America at war! (1941–) – Part 4

8648

Ed Flynn’s visit to Yalta a mystery

Washington unable to figure it out

WASHINGTON (UP) – Of all interesting sidelights on the Big Three Conference, Washington pondered the presence of Edward J. Flynn.

The White House explained that Mr. Flynn took no part in the discussions. It said President Roosevelt discovered, shortly before he left this country, that Mr. Flynn planned to go to Moscow. So, he invited the former Democratic National Committee chairman to accompany him as far as Yalta.

Mr. Flynn, the White House said, crossed the Atlantic with the President – method not announced. Then he flew with Mr. Roosevelt from Malta to Yalta. Apparently, he stayed in the Crimean resort town throughout the historic conferences, because the White House said he went to Moscow with U.S. Ambassador W. Averell Harriman. Mr. Harriman attended the entire eight-day conference.

Even Mr. Flynn’s close associates in New York were at a loss to explain his presence in Russia. They professed not to know that he accompanied the President.

Monroe Goldwater, Mr. Flynn’s law partner, said he “thought Mr. Flynn was in Mexico.”

“He left New York about two weeks ago,” was all Mr. Goldwater could add.

If anybody knew the nature of Mr. Flynn’s business in Moscow, they weren’t talking about it. Unquestioned, however, was the fact that he was not wen route to Australia.

Anna Boettiger has key role

WASHINGTON (UP) – The presence of Mrs. Anna Roosevelt Boettiger at the Big Three Crimean Conference gave emphasis today to her new role as confidante, boon companion and adviser to her father.

The tall blond, only daughter of President and Mrs. Roosevelt, returned to the Executive Mansion to live more than a year ago.

Prior to and for a while after Pearl Harbor, she was a columnist and woman’s page editor of The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Her husband, John, was its publisher. Mrs. Boettiger moved into the White House while her husband was overseas as an Army major. Now he is stationed in Washington.

Mrs. Boettiger is in her late 30’s. Gifted with her mother’s energy, she plays the role of White House hostess during Mrs. Roosevelt’s frequent absences.

She is good company. Lively, animated and possessor of quick wit, she has a talent for informality.

She and her father have at least one common attribute. They both use long cigarette holders.

8649

Yalta one of best Russian resorts

Town damaged only slightly by Nazis
By the United Press

Yalta is probably the most beautiful of the Russian Black Sea resort towns.

It is situated in a narrow sloping cleft on the cliff-studded southeast coast of the Crimea.

The cliffs rise sheer from the area into towering 8,000-foot mountain peaks, crowned at this season of the year with snow. At Yalta itself there is a sandy curving beach, lined with villas and resort hotels, many of which date from Czarist times.

Occupied two years

Yalta and the whole resort coast of Crimea was occupied by the Germans for about two years, but damage when the Nazis were ousted last spring was comparatively light. In the town of Yalta itself, windows were blown out of a good many seashore buildings and some of the shops were wrecked. But many of the villas and palaces were intact or suffered damage which could be repaired easily.

Winters are mild on the Crimean coast, not unlike those on the California coast. Days are generally warm and sunshiny, but the nights are cool.

The steep, stony land running back up to the mountain crags is covered with vineyards. Crimean champagne and fine wines are famous in Russia and many consider their quality second only to the wines of France.

Sevastopol visit hinted

Above the vineyards the hillsides are deeply forested with pines and other evergreens stretching up to the timber line. Clouds often hang over the high peaks above Yalta, obscuring the mountain crests.

It is probable that the conferees took time out from their deliberations to visit Sevastopol which lies about 40 miles from Yalta on the southwest corner of Crimea. Sevastopol has been back in Russian hands about 10 months.

8650

Italians glum over results

ROME, Italy (UP) – Italians were glum today over the Crimean Conference, making much of the fact that Italy was not even mentioned in the official announcements.

Before the meeting the Italian press had dwelt on hopes that the Big Three would “regurgitate” Italy’s position, which is generally regarded here as depressingly uncertain.

Vatican quarters were equally gloomy. They felt the Crimean declaration was a disappointment in three respects: First, that Italy was not mentioned and appears to have little prospect of participating in the peace; second, that freedom of religion was not mentioned; third, that the Polish issue has been settled on a basis of compromise.

8651

Jap peers demand all-out war effort

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8652

‘Hint’ is found that Russians will fight Japs

Speculation is rife after Big Three talks

WASHINGTON (UP) – Washington observers carefully studied the Big Three report today for indications of Russian cooperation in the war against Japan. Optimists found a few hints – but nothing more than hints.

There was much speculation over the date chosen for the start of the full-dress United Nations conference at San Francisco on the world security organization – April 25.

