The New York Times Book of World War II, 1939-1945
Page 38
OCTOBER 5, 1940
Editorial
REUNION ON THE BRENNER
The communiqué assures us that it was a “cordial reunion” between the dictators on the Brenner yesterday. But as Hitler and Mussolini examined their present position and looked into the future, they also confronted a stubborn fact which neither of them could have guessed when they last met in Munich in the early Summer. This is the fact of British survival, a fact that still compels them to meet in an armored train with anti-aircraft guns cocked on the roof against possible raiders. Great Britain still stands in their path, her naval power intact, her air force growing in strength and deadly skill, her people withstanding the most fiendish assaults that the Nazi mind has been able to contrive. The Axis time-table called for complete victory before Winter; the new time-table must be adjusted to the prospect of a long war.
This, in itself, is enough to have made the talk on the Brenner less pleasant than a mere Kaffeeklatsch between old friends. These dictators do not usually meet unless they have troublesome problems to solve. In this case it can be assumed that they tried to coordinate their future plans, but each possible move has its drawbacks for one partner or the other. A great German drive into the Balkans, with the Iraq oil fields as its glittering prize, would cut into an Italian sphere of influence in Europe, and it would risk complications with Turkey and perhaps with Russia. A combined Axis drive into Egypt, aimed at the Suez Canal, might expose men and supplies to the guns of the British fleet on the water crossing to Libya; it might also raise the delicate choice between German and Italian leadership in such an enterprise. An attack on Gibraltar through hungry and exhausted Spain would raise an infinity of supply problems, as Serrano Suñer seems to have made clear in Berlin and Rome. A possible attempt to bring France into the Axis might lead to the occupation of all France, but would also run the risk of bringing the French Empire back into the war.
Moreover, the dictators must have known, as they discussed their future plans, that every month of the Winter will throw the material power of the United States into the scales against them. They have already tried, by threats, to put a stop to American help to Great Britain; they may now attempt other tactics, perhaps another “peace” offer, perhaps more active courting of Soviet Russia, to confuse or frighten the American people. Their exact plan of campaign is a military secret; we are only told from Berlin that it will involve “cataclysmic” results for Great Britain. But whatever the Winter plan may be, it will be less important than the fact that the dictators have had to make a Winter plan at all.
Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler and Italian Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano meet at the Brenner Pass.
OCTOBER 6, 1940
HOW LONDON PRESS PLAYS WAR NEWS
AGITATION OVER SUBWAY
Tickets May Be Given for Its Use as Shelter, Says Paper Brought by Clipper
The big news in London on Thursday and Friday was the reshuffling of the Churchill Cabinet, which shared interest with a German bomber’s raid on a Midlands playground and the machine-gunning of a London mainliner and with the parley of Hitler and Mussolini at the Brenner Pass, according to a batch of the British capital’s newspapers that reached here yesterday aboard the British flying boat Clyde.
But Londoners were equally interested in the business of making their daily existence, harried by continual Nazi bombing attacks, more comfortable, the play of minor news items indicated. The Daily Mail featured a story that the police had orders not to open Central London subway stations as air-raid shelters until 7 P.M., except for women and children, to permit homeward-bound commuters to pass through with a minimum of discomfort.
TICKETS FOR SUBWAY SHELTER
The Daily Express gave a prominent page-one position to a story reporting that the Home Security Ministry was planning to issue tickets for shelter space in the subways to cope with overcrowding. The Daily Telegraph reported that the Ministry of Food was pushing plans for the opening of coffee stalls and milk bars in the subway stations so that “people sheltering in the Tube stations will soon be able to have hot drinks and snacks during the night and when they get up hungry in the morning.”
All the papers made much of Herbert Morrison’s appointment to the Home Secretaryship and the Home Security Ministry, and the belief was expressed that it indicated the government had decided on a policy of deep air-raid shelters—a project Mr. Morrison urged before the war—and that this would be Mr. Morrison’s first task. The Daily Sketch said that “Mr. Ernest (Get-Things-Done) Bevin”—its identification of the Minister of Labor—was horrified by the darkness of shelters he inspected, and asked “Why on earth haven’t they got lights?” and then ordered that lighting be provided at once.
