks agreed to the passage of troops through the eastern end of their country, the Germans would be in a position to ship troops across the Black Sea from Rumania and march towards Mosul....The crushing of British strength in the Near East would not win the war for Hitler. But it would be a serious blow for British Empire defense."

posted by Michael 5:02:00 AM

. . .

Tuesday, May 20, 1941

A GERMAN-RUSSIAN EFFORT IN IRAQ? From Turkey comes another report, picked up by the Associated Press, suggesting that the Russians and Germans are now working together to fight the British in Iraq --

"German quarters [in Istanbul] declared today that Russian ‘volunteers’ already are in Iraq --espite previous Soviet denials -- and expressed unconcealed satisfaction over the prospects of joint Russian-Axis intervention against the British in the Middle East battle for oil. The Germans contended that among Soviet volunteers permitted by Moscow to go to Iraq were pilots to join the Iraqi air force, already declared by the British to have been augmented by Axis planes and technicians flown across French-ruled Syria....Supporting Nazi suggestions that Russia might join Germany and Italy -- unofficially -- in the Middle East warfare was the disclosure that German Ambassador von Papen held a long conference yesterday with the Soviet Ambassador. Both envoys also saw Iraq Defense Minister Madji Shefket before he returned to Bagdad from conferences in Ankara. He was reported to have been assured enough Axis help to continue resistence to the British from desert bases. Observers here saw another straw in the wind indicating a possible Russian move as a result of yesterday’s exchange of Iraq-Soviet notes establishing diplomatic and trade relations between the two countries."

The A.P. also quotes a Turkish newspaper, quite sensibly, as saying that "the British should have occupied Syria long ago; now they must do so quickly." It’s clear that Syria is now French-mandated territory in name only -- Nazi forces are free to come and go there as they please. Now that German fighters and bombers are racing over Iraq and attacking British positions in support of the pro-Axis Iraqi army, it’s time for London to end the fiction that Vichy France has the ability to exercise meaningful control over its overseas territories. It’s clearly now a fiction that Hitler will respect whenever it suits him, and that he’ll happily ignore if need be.

posted by Michael 5:02:00 AM

. . .

DETAILS, DETAILS. From Time magazine’s Miscellany section -- "In Maryville, Mo., Mayor I.B. Campbell and two new councilmen settled down after election to two years of public service, were surprised to discover that they had been elected for four years."

posted by Michael 6:09:00 AM

. . .

PETAIN SLITHERS OVER TO THE AXIS. After reading a slew of Marshal Petain’s nauseating comments on his country’s need for renewed "cooperation" with the Nazis, one takes particular pleasure at reading of Vichy’s sputtering "astonishment" that President Roosevelt has taken off the gloves and is finally ready to consider the Petain gang nothing more than a hapless Hitler puppet. Though the President’s been much criticized, sometimes justifiably, for putting rhetoric ahead of action, this time he’s acted admirably, seizing all French ships in U.S. harbors. George Bookman writes in the Washington Post that this sudden move heralded a "complete reversal of this country’s attitude toward France," and it’s about time.

The Administration had kidded itself that the suffering people of unoccupied France could be better helped if we tried to stay on good terms with the turncoats who run Vichy on behalf of their Nazi leash-holders. But can there be any doubt now? Marshal Petain says with a straight face, in his latest radio address, that his upcoming talks with Hitler will wipe out the French defeat and conserve France’s rank "as a European and colonial power in the world." He says his cabinet has unanimously approved Hitler’s new plan for "collaboration" between Vichy and Berlin. A government spokesman later said that the Marshal "has confidence in Hitler’s word" -- even though the Fuehrer, by demanding "collaboration," has effectively thrown out the armistice agreement of last year. And finally, a Vichy communique laughably maintains that bending Petain’s knee to the Nazis will help France "keep her position as a great power," and blames America and Britain for the French defeat.

Whether this could be best described as self-delusion, unfathomable cynicism, cowardice, or mere arrogance, there’s no reason to take this tripe seriously. Better to do what the President has done, and warn Vichy that we will occupy French Guiana and Martinique if the Petain regime allows German troops into France’s western African colonies. Most importantly, we’ve now put the Axis on notice that German use of Dakar would be viewed in Washington as a "menace" to the Western Hemisphere. Does Vichy have a remaining smidgeon of courage, or enough sense, to use its remaining leverage to keep the Nazis from consuming the rest of France’s overseas territories?

posted by Michael 6:07:00 AM

. . .