By design or by accident, that also is the final date on which Russia could notify Japan that she does not care to renew the Russo-Japanese Non-Aggression Pact. If no notice is sent by that date, the treaty automatically will be renewed for an additional five years beyond April 25, 1946.

To sit with China

Some observers found a hint of future Russian cooperation in the Pacific War in the fact she will sit down at the same conference table with China at San Francisco.

They recalled that the original Dumbarton Oaks talks had to be split into two sessions because Russia would not participate in the same conference with China.

Less optimistic persons pointed out that the San Francisco meeting would be a full-dress conference of all 44 of the United Nations, whereas the Dumbarton Oaks talks involved only the United States, Britain, Russia and China.

Situation ‘about same’

The fact that Russia agreed to submit the compromise voting procedure for the proposed world security organization to China before making it public also was cited by some observers. Again, however, it was pointed out that this will be strictly in anticipation of the full-dress San Francisco conference.

All in all, the situation seemed to be just about what it was before the Yalta conferees reported on their talks. That is, Russia still maintaining a most discreet and unbreakable silence but the Allies hoping that eventually – probably after Germany surrenders – she will throw in her might with the United States, Britain and China to beat Japan.

8653

French approve Big Three decisions

Will take part in Reich occupation

PARIS, France (UP) – French quarters expressed full agreement with nearly all phases of the Big Three declaration today and said France would accept invitations to participate in the occupation and control of post-war Germany.

France will also send a representative to the United Nations conference at San Francisco in response to the Big Three’s invitation, these sources said.

Bitter over exclusion

Satisfaction over the Crimean declaration was tempered, however, by bitterness over France’s exclusion from the conference though she is Germany’s principal neighbor in the west.

France was kept in the dark as to when and where the conference was being held and what was being discussed. The decisions were finally handed to French Foreign Minister George Bidault by the American, British and Soviet ambassadors last night as they were being announced.

De Gaulle vindication

The Big Three’s invitations to participate in the occupation of Germany and join the Allied control commission at Berlin were seen as vindication of Gen. Charles de Gaulle’s diplomacy.

Gen. de Gaulle twice recently had reaffirmed France’s right to occupy the Rhineland and Ruhr, possibly in connection with the U.S. and Britain at first but later alone. Occupation of a broad strip of the east bank of the Rhine was also seen as a possibility.

8654

Editorial: The Yalta agreement

The Big Three agreement at Yalta was a compromise in which Marshal Stalin dictated most of the terms, and the Atlantic Charter pledges – other than German disarmament – came off second best.

The biggest thing in its favor is that it ties the Big Three together for continuation of the war until unconditional surrender; that it proposes a post-war security organization, and pledges a United Nations meeting in San Francisco in April to open up general discussion among all the Allies.

Like most compromises, it isn’t satisfactory; but it does lay a groundwork for future effort to bring about an eventual settlement worked out in a more democratic manner than is possible in the critical stages of the war.

In justice to the President, it should be recognized that he has much less bargaining power than Marshal Stalin in any Big Three meeting now.

Marshal Stalin enjoyed actual possession of part of eastern Germany and all of Eastern Europe, except Greece, and the strongest military force on the continent. He had secured Prime Minister Churchill’s prior acceptance of Russian claims and sphere of influence, and agreement that these decisions should be made by the Big Three (or four) instead of the United Nations. And, thirdly, he had the power to help us, or not help us, lick Japan later.

As a result, Stalin got what he wanted at Yalta with few exceptions.

The most important exception was his agreement that the entire German military system, as Well as Nazism, must be eliminated permanently. Earlier he had publicly favored a post-war German Army.

Since most of the other terms to be imposed on Germany were kept secret pending unconditional surrender, they cannot be evaluated now. Though war criminals would be punished, no specific reference was made to the Junker generals on Marshal Stalin’s “Free Germany Committee.” Germany must pay reparations in kind – Stalin wanted that, while other Allies have been undecided or divided at home.

Mr. Roosevelt got reaffirmation of the Atlantic Charter pledge of self-government for liberated peoples. first by broadening the representative base of the Russian puppet provisional regimes of Poland and Yugoslavia, and by promising later free elections, But of course the territories taken by Russia will have no such elections.

Nominally, the President won a point in getting a United Nations conference called for April in San Francisco. But whether Marshal Stalin will have veto power over any league action relating to Russia, as he insisted at Dumbarton, is still a secret. Anyway, according to the Yalta plan, the San Francisco conference will not consider the peace settlement but only the machinery for a later security league. It is supposed “to prepare the charter of such an organization along the lines proposed… at Dumbarton Oaks.”

