100%

Scanned image of the page. Keyboard directions: use + to zoom in, - to zoom out, arrow keys to pan inside the viewer.

Page Options

Download this Issue

Share

Something wrong?

Something wrong with this page? Report problem.

Rights / Permissions

This collection, digitized in collaboration with the Michigan Daily and the Board for Student Publications, contains materials that are protected by copyright law. Access to these materials is provided for non-profit educational and research purposes. If you use an item from this collection, it is your responsibility to consider the work's copyright status and obtain any required permission.

August 04, 1940 - Image 3

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
Michigan Daily, 1940-08-04

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.


SUNDAY, AUGUST 4,1940

THE MICHIGAN OXIIY

m

PAGE THR!U

Invasion
Or Famine?....

THE

WORLD

THIS

WEEK

Conscription Or
Enlistment? .

T H E
In Germany
THE LONG AWAITED total inva-
sion of Great Britain loomed<
ominously last week; appeared immi-
nent until fascist propaganda barom-
eters Wednesday gave first indica-
tions of a sudden reversal in Nazi1
tactics.
For weeks, the German and ItalianI
government - controlled press hadl
gloated with child-like glee over theJ
predicted ease with which Hitler's
columns were to motor from Dover
to London, from London to Edin-
burgh. Not so Virginio Gayda, offi-
cial press spokesman of Il Duce,
predicted in an editorial in his Gior-
nale d'Italia. Said Gayda: The de-
feat of Great Britain must be a slow
process in which the present tactics
of bombing factories and ports and
torpedoing ships must continue for
some time.
Armchair strategists shifted their
cigars, made the following guesses
in explanation:
Hitler was wary of his arch-friend
Stalin, looked apprehensively at
the transfer of Bessarabia, and pre-
ferred to keep his Reichswehr on the
Continent.
2 Careful investigations had shown
the invasion to be no week-end
spree.
Germany had insufficient aviation
gasolines for the project.
4 The air-submarine blockade of
British shipping was producing
encouraging results.
5 The dramatic snatching of the
French Fleet from eager Nazi
hands left Hitler with insufficient
support from the sea.
' Instead of a march across the
Channel, Hitler launiched a staccato{
of telling air attacks on British com-
munication lines, port facilities. Im-
portant and devastating successes
were reported in thetconcentrated
Stuka dive-bombing of Dover. For
variety, Herr Goering late last week
sent over several contingents of high-
flying lone bombers.
In spite of the delay in invasion
plans, however, Hitler's blitzkrieging
Reichswehr continued massing men,
guns and materials along the French
channel coast. Guns of all calibers
were ranged along a 75-mile front,
assuring gunfire control of the en-
tire channel width-a control vital
to any invasion of the Island from the
south.

WAR1
said he will use force if Hungary and
Bulgaria become unreasonable in
their conference demands.
It is probably more than coinci-
dence that Russian troop movements
were reported at the same time that
little Rumania talked back. Some
observers hinted that the Rumanian
pendulum had swung Soviet-wards
again. Travelers reported large
numbers of Russian troops, tanks,
planes and trucks concentrated in
Bukovina and Bessarabia, territories
recently acquired from Rumania.
Train lines between Carol's domain
and the land of Stalin have been
standardized and Rumania lines link
directly with Russia's main trunk
line at Kiev.
Similar reports flowed out of Buda-
pest with stories of Hungary, sup-
posedly a vassal state of the Reich,
looking away from war-worn Ger-
many and toward Russia. Hungary's
grant of autonomy to the Carpatho-
Ukraine was main source of these
observations.
Meanwhile Rumania continued to
become a huge factory for the German
war machine. Germany -took control
Thursday of Rumania's most im-
portant iron works, and by financial
stock.juggling in oldnCzechoslovakia
made herself boss of nearly the en-
tire iron industry.
As tension between Britain and
Rumania grew (England protested
at expropriation of British oil com-
panies, barges, ships and tank cars)
reports from Italy contradicted stories
of Russo-German diplomatic rivalry'
in the Balkans.
Jap Boasts Seen
As Morale Bolster
WASHINGTON, Aug. 3. -(YP)-
Japan's announcement that she will
pursue a foreign policy designed to
bring French Indo-China and the
Netherlands Indies under her dom-
ination is regarded by some veteran
students here of the Far East as de-
signed primarily to bolster morale
at home.
They do not dismiss the possibility
that Japan might take advantage of
Britain's preoccupation with the
threat of a German invasion, and of
American concern over defenses in
the Atlantic, to put the policy into
effect by early military action.