Sunday, May 18, 1941

NAZIS MOVE INTO SYRIA AND IRAQ. Can an all-out battle in the Near East between German and British forces be far away? The Associated Press reports that Vichy France is allowing German air squadrons and light tanks passage through Syria, which British informants call "an occupation" of the Vichy-ruled protectorate. These Nazi units are headed for Iraq, where German staff officers, including two generals, have set up shop in Baghdad. A Reuters dispatch from London via Vichy quotes the Iraqi premier, Raschid Beg, as claiming that his pro-Axis troops are attacking the British positions in Basra, Iraq’s port city. The Germans are also said to have put warplanes near the northern city of Mosul. Fortunately, the R.A.F. isn’t waiting around to see what develops, and has bombed and machine-gunned Nazi planes in Syria at Damascus, Rayak, and Palmyra.

It looks more likely than ever that the region is about to explode into a general war. According to C.L. Sulzberger in the New York Times, aerial hostilities are now taking place in Syria not only between German and British planes, but between Vichy French and British planes as well. Germans and Italians are "rushing" new bombers and fighters to Syria in the wake of the British assaults, he writes. The French-controlled radio at Beirut has denounced Britain’s "hostile act" against France. And as British troops protecting Trans-Jordan are readying themselves for battle, the Iraqi government has denounced the pro-British Emir Abdullah of Trans-Jordan for "hostile activities" and has vowed "swift and severe measures," which would bring the Jordanians into the war as well.

Most stunningly, another A.P. dispatch says the Russians may get mixed up in all this, as allies of Hitler -- "Iraq newspaper speculation also implied Russia might indirectly enter the campaign against the British; the press declared in big headlines that the Soviet was ‘disposed to give all facilities’ and that Russian volunteers were joining the Mesopotamian air force to help the Iraqi." If this is true, no doubt those "volunteers" have been very heavily "encouraged" by Stalin’s police to sign up.

It’s depressing that the war, after ruining so many innocent lives in the Balkans, is poised to bring utter turmoil to the common folk of the Near East. The only surprise so far is that the German strategy seems to be to bypass Turkey entirely. (The Nazi forces in Syria have been landed by boat and air from the Italian Dodecanese Islands.) And the only consolation will be if the British can somehow prevail here and spare the region the agony and terror of a Nazi occupation. They’re showing some promising signs of making a winning fight this time, as seen by their retaking of Salum in Egypt -- significantly, from an all-German panzer force (i.e., no Italians present).

posted by Michael 6:05:00 AM

. . .

VISUAL EVIDENCE. From Time magazine’s Miscellany section -- "In Akron, Ohio, a man on trial for intoxication heard the officer testify the defendant’s eyes were bloodshot, defended himself by extracting a glass one, got probation."

posted by Michael 6:07:00 AM

. . .

WHAT'S HITLER'S NEXT MOVE? (II). From Ray Brock in yesterday’s New York Times, more signs that Hitler has set his sights on the Near East oilfields, and a blitz attack to seize them might be as little as two weeks away --

"German military sources in Serbia informed this correspondent that the German high command will order Germany’s second great spring offensive through Turkey into Iraq across Syria and against Egypt to seize the immense British petroleum supplies in the Near East and smash the British forces out of North Africa, between the first and the tenth of June. German troops are pouring into huge concentrations at Greek ports and moving steadily through Thrace and Bulgaria to the Turkish frontier, where within less than a month’s time, according to the Germans, the assault will begin simultaneously with an ‘overpowering’ offensive eastward along the North African Coast. All troops are equipped for a tropical campaign from top to toe. Turkey, according to the Germans, will be brought to heel within a fortnight. The Turks will be informed that they must sign the tripartite pact, permit the passage of German troops and equipment, lend air bases to the Luftwaffe, and place roads and railroads at the complete disposal of the German high command, under penalty of a second spring blitzkrieg...The few remaining neutral diplomats in Belgrade are convinced that Turkey will give in."

posted by Michael 6:05:00 AM

. . .