The advertisements, too, indicated that Londoners were settling down for a long siege of air bombing, crowding into shelters for as much sleep as the dugouts afford, and then hurrying off to work, bleary-eyed but dogged. Chocolate bars are pushed as the best food “when you’ve only a minute for a stand-up meal.” A petroleum jelly preparation is offered as a means of providing a sound-dimming coating for wads of cotton wool stuffed in the ears—“an air raid sounds much more dangerous than it really is,” the advertiser assures his public.
THAT BLITZKRIEG INSOMNIA
Hot chocolate preparations are advertised for overcoming Blitzkrieg insomnia and digestive pills are suggested “to keep you fit in times like these.” Even cologne manufacturers are doing their bit to keep business going as usual on the home front, for, while admitting that “zeal for the job may tend to fade after a long spell of duty,” they make the claim that a touch of their products “brings back that feeling of freshness and alertness.”
Londoners seek shelter from German bombs in the Underground, 1940.
OCTOBER 6, 1940
EMPIRE AID TO BRITAIN NOW RISING TO A PEAK
From All Around the World Supplies Of Men, Food, Money Are Flowing In to Help Defeat The Dictators
By JAMES MacDONALD
Special Cable to The New York Times.
LONDON, Oct. 5—Behind Great Britain’s front line of actual hostilities lies a vast support line that may well prove the final buffer on which John Bull’s enemies will dash themselves to pieces.
This support line is not only a military one but, what is more important to Britain, also an economic one. It embraces such tiny colonial cogs as Bermuda and Cyprus and vast wealthy dominions like Canada and Australia. In other words, it is a strong line composed of the British Commonwealth of Nations, the subcontinent of India and colonial possessions all around the globe.
In steadily increasing volume this support line is furnishing men, money and materials with which Britain is keeping her foes at bay. The British family of nations and colonies, numbering millions of people and representing tremendous material resources, is in this war up to the hilt.
KEEPING SEA LANES OPEN
While the British Navy is keeping up the barrier to prevent any and all imports coming by sea to Italy or Germany, it is guarding the sea lanes through which butter, bacon, eggs, wheat, airplanes, soldiers, munitions and money from all parts of the world come streaming to Britain.
From Canada alone Britain is receiving huge quantities of bacon, wheat, flour, barley, salmon and apples. The Dominion Bureau of Statistics estimates, according to London officials, that the current wheat crop will total 561,000,000 bushels—only 5,000,000 below the record harvest of 1928. The oat crop is estimated at 405,000,000 bushels and the barley crop at 110,500,000 bushels. The linseed crop amounts to 3,500,000 bushels. Since early August bacon supplies have been averaging 9,000,000 pounds a week.
On the financial side, war expenditure in Canada during the first year of hostilities exceeded $550,000,000, which included some British but was mostly Canadian outlay for the war effort. During the fiscal year 1940-1941, Canada plans to spend $700,000,000 for war ends.
Total capital expenditure for new munitions plants and equipment planned in Canada by both Canadian a
nd British Governments is $222,600,000. These plants are expected to yield an annual output of munitions valued at $800,000,000.
In Australia plans have been made to send 200,000,000 pounds of wool to the United States for storage under British ownership. Thus far Australia has sent the mother country her total surplus of copper, zinc and tungsten and 56,000,000 bushels of wheat.
WAR SAVINGS GROUPS
Sales of Australian war saving certificates exceed £13,000,000. In addition, Australia has war savings groups numbering 1,250,000 individuals, one-sixth of the population, and Commonwealth Treasury officials estimate the first year’s savings all told will exceed £25,000,000.
At Whyalla, South Australia shipping port for iron ore, a great industrial center is being developed.
Seven Australian shipyards are building fifty patrol vessels, each to be manned by “Aussies.”
New Zealand also is doing her bit. It is expected that by the end of this year she will have sent Britain 120,000 tons of butter and 107,000 tons of cheese compared to 115,000 and 84,000 tons respectively last year.
On Sept. 26 New Zealand authorities announced a war loan of £8,000,000. New Zealand also tightened her belt by forbidding imports of knitting yarn, bicycle tires and tubes and other commodities that her people formerly enjoyed.
