The New York Times Book of World War II, 1939-1945

by The New York Times

  REJOINDER BY HULL

  On Thursday Secretary of State Hull took occasion to re-emphasize the warnings to American traders against engaging in transactions of any character with either Italy or Ethiopia. He pointed to the greater purposes of the administration.

  “I repeat that our objective is to keep this country out of war,” he said.

  His statement and the deliberation with which he issued it were interpreted as a practical rebuke to Secretary Roper, as well as a redeclaration to the American people that the administration intends to follow the spirit as well as the letter of the neutrality resolution—at least for the present.

  While these developments show the troubles which responsible officials already have encountered in following a non-discretionary method in keeping this country out of international involvements, they were much more significant from the standpoint of what they indicated for the future.

  For the present, then, it can be safely predicted that the President will follow the course laid down or indicated by the neutrality resolution, regardless of the protests of exporters or shipping interests.

  The phrase “for the present” is used advisedly. The test of this fixed method of keeping us out of war has not come. So long as the present conflict is confined to Italy and Ethiopia it may never come.

  To date neither Mr. Roosevelt nor anyone else has had any definite indication that the neutrality resolution was not a generally popular act. It represented the sincere desire of the American people to stay out of the next war and the methods it prescribed were popular, so far as they were understood.

  CHANGE POSSIBLE

  Officials in Washington wonder, however, if that popular mind might not be changed under stress as it was changed in 1916–17. They wonder what would happen, for instance, if other and more powerful nations should become involved and soon thereafter some of our commerce should be stopped on the high seas or some of our nationals should be killed.

  These officials answer their own questions with the frank intimation that the United States is following a day-today policy under the neutrality resolution, but with every apprehension that this will not suffice in a real test. They pray that the test may not come before Congress reconvenes, when, with a more enlightened public sentiment to support its action, it might give the Executive a better device for keeping us out of war.

  President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Oval Office, 1935.

  BACKED BY LAW

  So long as he follows his present course and throws himself completely on the law, the President can make short answer to those who would enlist this country in international action.

  Importunings are heard on every hand for America’s assistance in stifling the present outbreak. Former Secretary of State Stimson joined in the chorus during the week. In a letter to the editor of The New York Times, published on Friday, Mr. Stimson pointed out that the President, by affirming that war existed between Italy and Ethiopia, had inferentially called attention to the fact that these nations had broken the Kellogg-Briand pact.

  That agreement, Mr. Stimson insisted, was a promise by Italy and Ethiopia to the United States and other signatories that they would not resort to war for the solution of international controversies. The League, he said, had fixed the blame, and so it was within the province of the United States to act.

  Mr. Stimson insisted that “all the elements for moral leadership in this crisis lie in the hands of the President.” But the President has been bound, or for self-protection has bound himself, with a law—Senate Joint Resolution 173.

  OCTOBER 13, 1935

  ITALIANS DEFIANT OF WORLD CENSURE

  WHOLE NATION IS UNIFIED

  By ANNE O’HARE McCORMICK

  Wireless to The New York Times.

  ROME, Oct. 12—For the capital of a country at war against Ethiopia and against the world, Rome is strangely apathetic. Premier Benito Mussolini’s new Italy is very old, after all, and it never seemed older than in these high-tension hours.

  Behind the Fascist front is an older nation, careworn and warworn and with a long perspective. This Italy watches current events with a blasé somberness. The Romans, especially, have the attitude of stoical spectators at a drama of fate. Eager New York crowds may gather in Times Square to read bulletins from the war zone, but no such crowds gather in Rome. An Englishman arriving several days ago was amazed to find the atmosphere here less tense than in London. Outsiders cannot imagine how completely Italy is shut in with her own thoughts. She is shut in with history, too. World opinion is filtered and colored before reaching the people. What does strike home is that they have seen so many things pass that all, from Mussolini to the oldest cabman, believe that the cloud of opprobrium will dissolve quickly, just as world sentiment softened toward Japan, Germany and other lawbreakers.

  FOREIGN REACTION DISTORTED

  How much does Italy care for the moral and material reprobation of other nations? Judging by outward signs, not much. How much do the people know? The masses, reading only the Italian press, have little idea of the extent of the condemnation over the invasion of Ethiopia. External reactions are employed here as an instrument of internal policy. Thus the most virulent anti-Fascist attacks from abroad are headlined or suppressed as national feeling needs to be stirred up or toned down, while what opinion there is supporting the Italian stand is, of course, always featured. Quotations published in the past few days—from J. L. Garvin of The Observer, London; Frank Simonds, In the Nation, New York, and selected excerpts from editorials and letters in the French, British, American and German press—might easily convince the reader that the great body of foreign sentiment recognizes the justice of the Italian case.