Thursday, May 15, 1941

THE HESS FLIGHT -- WHY THE H---? The Associated Press reports somewhat breathlessly that Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s third-in-command who mysteriously parachuted into Scotland, will be interrogated by none other than Prime Minister Churchill himself. Mr. Churchill will reportedly give Hess "the chance to tell the story of his flight from Germany and to give up vital secrets that might conceivably affect the future course of war," the A.P. claims. Who knows what Herr Hess will have to say, but there’s no doubt he’s being much talked about. So far, I’ve counted in the press four main theories to account for this bizarre event --

Hess the Defector. From Hugh B. Wilson, the last American Ambassador to Germany -- "I knew Hess....He was a very healthy man and appeared to be entirely well balanced. To my mind, the most obvious explanation is the most probable. Hess saw the ground getting shaky under him and departed -- in a hurry....Hess must have quarreled with Hitler over some personal matter and then feared that he could become the victim of another blood purge, such as the one he witnessed in 1934."

Hess the Defeatist. Former Nazi party leader Otto Strasser, quoted in the Montreal Herald -- "[Hess] was so devoted to Hitler that I thought he would be with him to the end -- in fact would hand him the knife. I cannot believe he is now against Hitler. I am sure though he has lost confidence that Hitler can win the war....When I heard of Hess’ sudden and astonishing flight I knew it must have taken a great internal convulsion, an event of the greatest significance to the whole conduct of the war and the eventual future of the Nazi party to make him take this desperate and dramatic way out. Here appears at last the fissure that indicates the crumbling facade of the Nazi hierarchy."

Hess the "Trojan Horse." From an "authority on the Nazis," as quoted in the Washington Post -- "Loyalty to party is emphasized more than any one thing in Germany, and Hitler himself practices that principle in his relations with his colleagues. Therefore, a defection by Hess -- who has had so little to do with national or international affairs -- must be viewed with the greatest suspicion. Hess is the kind of person who would be impressed with the opportunity of making the supreme sacrifice for his friend, Adolf Hitler, and for the good of the cause. He has the temperament, and, I believe, the inclination to make the sacrifice. And if it were necessary, in perfecting some plan involving an action of this sort, the choice could only fall on Hess...Therefore, the British must watch their step. They must take no action in the direction of relaxing their precautions, or changing any policy, or letting down in the least. To do so might cost them their heads."

Hess the Lunatic. From an "authorized spokesman" in Berlin -- "[Hess] better than anyone else, was acquainted with the peace proposals which came from the bottom of the Fuehrer’s heart. He apparently came to live in the illusion that by personal sacrifice he might prevent developments which in his eyes could end only with the complete destruction of the British Empire. The National Socialist Party regrets that this idealist fell victim to such a fateful mental illusion."

I’m betting that Hess is for the most part a "defector." Fleeing from Hitlerism isn’t insane, but in fact could be regarded as one of the sanest acts a man can do. Despite the exaggerated talk from British officials, though, I doubt he has much in the way of valuable information to offer London. It was pointed out in a New York Herald Tribune story yesterday that Hess’s star has been in eclipse since the war began, and despite his history of being close to Hitler, it’s doubtful that he would be in a position to know much about Germany’s military plans.

posted by Michael 5:59:00 AM

. . .

CALL THE POLICE! OH, WAIT --. From Time magazine’s Miscellany section -- "In Closter, N.J., after his birthday party, attended by a large number of police chiefs and detectives, Sheriff William R. Browne found someone had stolen two silver candlesticks, his birthday gift."

posted by Michael 5:26:00 AM

. . .

NAZI OPPORTUNITIES IN THE ARAB WORLD. If what C.L. Sulzberger writes in Sunday’s New York Times is true, then it really is likely that Hitler’s next big gambit will be to seize the oil of the Near East. It sounds like there are fertile opportunities for the Nazis among the Arab states, and German agents are doing their best to fan the flames of discontent with the British. And although the British have taken action in Iraq, they’ve still largely ignored German subversion in the region, to their great peril --

"The present war in Iraq results largely from British neglect of the latent turmoil in the Arab world which constantly is stimulated by active Axis propaganda. The Arabian peninsula is fertile soil for the sowing of dragons’ teeth. Tribal wars are the rule rather than the exception, particularly in the central Bedouin area, where fighting is regarded as a relaxation in a dour life of monotony. Rivalries of small emirates and sultanates on the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean coasts with the inland tribes are traditional. The contest of Ibn Saud’s fierce fanatics who are seeking to impose a union on Arabs and force obedience to their savagely puritanical Wahari version of Islam -- conceived by a desert Savonarola in the eighteenth century -- and the easier-going Hashimite family, who, driven from Hejaz, are trying to continue their aspirations from Baghdad and Amman, continually threatens stability. Most publicized of all the discordant elements is the Arab-Jewish jealousy in Palestine which gives Hitler’s propagandists a neat trump as they emphasize their own Nuremberg decree, which in itself did more than anything else to render this question acute by forcing the emigration of Jews from Europe. Into this fertile soil for trouble Hitler has unloosed a collection of agents from his apparently endlessly resourceful Pandora’s box. German gold has been circulating through the Arab world from Baghdad after reaching that city in an Italian diplomatic pouch from Teheran. German propaganda blares across the Arab lands from Bari and from the Reich itself where a renegade Baghdad newspaperman has established an extremely clever series of radio broadcasts."

