MORE BIG RAIDS AND INVASION TALK. Edward Angly writes in Wednesday’s New York Herald Tribune that Britain is once again "on the alert for an expected attempt at invasion," after four straight nights of heavy air raids on London. The latest eight-hour raid ended early Wednesday morning, after the Nazis spread destruction among "at least fifty localities in London’s north, west, southwest, City, and central areas." Larry Rue of the Chicago Tribune writes in Wednesday’s editions that "apparently central London has been less severely hit than on the previous nights. The brunt of the attack seems to be confined to the outskirts, with the railroad junctions circling the capital as the main targets." There’s been no official reports on damage and casualties, and newspaper reports are sketchy. The Associated Press mentions the destruction of an apartment house, the Herald Tribune tells of damage to a maternity hospital, and the New York Times says that the fires from the previous night’s raid threatened for a time to engulf what reporter Raymond Daniell describes as "the beautiful St. Paul’s Cathedral and St. Mary-le-Bow Church, whose sweet-toned chimes for generations have lulled the Cockney children to sleep."
But the banner headline in the Chicago Tribune, which always has one, has to do with the R.A.F.’s latest bombing of Berlin, which damaged the Reichstag as well as Brandenburger gate, and shook government buildings. William Shirer reported last night in his C.B.S. broadcast from Berlin that the British raiders also hit the Academy of Art, which is next door to the Munitions Ministry, a Catholic hospital, a Jewish hospital, and a number of of private homes. The raid lasted about two hours and killed five people, the Germans say. It’s "the serverest raid Berlin has had," he said. Interestingly, Mr. Shirer also said that the Berlin press has done an about-face with the way they’re handling the raids. While the papers gave previous British attacks on Berlin "a paragraph on an inside page," they’re now thundering in front-page banner headlines about the "crimes" of R.A.F. "barbarians."
MORE INVASION OMENS. They’ve just said on the radio that the British Navy claims to have inflicted heavy damage on Nazi ships maneuvering in the English Channel. The German vessels were sailing under cover of dive bombers and long-range artillery, which peppered Britain’s southwest coast. The invasion is now "expected hourly," the report says. Could the Germans be fighting on British beaches by this week-end?
BAD TIMING. The most ironic headline in quite a while comes on the front page of Wednesday’s Washington Post, where, amidst the reports of the previous day’s air-raid terrors, we find a public call by Professor Albert Einstein that religious teachers should "give up the doctrine of a personal God." Professor Einstein made his "recommendation" on Tuesday in New York City, a city in which no bombs fell. Many of the men, women, and children of London’s East End offer up prayers daily for the safety of their loved ones and an end to the Nazi horrors that befall them from the skies. One doubts Professor Einstein would repeat his recommendation in their shattered neighborhoods.
A STATESMANLIKE MOVE BY WILLKIE. The radio news this morning also says the House and Senate conferees have come to a complete agreement on the conference version of the Burk-Wadsworth conscription bill -- which will not include the 60-day delay provision approved in the House version, and touted by congressional isolationists. This comes one day after G.O.P. presidential nominee Wendell Willkie defied the majority of his own party and publicly called for the defeat of the 60-day amendment. James A. Hagerty notes in Wednesday’s New York Times that in doing so Mr. Willkie "ran counter to 140 Republicans in the House who voted for the amendment, including Representative Joseph Martin, Jr.. chairman of the national committee." Only 22 Republicans voted against the amendment, says the Times.
Mr. Willkie surely could have bolstered support within his own party by not taking a position on the issue, especially in light of widespread predictions that the House-Senate conferees would do away with the 60-day provision. But the Republican candidate appears to be one of those rare things -- a man for whom principle counts most.
QUESTIONING WILLKIE’S PATRIOTISM? Wendell Willkie appears to be a gracious adversary, too, judging from his remarks about President Roosevelt’s running mate, Agriculture Secretary Henry Wallace. The Democratic vice-presidential candidate is "a fine gentleman," Mr. Willkie said the other week, soon after Willkie’s own running mate, Reprsentative McNary, described Mr. Wallace as "a high-minded and sympathetic Secretary of Agriculture." As if to prove both Willkie and McNary wrong, Mr. Wallace got off a crass speech in Des Moines recently that said in so many words that a vote for Willkie is a vote for Hitler. His exact language, as recorded in the current issue of Time magazine --
"When Roosevelt tried to adjust the internal affairs of the United States to a sick world, [Republicans] fought him at home as Hitler fought him abroad. Some of the bitter attacks on Roosevelt’s program were directly inspired by the agents of Hitler in this country. Others were merely blindly partisan. But, whatever the motive, the effect was the same – these attacks on Roosevelt played into the hands of Hitler. Every evidence of opposition to Roosevelt within the United States has been reason for rejoicing in Berlin....Most Republicans may not realize it, but their party...is the party which the totalitarian powers will back in every way possible."
Mr. Wallace topped off this spewage by claiming that the replacement of Roosevelt, i.e., a Willkie victory, "would cause Hitler to rejoice." Yes, Mr. Wallace did add a disclaimer to these tawdry remarks ("I do not wish to imply that Republican leaders are willfully or consciously giving aid to Hitler."). But all that this means, apparently, is that what saves Wendell Willkie from being a traitor and a Nazi sympathizer is that, well, he’s too stupid to be one. Excuse me, I have wash my hands.
JAPAN PRESSES FRENCH INDO-CHINA. Mark Gayn writes in the Washington Post’s editorial section Wednesday that what transpired at the Franco-Japanese meeting in Hanoi last week is a symbol of just how much influence the Japanese now have in the French colony of Indo-China --
"Ostensibly, the demands presented by two tough little Japanese officers -- Maj. Gen. Issaku Nishamura and Col. S. Sato -- to Vice Admiral Jean Decoux, Governor-General of Indo-China, dealt only with the passage of Japanese troops through the colony en route to the Chinese border. Enough, however, has escaped the blue pencils of censors in Tokyo, Vichy, Hanoi and Haiphong to show that Japan was seeking complete control of Indo-China -- the ‘manchukuoization’ of yet another slice of Asia. A letter just smuggled out of Haiphong to beat the censorship compared the situation in Indo-China today with the early stages of the Japanese invasion of North China around 1932-33. ‘Hanoi,’ the letter informed me, ‘is swarming with Japanese "inspectors." Last June, 40 of them were permitted to enter Indo-China to see that no military supplies were shipped to China. Now, in Hanoi alone, their number exceeds 100. They are also in scores all over the country, making economic and military surveys that do not have the remotest connection with the question of Chinese supplies....The only thing Decoux can do in the circumstances is to accept the Japanese demands, but try to save as much as possible without provoking the Japanese Army in South China...into armed action.’"
Mr. Gayn warns that Japanese authority over Indo-China would be anything but trivial -- "Control of Indo-China would make the Philippines, now fearful for their hard-won independence, particularly susceptible to Japanese pressure....Bases in Indo-China would give Japan supremacy in the South Sea and all East Asia should she decide to emulate Italy. Then Australia, New Zealand, Malaya and even India would be at the mercy of Japanese air and naval raiders."
MAYBE IT’S NOT A TYPO. From the New Republic’s Sideshow section, quoting a news item printed in the Moline, Illinois, Dispatch -- "The Kroll opera house was a sea of brown uniforms sprinkled with the field-grey of the army. Count Ciano, the Italian foreign minister, arrived fifteen minutes before Hitler and was given a seat of horror in the diplomatic box opposite the Fuehrer."
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