The Polish settlement was the payoff. Mr. Roosevelt agreed to Russia taking eastern Poland up to a slightly modified Curzon Line; whether to include additional southern Polish cities and oil fields, as previously agreed to by Mr. Churchill, was not stated. Poland is to get “substantial” territory in the north and west – the original Stalin plan to load her with large slices of Germany, making Poland a perpetual Russian puppet for defense of a larger “Alsace-Lorraine.”

The Yalta settlement is, after all, simply a Big Three agreement. Perhaps that is all it could possibly be under present war conditions.

The other United Nations have had no voice in the settlement. We hope that they will have an opportunity to be heard and to make their voices effective at the San Francisco meeting.

8655

Editorial: Smokes for the Swedes

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8656

Edson: War gadgets go obsolete before they’re used

By Peter Edson

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8657

Ferguson: Desperate need

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

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8658

Background of news –
Refugees and Palestine

By F. M. Brewer

The number of Jewish refugees in Europe is now estimated to exceed 1,500,000. Of this number, it is believed that not more than one-third will wish to return to their former homes – in countries where they suffered brutal persecution before and during the war. The vast majority look forward to permanent settlement in the Jewish homeland in Palestine.

James G. McDonald, chairman of the President’s Advisory Board on Political Refugees, has said:

Only in Palestine can the mass of Jewish refugees hope to be welcome and to be assisted to integrate themselves in the life of the community.

American Jewish organizations have plans for settlement of a million refugee Jews in Palestine within two years after the end of the war. But these plans cannot be carried out unless there is a change in the immigration policy for Palestine laid down by Great Britain as the mandatory power for that country under the League of Nations.

The present immigration policy was set forth in a British white paper issued in 1939, before the outbreak of the present war. It provided for the admission of 10,000 Jews to Palestine in each of the next five years, with an additional allowance of 25,000 to care for refugees. Thus, provision was made for the entry of 75,000 additional Jews, but Jewish immigration was to be cut off altogether at the end of March 1944 – “unless the Arabs are prepared to acquiesce in it.”

Quota not reached

War conditions made it impossible for the full 75,000 Jews to reach Palestine by last March, with the result that the time limit was given an indefinite extension. However, the number of entry permits at present outstanding is only about 10,000, while the number of Jews wanting to go to Palestine is perhaps a million.

The present immigration policy has been denounced by all Zionist organizations, but it does not result from any unfriendly attitude toward the Jews on the part of the British government.

The Balfour Declaration of 1917, which promised the establishment in Palestine of “a national home for the Jewish people” was a British state paper. Immediately after the announcement of the present policy in 1939, it was condemned by Winston Churchill as “plainly a breach and a repudiation of the Balfour Declaration.” But the policy has not been changed since Mr. Churchill became prime minister – in fact, all suggestions for liberalization have been strongly resisted by the London government.

No change could be made without grievously offending the Arabs and avoidance of such offense is a matter of prime importance to the Allied cause in the war.

An ‘Arab empire’?

Arab support was important also in the First World War. Negotiations with Arab leaders led to an agreement in January 1916, in which it was stated that “The British government agree to help in the formation of an Arab Empire completely independent in its internal and foreign affairs.” Palestine was not specifically mentioned, but the Arabs believed it was to be included in the proposed Arab Empire. The subsequent announcement of the Balfour Declaration created indignation throughout the Moslem world.

No steps have since been taken by the British government to promote “the formation of an Arab Empire,” but the Arab states have themselves arranged a meeting at Cairo, February 14, to set up an “Arab Union.” Resistance to further Jewish immigration to Palestine will be one of the principal purposes of the new confederation.

The need to propitiate the Arabs was the chief reason for War and State Department intervention last year when Congress was about to adopt a resolution calling for an immediate lifting of all restrictions on Jewish immigration to Palestine. However, the Republican and Democratic platforms of 1944 both endorsed “unrestricted immigration” and establishment in Palestine of a free and democratic Jewish commonwealth.

8659

Way down south –
43 are killed, 500 injured in tornadoes

Mississippi, Alabama sections hit

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8660

AFL proposes local control for job plan

Minimum of federal regulation sought
By Ned Brooks, Scripps-Howard staff writer

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8661

Clear it with Sidney?
Hillman’s plea for world labor unit gets ovation in London

Wins backing of Russians, French, Latins – British cool – criticism heaped on AFL
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

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8662

‘King of Arctic’ dies at age of 82

POINT BARROW, Alaska (UP) – Natives and whites of this northern outpost planned a regal funeral today for Charles D. Brower, 82-year-old “King of the Arctic,” who died Sunday from a heart attack.

Brower circled the world seven times on schooners and for years commanded whaling ships. A native of New York, he found the Arctic friendly and, after retirement, remained here.

Brower accumulated a modest fortune from whaling and trading. In his active years, he caught three or more whales a year, realizing from $6,000 to $10,000 each, and he once controlled all the trading posts on the Arctic rim.