Mr. Sulzberger paints a grim picture of what’s ahead -- "The principal fear of Britain is that these agents will facilitate the spread of the localized war. If Rachid Ali’s sect manages to spread the conflict among their adherents in Afghanistan, if it is true that von Hentig has arranged for extension of insurgence through Shammer tribesmen to Syria; if student riots at Beirut and Damascus represent mass sentiment; if the exiled Mufti of Jerusalem is able to incite disturbances in Transjordan and Palestine -- then a major problem will result and it could conceivably prove a crucial blow to beleaguered Britain....It appears at present inevitable that, if the Arab trouble continues, eventually the entire Middle East...will be engulfed by war."

posted by Michael 5:24:00 AM

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HOOVER’S NEW ISOLATIONIST ILLOGIC. During the Lend-Lease debate, congressional friends of Colonel Lindbergh argued that if the Administration’s proposal was adopted, America would end up giving way too much military aid to the British, putting our own national security in jeopardy. The scheming President Roosevelt, cried the America Firsters, might turn the entire U.S. Navy over to the King and Queen! The argument didn’t work, of course, and Lend-Lease passed the House and Senate by a healthy margin. So what do isolationists claim now? If you listened to Former President Hoover’s speech on the N.B.C. Red network Sunday night, you were treated to a new line of reasoning that sounded as if it could have been crafted by the authors of Hellzapoppin! – namely, that we shouldn’t convoy military aid across the Atlantic to Britain, because that would bring America into the war and would thus decrease the amount of aid we could provide the British! Even if you accept the notion that "convoys mean war," which is pretty dubious in itself, it still doesn’t make any sense. Here it is in Mr. Hoover’s own words, as transcribed by the International News Service --

"Is it not clear that we will give less tools to Britain if we join in the war? The solution is not for us to go to war but to give her every tool that will really aid her regardless of our own preparedness. There are risks in this course but it is the least perilous road we can now take. This solution will not please extremists on either side. Common sense and stark truth rarely do. And I am convinced that here lies the road to national unity....Let me state at the outset that I support provision of the maximum tools of war to Britain; that I am convinced we can give this maximum during the next critical months only if we keep out of this war; that putting our Navy into action is joining this war."

Mr. Hoover has been carefully studying the Gallup and Princeton polls, which show an the number of Americans who believe "it is more important to help Britain than to keep out of war" to be consistently over 60% every month this year. (The opinion section in Sunday’s New York Times has an informative graphic showing how the polls have changed since the outbreak of war -- for the most part away from the isolationist viewpoint). But it’s hard to imagine how this argument would be any more successful than an argument against the law of gravity. Again, even if you accept that convoying would bring the U.S. into the war, Mr. Hoover seems to be be contending that an America at war, sending troops, tanks, ships, and pilots to fight Britain’s mortal enemy, would be of less help to the British people than an America not at war, sending London guns, planes, and food. Is he really saying this? Yes, he is. Unbelievably, yes.

posted by Michael 5:23:00 AM

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Tuesday, May 13, 1941

HITLER’S NO. 3 MAN FLIES TO SCOTLAND. The radio is buzzing this morning with the most bizarre story to come out of this war -- Rudolf Hess, the Deputy Fuehrer of Germany, has parachuted into Scotland after taking off from a Reich airfield in a Messerschmitt-110. Hitler’s own officials say the flight was unauthorized and that Hess was suffering from "hallucinations." Meanwhile, the radio says that London is inclined to believe that Hess isn’t crazy, but instead is taking asylum in Britain in expectation that the Nazis were about to launch a new Roehm-style purge against him and his associates. The British point out that Berlin has already announced the arrest of two of Hess’s adjutants. Nobody’s said much of anything else about it yet, and a lot of the initial reaction is like the British air ministry secretary who told a caller bearing the news to "stop pulling my leg."