Catastrophes
Strike Ohio
And Jersey
TRAGEDY STRUCK swiftly in
widely-separated parts of the na-
tion last week, and left 50 dead and
200 injured in its trail.
A Pennsylvania Railroad engine-
man disobeyed his orders Wednesday
night and 43 persons met flaming
death in a telescoped railroad coach
near Akron, Ohio. Thomas L. Mur-
tough, engineman of the coach, dis-
obeyed orders to switch to a siding
and clear the way for a 73-car double
header freight, which crashed head-
on into the steel coach. Explosion
of the fuel tanks in the coach im-
mediately made it a death trap for
all but two of the 45 occupants.
The coach was bringing commuters
and railroad employees to Akron from
the little town of Hudson, 12 miles
northeast of Akron. The lead loco-
motive proceeding along the single
track telescoped into about half the
length of the coach.
The state highway patrol broad-
cast a general alarm for ambulances
and vehicles were rushed from all
neighboring cities to help remove the
dead and dying.
* * *
Early Tuesday afternoon a series
of tremendous blasts shook the area
for miles around Camden, N.J., and
the huge R. M. Hollingshead paint
factory became a blazing inferno in
which seven people perished. The
$2,000,000 fire, largest in Camden's
history, resulted in injuries to 205
persons, destroyed 79 dwellings and
left 400 persons horeless.
The conflagration reached its
height late Tuesday afternoon with
eight fire companies and 100 police-
men from Philadelphia aiding in
bringing it under control.
Twenty-four hours after the fire
had broken out, the ruins were still
smouldering, and it was impossible to
remove any bodies. At week's end,
five known dead had been removed
from the debris. Hopes had been
given up for two more believed to be
in the wreckage.
A contribution of $2,000 from offi-
cials of the company brought to
$5,662 the fund of $15,000 asked by
Mayor George E. Brunner for the
relief of those made homeless by
the fire.

The World
Last Night
Diplomacy
British arrests of two powerful
Japanese businessmen in London
drew strong protest from Japanese
ambassador but Foreign Secretary
Lord Halifax gives him little satis-
faction, Japanese "flabbergasted";
Japanese ambassador at Washing-
ton hands State Department his
government's objection to U.S.
embprgo on aviation gasoline; Ru-
mania, Bulgaria and Hungary
make ready for negotiations next
week for settlement of Hungarian
and Bulgarian territorial claims
on Rumania, fears of Communism
in Hungary complicate Balkan
situation.
The War
Britain's air raiders tell of new
forays against blitzkrieg spring-
board; British. Prime Minister
Churchill warns Britons not to
be lulled by German rumors they
- do not intend an invasion of Is-
land Kingdom; German aviation
general talks of simultaneous at-
tack on Britain by Nazi air ar-
mada, calls air raids thus far
"mere pin pricks"; Germans re-
port much British shipping sunk
by air and naval arms, call Brit-
ish report that Hamburg is in
ruins "Churchill lie."
Expansion
Russia incorporates Lithuania
as 14th republic.
Bank Of France Now
Controlled By Germans
Polishing off the rough edges of
independence in France's totalitar-
ian make-up, Germany last week
placed the Bank of France "virtually"
under German control. This infor-
mation was picked up from the Brit-
ish Broadcasting Company in a
broadcast heard in New York by
the National Broadcasting Company.
The British radio said the infor-
mation had been broadcast by the
German-controlled radio in Paris.
The announcement as heard by NBC
said the Bank pf France will be al-
lowed to deal only in transactions
as ordered by the German commis-
sioner.

Conscription Issue Divides Nation
AsBill Faces Fight In Congress

IN WASHINGTON last week sweat-
ing legislators climbed Capitol Hill
to tackle the hottest political issue of
the summer--should America's man-
power be conscripted for war during
peace-time.
With the presidential election only
five months off, the conscription
question is political dynamite. Presi-
dent Roosevelt last week came out
solidly for it, Wendell Willkie main-
tains a Sphinx-like silence on the
subject and all over the country last
week youth groups, labor organiza-
tions and church groups went on
record against it.
In Washington prominent Repub-
licans-Senator Vandenberg of Mich-
gan and Senator Taft of Ohio; prom-
inent Democrats-Senator Wheeler
of Montana and former Secretary of
War Woodring led the fight against
the Burke-Wadsworth Bill, which, in
its early form called for registration
of 42,000,000 men, of whom 1,500,000
would be drafted in the first year.
The end of a stormy week in Wash-
ington found conscription proceedings
in the following state:
1 The Senate Military Affairs Com-
mittee voted unanimously to re-
port a much-emasculated Burke-
Wadsworth Bill tomorrow. The bill
now calls for registration of all men
21 to 31 years of age, and permits
supplemental, voluntary one-year en-
listments for all men between 18 and
35 years of age. Amendments to
limit the number of men selected to
5000,000 this Autumn and the same
number one year from now, to limit
the number to be drafted to 400,000
and to forbid any draft unless Con-
gress declared a state of war to exist
were defeated decisively in the Com-
mittee.
2 The Senate Military Affairs Com-
mittee reported. a bill, giving the
President authority to call up the
National Guard and Army Reserve
Officers for active training duty, but
the Senate deferred consideration of
it until tomorrow.
All members of the Congress, as all
Americans, were not ready at week's
end to be stampeded into conscrip-
tion by Hitler-hysteria. Senator Van-
denberg, announcing the start of a