  Educated Italians know what the world thinks. Virtually all read French and Swiss newspapers circulating in every city by the thousands. Mussolini knows; a member of his clipping bureau reports Il Duce insists these days on seeing only the unfavorable criticism, particularly from the English-language press. He cares enormously about foreign opinion. That his delegate submitted to the humiliation of sitting at Geneva to be condemned proves how much Mussolini desires to remain in the League, not only to fulfill the pledge made to France a month ago, but also to maintain his influence in Europe. Italy wants to be quartered but not quarantined in Africa.

  LEAGUE VOTE DEPRESSING

  The implication of events does not escape even the cabman. The League vote, though expected, had a depressing effect. So had President Roosevelt’s action anticipating Geneva in declaring a state of war and imposing the first official penalties. The League phalanx, however unreliable it may be in action, casts a rather black shadow over this peninsula. The American move was officially played down here as a measure assuring neutrality, but the people instinctively recognize in the President’s swift asperity a judgment on Italy and a reinforcement of the British determination to make sanctions work.

  The Italians know more than to care about world indignation, but the weight of the censure presses, and to one on the move they are an abnormally sensitive people. The mobilization against them, instead of dividing the nation and wrecking the regime responsible, has solidified Fascists and non-Fascists into 100 per cent Italians. Former Premier Vittorio Orlando, Italian member of the “big four” at the peace conference, is one of the many politicians of democratic Italy issuing from retirement their offers of services in a time of national emergency to the man who destroyed them.

  SENSE OF GUILT ABSENT

  To understand this it must be remembered that few among the vocal masses feel any sense of guilt at the aggression in Ethiopia. Questioning hundreds of persons in recent weeks the writer met only three—a young intellectual, an old liberal and a woman artist—suffering moral scruples over the breaking of pledges and the war.

  Many quite honestly sympathize with “those poor Ethiopians,” bombed and invaded, but only because they had been left so long to fall ill and starve under brutal masters!

  The Italians feel misgivings, fear and dee
p pessimism as to the future, but they are not conscience-stricken. In their own eyes it is they who suffer an injustice. Admitting freely they fight for “vital national interests” because they are convinced war is the only way out, they refuse to believe any other nation blocks their way for reasons more moral than opposing interests. In this Mediterranean of misunderstandings, British battleships frighten Italy, and Italian submarines exasperate the British by popping up to salute, it is said, in the most unexpected places. Neither side can see the other’s point. It is difficult, because the outlooks inside and outside Italy are as different as views through a window pane and a mirror.

  NO CHEERS FOR TROOPS

  The night after the news of Adowa troops in action were shown marching across a movie screen the audience neither applauded nor cheered. As it watched in silence the mind of one spectator traveled back to a Berlin theatre after conscription was proclaimed last March. The German audience went into a delirium at the sight of goose-stepping Reichswehr units. But the Italian mood is unlike the German. Between the Italians’ organized mass meetings, with their flares of joy or anger, the everyday pitch is one of grim resignation. It is a new note, more formidable than the old. Too many are veterans who think this country lost the lasts war and are resolved to “finish the job.” Too many are peasants, like the Tuscan farmer with two sons at the front.

  “I want the other two to go,” he said. “Rotting at home is worse than war.”

  This Italy does not care whether she pleases the world or not. Like all rebels against the established order, she has little to lose and is fatalistically prepared to lose it. Sanctions are dangerous because they will not stop the smoldering resentment of the penalized. The sunny Italy of yesterday is of darker mien today. It would be a fatal mistake to interpret this explosion as merely Fascist, as the imperial lust of Mussolini. In reality, it is the newest phase of world revolution—a poor nation organized to bait the rich. It can be interrupted, but with or without Il Duce it will go on.

  JULY 15, 1936

  BRITAIN WILL GIVE GAS MASKS TO ALL

  Mass Production Of New Type Of Respirator Is Ordered to Be Ready For Emergency.

  Wireless to The New York Times.

  LONDON, July 14—The goal of a perfect gas mask for every man, woman and child in Britain came nearer realization today. An official announcement spread the tidings that after long experiments government scientists had evolved a respirator that would give all necessary protection during a gas attack. Production will begin immediately on a huge scale, less than two decades after the war that was to end war forever.

  As the first step toward providing millions of masks free of charge, the Home Office today submitted a supplementary estimate of £887,000 in the House of Commons. Previous estimates for the army, navy and air force had reached the colossal total of £188,000,000 and there is every prospect that Britain’s defense expenditure will reach £200,000,000 during the present budget year.

  The government does not intend to issue the new masks to the public, it was explained today, “unless this becomes necessary,” but every effort will be made to have them ready for any emergency. The masks will be stored in convenient centers throughout the country. Arrangements will be made for citizens to try them on. Authorities today expressed hope that the public would “take advantage of the opportunity.”

  Today’s gas mask estimate included provision of £25,000 for purchasing and equipping two factories near Manchester, £7,000 for additional staff in the Air Raid Precautions Department of the Home Office, and £5.000 for a civilian anti-gas school at Falfield, Gloucestershire.