It’s hard to say how this could have a practical effect on the war, unless Hess is really seeking asylum and has some valuable intelligence for the British. But at the very least it looks like a whale of a propaganda coup.

posted by Michael 5:20:00 AM

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ONE LITTLE DETAIL MISSING. From Time magazine’s Miscellany section -- "In Tampa, a draft registrant has faithfully notified his local board each of the four times he has moved since March. He didn’t say where."

posted by Michael 5:41:00 AM

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A NEW GERMAN-RUSSIAN DEAL BREWING? After a week of reports that German troops in the Balkans had been transferred to the border with Russia, and most recently the story that 12,000 Nazi soldiers have landed in Finland within 50 miles of the Russian base at Hanko, it’s now starting to look like there’s a new thaw in the chilly relations between the two dictatorships. Time magazine’s verdict on the recent crisis rumors is that neither Hitler nor Stalin "want to fight the other right now any more than he wants the smallpox." And long-time New York Times Moscow correspondent Walter Duranty (now reporting from Tokyo for the North American Newspaper Alliance) speculates that Russia’s seemingly anti-German moves of late have economic motives, not political ones --

"What is really coming is a new spurt of diplomatic activity and negotiation between the two countries, for which the Soviet Union and Germany are now engaged in preliminary jockeying. The question involved is...of closer cooperation and the price to be paid therefor....The gestures are so many indications to Germany that the Soviet Union must not be neglected. I do not suggest that Russia has hitched her wagon to Hitler’s star, but I do think the Russians now feel the need to show Germany and the world in general that this is not the case. Not for Winston Churchill’s blue eyes, nor to gratify President Roosevelt, but for practical business purposes in the coming dicker with the Germans."

Now that the Russians have withdrawn recognition of anti-Nazi exile governments in three German-occupied countries (including Yugoslavia, which they had signed a friendship pact with just a month ago), there’ll no doubt be more stories in the press confirming a warming trend between Moscow and Berlin. Already the Associated Press cites diplomatic sources in the Soviet capital to the effect that Stalin is now "patching up his differences with Germany." And that makes it all the more likely that Germany’s next target will be Suez, not the Ukraine. On the other hand, given the ferocity of the latest Nazi air raids on London last night, I wouldn’t doubt that Hitler might attempt a massive surprise attack on the British Isles, after making an elaborate feint in North Africa and the Near East.

posted by Michael 5:40:00 AM

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Sunday, May 11, 1941

BRITISH WINNING IN IRAQ (FOR NOW). If Hitler soon sends his armies after the oil wealth of the Near East, then at least he won’t have the benefit of a pro-Axis government in Iraq to help pave the way. According to the latest Associated Press dispatches, British armored forces and airmen have scattered the Iraqi Army across the desert, "strewing the sands behind it with armored cars, trucks, and cannon." The British have broken Iraq’s attack on the British-held airdrome at Habbaniyah, which started this little war a week ago, and have apparently destroyed the small Iraqi Air Force. (The Germans had promised new planes to Iraq by May 2, but did not come through). Iraqi troops are retreating toward the towns of Ramadi and Falluja, in the north and east of the kingdom. Rashid Beg’s regime has ordered that Iraq’s oil going via pipeline to Haifa be cut off from the British, but with his government now in tatters the cutoff seems to have had little effect.

Alas, it’s a certainty that the British will have a much tougher fight in Iraq once the Germans arrive.

posted by Michael 5:39:00 AM

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A SOLUTION TO AN OLD PROBLEM. From Time magazine’s Miscellany section -- "In Salt Lake City, a Utah Writer’s Project researcher discovered that in 1862 frontier impresarios solved an old theatrical problem with the sign: Admission -- adults, 35¢; babes in arms, $10.

posted by Michael 5:59:00 AM

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Thursday, May 8, 1941

THE COMING BATTLE FOR SUEZ. The New Republic’s editors take an unusual stand on the Balkans battle, holding that it was a military disaster for the British -- but politically necessary just the same. They also predict that the Battle for Suez will be "the great climax" to the Mediterranean war. It is coming up very soon, the editors believe, and will probably have a much more profound impact on the history of the world than the fighting in Yugoslavia and Greece --