Hits Conscription

Commerce of the United States stat-
ed that the organization was whole-
heartedly behind the draft bill. The
Advisory Commission to the Council
on National Defense declared: "The
passage of a compulsory service bill
in conformity with the principals now
advocated by the War and Navy De-
partments will prevent the disrup-
tion of industry through the entry
into military service of many who
would be more needed in industrial
production because of special skills."
President Roosevelt, in answer to a
press conference question declared:
"I am in favor of a selective train
ing bill and I consider it essential
to adequate national defense." Sen-
ator Wheeler challenged Willkie to
outline his attitude toward conscrip-
tion, while Senator Lundeen of Min-
nesota issued a call for a third party
convention to meet in Chicago to
draw up a platform opposing "the
interventionist policies" of the two
major parties, charging that the
Burke-Wadsworth Bill is bringing the
United States to "the last crossroad
before plunging into international
war." Neither major party, he de-
clared, can prevent the further de-
velopment of war-like acts.
On which side of the fence Wen-
dell Willkie will dump the Republi-
can Party remains to be seen. He
faces a delicate task in his accept-
ance speech slated for Aug. 17 at
Elwood, Ind., when he will have to
bid for the support of big business
and at the same time appeal to a bloc
of voters dissatisfied with the Ad-
ministration's attitude toward com-
pulsory military training.

Senator Vandenberg
nation-wide anti-conscription peti-
tion drive, suggested a volunteer
training program as substitute and
predicted that under such a systeml
1,000,000 American youths would vol-
unteer within three months, and a
"great 150=year-old tradition inti-
mately related to individual liberties"
would be maintained.
"When the American people are put
on a conscript basis, what is left to
separpte us from a complete totali-
tarian war basis?" he asked.
Opposition grew rapidly in Con-
gress and in the nation to the selective
service bill, although it had its
staunch supporters. While peace or-
ganizations, the Congress for Indus-,
trial Organization, the Workers' Alli-
ance, and student groups throughout
the country went on record against
conscription, the Junior Chamber of

r. tish.Fae
'In$vascin'
By 'Fa mine

*

Pawns In Cartel Hull's South American Game
*0_ _t _ _ _ _C_ _

I

ni Frv-ikril

RITAIN last week continued to
tighten her economic belt, pre-
pared anti-blitzkriegng defense. At
week's end, with no channel hurd-
ling move from the enemy material-
ized, the RAF, tired of waiting,
launched a major drive of her own
against Germany's vital industrial
centers.
The Reich's largest gateway, the
port of Hamburg, was pictured in
ruins by authoritative British sources.
Also seriously damaged were Brem-
en's ship-building and docking facili-
ties.
Further air attacks were felt by
such important German industrial
centers as Dusseldorf, Essen and
Wesel in the Ruhr area. Proudest
target of the RAF raiders was the
sprawling, defensively vital Krupp
munitions center at Essen. Also
scanned by British bomb sights were
supply depots, oil plants and air-
dromes in Western Germany and
Holland: bases vital to any invasion
scheme.
Active with the RAF was a large
contingent of self-exiled French air-
men under the command of Gen.
Charles de Gaulle, who was last week
condemned to death in absentia
by a military tribunal meeting in
Clermont-Ferrand, France.
In contrast to Nazi claims of dam-
age done by a fleet of 80 planes over
the port of Dover, British authorities
insist that the Luftwehr contingent
was driven off with a minimum num-
ber of effective hits.
In 30 minutes of the fiercest aerial
dog-fighting of the war, the Air
Ministry announced, not a bomb was
dropped on shore, and 17 Nazi raiders
were shot down with the loss of but
one British plane. Pounded by an
incessant barrage of anti-aircraft
guns and counter-attacked ' by a
swarm of Spitfires and Hurricanes,
the raiders were able to attain little
accuracy in the attack.
In The Balkans
VER SINCE Germany adopted
Czechoslovakia, Hungary and
Bulgaria have have been sharpening
knives to slice territory away from
richbut friendless Rumania. The
squabble has gone on relentlessly if