  In addition, the Commons will be asked to appropriate £100,000 extra for the secret service, bringing the total for the year to £350,000, while the biggest item of all is an additional £2,930,000 needed for a cattle subsidy to British farmers.

  Coincident with news of the antigas precautions there were more signs today of the deadly seriousness with which Britain is rearming. Alfred Duff Cooper, the Secretary for War. told the Commons that he had decided to appoint Vice Admiral Sir Harold Brown, the engineer-in-chief of the fleet, as Director General of Munitions Production, with a seat on the Army Council. The new official will be responsible to Mr. Cooper for coordinating and speeding the production of munitions.

  The appointment is regarded as another step toward a Ministry of Munitions, which Winston Churchill and others with war-time experience have been demanding for a year or more.

  Cyclists of the London police unit wearing gas masks and protective suits during an exercise, 1936.

  JULY 19, 1936

  LEFTIST CABINET QUITS

  SEVILLE REVOLT CRUSHED

  But All Spanish Morocco Is Held by Revolutionary Force Numbering 20,000.

  By The Associated Press

  MADRID, July 19—The Leftist Cabinet of Premier Santiago Casares Quiroga, harassed by a military revolt in Spanish Morocco and the Canary Islands and outbreaks in Spain itself, resigned early today. It took office last May 13.

  By WILLIAM P. CARNEY

  Wireless to The New York Times.

  MADRID, July 18 (Passed by the Censor)—The Spanish Government announces that an extensive plot against the republic has broken out. It is now learned from the government that rebels seized the radio station in Ceuta, Spanish Morocco, and broadcast an announcement purporting to have been issued by the Seville radio station stating that all government buildings in Madrid had been seized.

  The government also announces that the Morocco operations were connected with a similar plot in Spain.

  The plot was quickly suppressed, according to the government by promptly arresting many army officers, including General Barrera, who entered the Guadalajara military prison this morning.

  MOROCCAN TOWNS BOMBED

  The government further states that the military aviation remained loyal to it and that bombing planes sent from Spain bombarded Ceuta and Melilla, also in Spanish Morocco.

  [A rebel force of 20,000 held complete control over Spanish Morocco last night, refugees reaching Tangier said, according to an Associated Press dispatch.]

  It was learned from official sources that General Queipo de Llano had illegally declared martial law in Seville and had attempted to start a rebellion, which was quickly smothered by loyal troops there.

  [From French border points came reports of fighting in various Spanish cities, including Cadiz, Burgos and Barcelona, according to The Associated Press, and at Hendaye it was rumored that all the garrisons in Andalusia had risen.]

  A telegram from the Civil Governor at Las Palmas, the Canary Islands, said that he and the commanding officer of the Civil Guards there were barricaded in the Governor’s palace, which was surrounded and besieged by rebel troops. The Socialist workers’ union at Las Palmas has declared a general strike to show its sympathy with the government.

  SITUATION IN MADRID NORMAL

  Madrid presented a perfectly normal aspect today. It was officially denied that the rebels’ plan was gradually to close in on the capital and strike here last. The government said in an official statement broadcast repeatedly today from the Ministry of the Interior, “Public order has not been disturbed in Madrid or anywhere in the provinces.”

  The government categorically repudiated rumors that troops had crossed the straits from Morocco and landed at Algeciras or that General Francisco Franco, military Governor of the Canary Islands, had joined the rebellion.

  [Reports from North Africa said General Franco was heading the revolt in Morocco.]

  Rumors of a military uprising in the Balearic Islands were also officially refuted.

  It was officially announced that a “foreign airplane,” intended to bring the revolt’s leader to Madrid from Morocco had been seized.

  A joint note issued by the Socialist and Communist labor organizations was broadcast by a union radio station in Madrid tonight. It said that the Marxist trade unions would declare general strikes wherever martial law has been declared by military
governors without the government’s authorization.

  All the higher army officers in Madrid called on the War Minister last night to assure him of their loyalty and readiness to fight for the defense of the republic.

  A statement broadcast by the government early this morning said:

  “Enemies of the State are still indulging in spreading false news, but the loyalty of all the forces in Spain to the government is general. Only in Morocco are there still parts of our army that are showing a hostile attitude toward the republic.

  “The Ceuta radio station is trying to create alarm by broadcasting the announcement that some ships have been seized by rebel troops and are heading for the peninsula. The news is completely false.

  “At the present moment our fleet is making for Spanish Morocco ports and is encountering no opposition in its efforts to restore peace. Peace and order will be completely restored very shortly.

  “The government wishes to make known once more that the rumor in connection with the proposed declaration of martial law in Spain is absolutely baseless. There is no power in Spain other than the civil one and all other institutions in Spain are subordinate to the civil power, which is the one power in command.”