"People will doubtless debate for decades to come on whether the British, with their very limited resources in the Mediterranean, should have helped the Greeks. The answer seems to be that from a military point of view it was a quixotic adventure, doomed from the beginning to failure unless the Yugoslavs and Turks could have been induced to stand against the Germans – and in time – but that politically it was far otherwise. If the British, to save a few thousand men (fewer than were sometimes killed on a single day in the First World War) had stood aside and left the Greeks to their fate, they would have lost face throughout the world and especially in the dominions and the United States. In a total war military considerations are not the only or the prevailing ones....All eyes are [now] on Suez. Churchill, who has never lied in his wartime speeches, thanks Wavell has a good chance of beating back the thrust from Libya. In Asia Minor the situation is more complicated. Will the Germans take Crete, and use it as a base for moving troops by air into Syria? What will Turkey do? What is the significance of Russia’s sending thousands of her best troops from Siberia to the German border? What will be the attitude of the Arabs in Palestine and throughout the Near East to a German land campaign directed at Suez? Has Germany really ships in the Mediterranean as she says, and how many and what sort? Until these questions are answered, we can only say that the battle for Suez will be grim and desperate one that its outcome will cast a long shadow forward across the years."

This is the best argument I’ve heard yet for Britain’s stand in Greece, certainly more sensible than the candy-coated dispatches in Time magazine and the New York Herald Tribune, which made the German victory sound more like a glorious British triumph. And if Britain had opted to stay out of the Balkans, imagine what a great time Nazi propaganda would have made of it, and how demoralizing it would have been to anti-Hitler forces throughout the occupied countries of Europe. But if the next big battle takes place at Suez, which seems increasingly likely, British forces will have to do more than put on a good show, or achieve a "moral" victory of some sort. They will have to stop the Germans. Even with their successful defense of the British Isles, if they cannot prevent the Nazi armies from elsewhere seizing territory seemingly at will, then Hitler will never be defeated.

posted by Michael 5:52:00 AM

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MAYBE NOT THE BEST AFTER ALL. From Time magazine's Miscellany section -- "In Brooklyn, N.Y., Salvatore Criscione, best man at the wedding of Charles Giangarra, was arrested for kidnapping him and holding him for $10,000 ransom."

posted by Michael 5:46:00 AM

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"WHY LINDBERGH IS WRONG." Don't miss the lead article in the current American Mercury by aviation designer Major Alexander P. de Seversky, who refutes better than anyone so far the numerous fallacies of Colonel Lindbergh's America-First thinking. For example, the Major effectively counters one of Lindbergh's main points, that Britain will never be able to rival Germany in air power --

"The war is shaking down to an epochal contest between two groups of producing nations. One of them, under Nazi control, will be more and more plagued by shortages of crucial materials; it will be under continuous and growing attack by enemy aviation, operating with increasingly undernourished labor working in large part sullenly under coercion. The other, the Anglo-American bloc, its production centers widely scattered over the world, will have access to all materials; it will operate in many regions under relatively peaceful conditions, with labor that is voluntary and well-fed. In that tug-of-war of production, equality in Air Power for the Anglo-American bloc is already within sight, and rapid establishment of supremacy seems in the cards."

This is very much like the argument made in this week's Time magazine, which tried to put the Balkans battle in the best possible light -- "This battle showed that if ever Britons confront Germans on anything like equal terms, Britain stands a good chance of winning." But what reads like hollow propaganda in Time makes good sense in the words of Major de Seversky, who over the course of thirteen pages makes a number of important points, including the nonsensical nature of Colonel Lindbergh's call for a "negotiated peace" --

"All those who truly seek a durable negotiated peace can scarcely urge it seriously at this time, when Hitler holds most of the chips. Such negotiations would be a farce in the nature of the case. Regardless of how it might be camouflaged, a peace now would leave Germany in possession of a big stick and unhampered in making it even bigger....Since negotiations can only take place as between approximate equals, it would seem Colonel Lindbergh's duty to help promote military equality. That can be achieved only in two ways. First, by curbing Germany -- which we are doing through economic and other pressures. Second, by strengthening Britain, through providing it with the weapons of modern war. Under any other conditions a demand for a negotiated peace is tantamount to a demand for a German-dictated peace."