TRADE, life blood of nations, was
aparamount topic at the Latin-
American conference at Havana. It
will be the main thing on the minds
of many North and South American
statesmen from here on out.
The three - billion - dollar Latin-
American trade problem has just
about as many facets as a diamond,
is just as hard.
Some angles:
1 Latin - America has a primary
economy and therefore must sell
the produce of her farms, forests,
and mines for the money to buy
manufactured goods she does not
produce.
2 A fat slice of her profitable export
business went to Europe-so large
a slice that loss of the market would
disorganize Latin-American economy.
Hitler holds Europe and Britain
is blockading it.
4 After the war, what?
A prime obstacle to a united policy
is the fact that all 21 nations 'com-
pete with each other for markets.
They are, so to speak, salesmen for
for rival firms, and are mutually sus-
picious of one another.
Uses Own Products
Complicating the situation more is
the common knowledge that the
United States, capable of supplying
many of the manufactured goods
South America' needs, cannot take
all of South America's agricultural
products. The U.S. also produces an
over-supply.
Conferees at Havana discussed a
giant trade cartel, backed by $500,-
000,000 in U.S. funds, to pool and
manage trade of the Americas.
Delegates agreed they would do'
their best to use U.S. credits to solve
South American surplus exports prob-
lems. And they agreed to develop
hitherto neglected Latin-American
products of a non-comptetive nature.
Havana Convention
The Convention of Havana will
probably be greeted with approval
by Congress when it is presented for
ratification. Up to now, however,
members of the Senate Foreign Rela-
tions Committee have been guarded
in their comments on it, since the
Administration has not yet trans-

PACIFIC
O C E A N

- j
DO CAN d
" j PUBLIC
:HONDURAS
AGU TRADE '
DSTA RICA :::::
PN.;--:.. 58.2% OF
AA TOTAL TRADE
::M:ORtS 41.8% OF
* ' ', . TOTAL TRADE
E ECUA.-
:::-
" /
AIS AND AXIS- :":r -T
ERED COUNTRIES::
-ARA UA::: o.
.. . . .
M14% 3% 10:".
-- -- -

By KIRKE L. SIMPSON
(Associated Pres$ Staff Writer)
IF ITALIAN and German forecasters
have the right of it, it is not inva-
sion but starvation that the British
public has most to fear. And nobody
but British officialdom really knows
how imminent the starvation peril is.
Figures fantastically at variance
with British official listing of cargo
ships sunk recently have been pub-
lished by Berlin. The fate of England
may hang on which side is right.
Experience and some previous cir-
cumstances of this war teach distant
obeservers to believe that the British
ship loss accounting is the more re-
liable. During the World War, the
British did not conceal their cargo
ship losses, even when they were
within weeks of famine. In this war
they have given out much more de-
tailed statements than Berlin-spon-
sored figures, frequently announcing
the sinking'of both British naval and
merchant craft before any German
claim had been made.
England is fighting alone now and
the unshaken will of her people to
carry on with the war at any cost is
the prime essential to victory hopes.
It can well be realized that those in
authority in London are repeatedly
faced by difficult questions as to
what the effect on British public
opinion might be of publication of
bad news items on ship losses.
England is still a democracy, for
all the emergency war powers con-
ferred on the Prime Minister. Par-
liament could rescind them as quick-
ly as it granted'them. For that reason
if no other it is probable that Church-
ill has decreed frankness and accur-
acy in reports on ship casualties, re-
stricted only by military exigencies.
And, if that is Churchill policy-
which Churchill's long record of never
hesitating to tell the Birtish public
bad news indicates-it is not the Bri-
tish but the German public that is
being misinformed as to progress of
the pattle of Britain. Hitler and his
aides need not reckon with German
public opinion unless his whole totali-
tarian house of cards comes down
about his ears ir the end. In the
meantime, offering his own people
and the world highly inflated figures
on British shipping losses could be
deemed good home front propaganda
strategy.
United States Locks
The Barn In Time
America is looking to her South
American housecleaning a lot more
vigorously than slow-moving democ-
racies usually do in such cases, events
this week showed.
Secretary Stimson, with a private
case of fifth column jitters, sent
out a, dragnet in the Panama Canal
Zone and rounded up 81 "foreign

AKGN I INA
$762,405,000
51%
13% 24

El

WITH
BRITAIN

WITH
ALL OTHERS

y

I

0

BOLIVIA
$126,350,000
8%3 23%.
BRAZIL
$566,407,000
35% 24% 32%
1t H3E

DOMINICAN
REPUBLIC
$30,157,000
% %27%

PANAMA
$23,951,000
' ,1 23 %
PARAGUAY
$14,946,000
12%1% 7 :;

ECUADOR
$21,550,000
49%
23%l24%M

/ 0
.}i
...... .... -
-......... . ....
............... ......
................. .....-
......
- tl:' ?cr~r: t:

CHILE GUATEMALA PERU
$223,041,000 $32,281,000 $120,433,000
i0%_35%_''20 21r~*34% 17.5% 335%

COLOMBIA
$205,421,000

HAITI
$15,449,000

SALVADOR
$20,500,000
. ' 19% 4/ 4
4%

a O 6
70/-0 1 =80/0 I

22 14% 16%

II

_I

Back to Top

© 2024 Regents of the University of Michigan