Nazi general’s kin in U.S. Army

FORT KNOX. Kentucky (UP) – Wolf von Otterstedt, nephew of a major general in the German Army, is a second lieutenant in the United States Army – a recent graduate of the Armored Officers Candidate School at Fort Knox.

Von Otterstedt tried to enlist in the U.S. Army in 1940 but had to wait until 1943 to be accepted after an investigation by the FBI, the Department of Justice and War Department G-2, according to Fort Knox authorities.

He has not heard from his father – a captain in the German Army – since 1942. His brother is a member of the British Eighth Army and his mother is a Red Cross nurse in London.

8663

Ernie Pyle V Norman

Roving Reporter

By Ernie Pyle

Ernie Pyle has left San Francisco on an assignment with the Navy in the Pacific. He will remain with the Navy for several months and then go ashore to join the infantry – which is so close to Ernie’s heart – in some phase of the great campaigns now developing in the Pacific.

The following column was written before Ernie left San Francisco. His first direct report on his new assignment is expected in a day or two.

SAN FRANCISCO, California – Some of you old-time readers who’ve hung on faithfully to this column for years, might like to know how some of my personal affairs are getting along, since I’ve always worn all the family intimacies on my sleeve.

Take our little dog for instance – “Cheetah.” When I got home, she was in the midst of a romantic spell, and had a lot of strange men-dogs whom I’ve never met hanging around outside the picket fence.

But the romantic business has passed, and now she’s as quiet and lazy as an old woman. She never barks, never makes any trouble, and is always full of that most gracious of all dog gifts – affection for her masters. The little Shepherd is earning her way too Dog Heaven by perpetual good conduct.

Or take “That Girl,” whom you used to read so much about before the war, and who for all those long years of peacetime traveling, rode beside me.

I haven’t written much about her in recent years, because I haven’t seen much of her. The war has done the same thing to us that it has to millions of others. In the last four years, we have been together only on these little excursion trips to America.

She has kept the hearth in Albuquerque – under difficulties. She is back there now, trying to cope with the prospect of another year alone.

Folks in Indiana

And my folks in Indiana – I visited them twice on this furlough in America, both visits all too short, but better than some.

My father and my Aunt Mary are still on the farm, three miles outside the little town of Dana. They have repapered the house and rearranged the furniture, and they are very comfortable.

My father still limps from his hip fracture of a year ago. And his eyes are very bad now, and he can’t see to read. But he gets around all right, and even drives the car to town now and then. We think he shouldn’t be driving, but every time Aunt Mary mentions that, he goes out and get in the car and drives it to town, so she’s stopped mentioning it.

Dad listens a lot to the radio, and helps with the dishes, and Aunt Mary reads to him at night, and last summer he even helped some with the harvesting when the neighbors were hard up for help. he raises a few chickens. Outside of that, life is without duties or energy for him.

Aunt Mary keeps busy

Aunt Mary is almost 79, and her spirit is boundless. She goes all day long, like a 16-year-old. She cooks the meals, cleans the house, works in the garden, does the washing for two or three families, goes to her club meetings and to church, does things for the neighbors, and never finds time to sit down.

I was amused at a letter that came from her the other day. One of our neighbors, Mrs. Howard Goforth, came down with a violent rheumatism. So, Aunt Mary drove over and put hot cloths on her for several hours, got noontime dinner for the farmhands, did the weekly washing, and then got supper ready for them before she came home for her own evening chores.

Next day a blizzard was on. The ice was so slick she didn’t dare take the car out of the garage. The snow on the roads was two feet deep and it was bitter cold.

So, what did Aunt Mary do? She just bundled up and walked three-quarters of a mile over to Goforths, worked all day, and then walked back in the evening through the snow. She sure doesn’t take after her nephew.

8664

Stokes: For good or evil

By Thomas L. Stokes

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8665

Love: Wartime travel

By Gilbert Love

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8666

HIT the BEACH!

LSM crews learn their jobs in stiff sea, shore training
By Denis S. Sneigr

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8667

Gracie Allen Reporting

By Gracie Allen

Well, this is about the time of year that everyone in Hollywood starts to get excited about the nominations for the Motion Picture Academy Awards.

Speaking of awards, I’d like to hand out a few Oscars myself, for the best dialogue writing of the year: the American General who said “Nuts” at Bastogne; for the best sound effects: the roar of B-29s over Tokyo; for the best story of the year: MacArthur’s reconquest of the Philippines; for the best screamplay: Joseph Goebbels; for the best comedy writing: almost any communiqué from the Japanese Propaganda Office; for the best travelogue: “My Trip Through Poland,” by Gen. Zhukov.

Oh yes, and as a grand booby prize, for the worst supporting performance of the year – Benito Mussolini.