posted by Michael 5:45:00 AM

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Sunday, May 4, 1941

THE WAR SPREADS TO IRAQ. Give Britain credit for not waiting for the Nazis to move into the Near East, as everybody is now expecting them to do soon. According to the Associated Press, a British force has landed at the Iraqi port of Basra after Iraq's pro-Axis premier, Ali al Gailani, ordered his troops to attack a British garrison guarding the Habbaniyah airdrome, some sixty miles west of Bagdad. Initial reports said the British force at Basra was quickly surrounded by a numerically superior Iraqi force loyal to Premier Gailani, but this morning's radio reports say that the Iraqis have been repelled. at Basra, although London admits losing planes and men at the Habbaniyah airdrome. Premier Gailani has publicly asked Hitler to send military help to protect his month-old regime, though this is nothing more than a propaganda victory for Berlin -- the German high command has no way to deliver arms or troops to their Iraqi friends.

An A.P. dispatch puts the Iraq fighting in rather dire terms -- "Patently this situation was extremely grave in itself; it created an unexpected and very real threat to the vast oil fields of Iraq which feed the British fleet and Middle Eastern armies and it gave Germany the prospect of a new grip for the great military pincers she is trying to close from both east and west." It is true that if full-scale war comes to Iraq, the British risk losing access to one of Iraq's principal oil pipelines, which runs all the way to Haifa in British-mandated Palestine and supplies the Royal Navy which much of the oil used by its Eastern Mediterranean fleet. But the fact is that Britain is taking the initiative this time, and not waiting for the Germans to first build an overwhelming force in the region.

posted by Michael 5:44:00 AM

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THE WONDERS OF SCIENCE. From Time magazine’s Miscellany section -- "In Manorville, L.I., static on a party line was eliminated when telephone company investigators persuaded a woman to stop using her receiver as a darning egg."

posted by Michael 5:08:00 AM

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AN EXPLOSION IN THE ARAB WORLD? Washington Post columnist Barnet Nover sizes up what Britain is risking by sending troops into Iraq, making it clear that in the wake of last month’s pro-Axis coup d’etat that the British have had to take action --

"In Iraq it was Great Britain which took the offensive, if somewhat belatedly. Yet the fight she is making there is a defensive one. Her primary object in intervening in Iraq is to prevent that country from being overrun by the Nazis, prevent Hitler from capitalizing Iraq’s important strategic situation and prevent Germany from making use of the invaluable oil resources of that Arab kingdom. In that respect the dispatch of British troops to Basra must be regarded as primarily a rear-guard action....The greatest danger the British face is that the struggle which has broken out in Iraq will spread to nearby Arab lands. There cannot be the slightest doubt that the blow at Britain’s prestige arising out of German victories in the Balkans and North Africa have seriously undermined the British position in the Middle East. And Nazi propagandists and Nazi agents have done all in their power to exploit this situation. Yet the attempt by Rashid Beg to start a jihad or holy war against the British is hardly likely to get anywhere. Iraq itself is, from the viewpoint of religion, a house divided. There is no love lost between the Shiites and the Sunnites, bitterly hostile Mohammedan sects, both having numerous adherents in the kingdom. In the north there are the Assyrians, one of the oldest of Christian sects, who were massacred by the tens of thousands soon after Britain withdrew her mandate over Iraq and permitted that nation to become independent."

But Mr. Nover warns a prolonged fight in Iraq could get dangerously complicated for the British -- "The proclamation issued by the deposed regent Emir Ali from his Palestine refuge indicates that what began as a struggle against the British on behalf of the Nazis may soon develop into a civil war. Emir Ali has taken a strong stand against Rashid Beg’s anti-British activities. Nonetheless, the Arab world is a tinder box which may ignite unless the sparks now flying from Iraq are quickly dampened. At a time when they are so beset at home, in the waters surrounding their beleaguered islands and in Egypt, the British have found it necessary to allocate badly needed troops and planes to Iraq. But they have had the soundest reasons for doing so. They cannot afford to let Iraq be lost by default."

posted by Michael 5:05:00 AM

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Tuesday, May 6, 1941

IS THE U.S. ALREADY IN THE WAR? The current Time magazine highlights parts of Secretary Knox’s speech last week to the American Newspaper Publisher’s Association, which contained some of the strongest words of war from an Administration official yet -- "We have committed ourselves in this world struggle....We cannot allow our goods to be sunk in the Atlantic – we shall be beaten if they do....[This] is our fight." Of this, and of similar remarks that same night by Secretary Hull, Time concluded, "In one night two official members of President Roosevelt’s Cabinet had publicly put the U.S. in the war." In the days since, the rhetoric has only increased. In a speech Sunday paying honor to Woodrow Wilson, President Roosevelt declared that the U.S. is "ever ready to fight again" to defend her faith in democracy. And last night, the President ordered Secretary Stimson to "take whatever action is needed" to bring about a large increase in America’s production of heavy bombers, on the grounds that the democracies "can and must" take control of the skies. And Gallup’s last survey on U.S. convoying of military aid to Britain showed only 41% in favor (though 71% favored convoying if Britain’s survival were at stake), but more and more Congressmen are coming out in favor of convoying -- including Chairman Carl Vinson of the House Naval Affairs Committee, who is generally seen as reflecting the Administration’s view.

No doubt the isolationists are up in arms over this, if that’s the right way to put it. (I haven’t had the heart to keep up with the Chicago Tribune lately). But it certainly shows how much the pendulum has swung since the lend-lease debate, when proponents of convoys were next to nonexistent. And it shows how much the realization has hit home, especially in light of Nazi victories in the Balkans, that unless America takes a much larger role in Britain’s war effort, even at the risk of being plunged into it ourselves, we will risk allowing Hitler a total victory, at an incalculable cost to ourselves in a brave new world devoid of allies.

posted by Michael 5:03:00 AM

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CONVENIENCES FOR OUR TIMES. From the New Republic’s Miscellany section, quoting Paul Harrison’s movie column in the New York World-Telegram -- "Newest luxury in which manufacturers hope to interest the movie colony is a de-luxe air-raid shelter, complete with bath and cocktail bar, at prices ranging from $3,900 to $26,400; no swimming pool, though."

posted by Michael 5:51:00 AM

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Thursday, May 1, 1941

AFTER THE BALKANS. Contrary to the grim pessimism of some in the press in the wake of the Balkans "fiasco," syndicated columnists Joseph Alsop and Robert Kintner find that the "British investment in Greece and Yugoslavia’s resistance was probably worth the tangible gains -- disorganization in the German ranks in Eastern Europe and temporary sabotage of Nazi efforts to exploit the raw materials of the region. But the columnists hastily add that Britain’s losses in the Balkans battle "are so great that they may lead, eventually, to capture of the oil of Iran and Irak by Germany, and liquidation of the British position in Egypt." And don’t count on Russia standing in Germany’s way, as some in the Administration have hoped --

"Some American officials have long cherished delusions about Russia, but these are growing increasingly hard to cling to. The German propaganda has planted rumors all over Europe of a forthcoming attack on the Ukraine. The old Tsarist Ukranian Hetman, Skoropadsky, has been trotted out of luxurious retirement in which the Germans have foresightedly maintained him. On the Russo-Polish frontier, the Germans now have between 40 and 60 divisions, with enough more in the hinterland to cut through the Russian army like a knife through butter. Furthermore, the Russia of Stalin cannot meet Hitler’s divisions as the Russia of Alexander met Napoleon’s. Simply engulfing an invading army was all every well, when each Russian province was economically independent. But the five-year plans have been squarely based on Ukrainian wheat and Baku and Batum oil, so that if the Germans drove through Ukraine along the shores of the Black Sea to the Caspian, they would both stab the Russians in the stomach and cut their jugular. The best authorities here doubt that Hitler really means to attack the Ukraine now, since ‘Russia is the trussed steer in Germany’s cold-storage house.’ But they have little doubt that the German propaganda is intended to frighten Russia into bringing pressure on Turkey. And the odds that Russia will consent if asked are quoted at nine to one."

Mr. Alsop and Mr. Kintner see greater advantage for Hitler’s legions by attacking farther south -- "The British force in Egypt is now contained, and even endangered, by the numerically superior German and Italian armies. With two Panzer divisions, three other divisions of German troops, and an indeterminate number of Italians already past the Egyptian frontier, the British can hardly muster the strength for a defense of Iran and Irak. It will only be a matter of weeks, however, according to the best military authorities here, for the Germans to transform 15 or 20 of their divisions now in Eastern Europe into a Near Eastern expeditionary force. Assuming that the oil wells cannot be effectively sabotaged, the Germans will still have desperate transport difficulties to overcome before they can bring Near Eastern oil into Europe. But if they ever achieve both control of the oil and command of the Mediterranean, their greatest supply problem will be solved. And the war will be indefinitely but cruelly prolonged."

posted by Michael 5:48:00 AM

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