South Africa is sending the motherland almost fabulous sums from her gold mines. The Transvaal gold output in August reached a new record, almost 1,200,000 fine ounces. Also Africa is supplying British householders with plenty of eggs. One recent shipment amounted to more than 10,000 cases containing almost 4,000,000 eggs. South Africa’s war effort, it is estimated here, will cost at least £46,000,000 by the end of this year.
A queue for fish in London during the war.
NEWFOUNDLAND’S EFFORT
The sturdy Newfoundlanders, too, do all they can to strengthen Britain’s support trenches. Already they have subscribed a £300,000 war loan. Moreover, they have presented the R.A.F. with two Spitfire fighter planes that cost £5,000 each.
Despite her severe internal political and religious strife, India also is helping Britain in her economic warfare against Germany and Italy. Nearly £20,000,000 has been subscribed since the Indian defense savings movement was launched early in June to assist in strengthening Indian forces. At the same time wealthy Indian potentates have been contributing anywhere up to £75,000 for the purchase of planes for Britain.
So the story goes. Burma, East Africa, Borneo, Mauritius, the Seychelles, Malta, the Bahamas, Barbados, the Leeward and Windward Islands, the Falklands all are contributing to the best of their ability.
But that is not all. There is a purely military side. And since it was foreseen long ago that whether the German campaign would be successful would depend on aerial warfare, probably the most vital phase would be the Empire air training schools.
The more important seats of this grim university for teaching men how to pilot military planes, drop bombs and machine-gun an enemy—always at the risk of a fearsome death—are in Canada, but there are others in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. At all of them there is reported to be no lack of recruits.
OCTOBER 6, 1940
VAST ARMS OUTPUT IN U.S. SEEN FOR ’41
General Electric Heads Say Our Might Eventually Will Outstrip the World
While a huge crowd of General Electric employes, visiting the exposition in a body, gave the World’s Fair its biggest Saturday and its fifth-best day of the season, the two ranking officials of the company announced yesterday plans for a $50,000,000 expansion program for national defense and predicted that the industrial might of democratic America, once in high gear, will far outstrip the armaments output of the totalitarian countries.
More than 47,000 men, women and children, comprising General Electric employees and members of their families from various plants throughout this section of the country, converged on New York in special trains, buses, autos—and even two chartered steamboats—and poured into the Fair grounds during the morning. Fair officials said it was the largest single exhibitor’s group to visit the exposition this season.
With this “head start,” the paid attendance at the Fair climbed steadily throughout the afternoon and evening. Shortly after 4 P.M. it passed the mark of 233,864, which had set the previous “best Saturday” record on Sept. 21. The total paid attendance for the day was 280,260.
General Electric’s program for expanding its factories to keep up to schedule on its part of the country’s national defense program was announced by Charles E. Wilson, president of the company, who said that the $50,000,000 will be spent during the next fifteen months in enlarging plants and purchasing new equipment.
Also present at the press conference at the General Electric exhibit was Philip D. Reed, the 40-year-old chairman of the board of the corporation, who was outspoken in his positiveness that nothing except Germany’s defeat would cause the United States to slow down its defense program.
“NOT BUILDING FOR FUN”
Mr. Wilson had just remarked, in answer to a question, that he did not believe the Presidential election results would alter the defense program already under way, when Mr. Reed interjected:
“We aren’t building armaments for fun, you know. We’re building them to match conditions abroad, and the only thing that would stop it would be the collapse of Germany.”
Then he declared that American industry could “enormously exceed” totalitarian output once orders were placed and manufacturers had “tooled up” for production.
“It’s not a matter of days or weeks, but of months,” he declared in reference to the “tooling up” process. “You won’t see anything great this year, but after that the output will be enormous.”
Asked to express an opinion on how long he thought it would take for the democracies to catch up with the dictatorships in arms manufactures, Mr. Reed said he thought the balance would begin to turn by the end of 1941.
“I don’t mean that things aren’t happening now,” he said. “But, unfortunately, the last thing that happens is the first thing that the public sees.”
Mr. Wilson agreed that “a year from now, it’ll be rolling in tremendous magnitude.”
OCTOBER 9, 1940
Berlin Starts Evacuation of Children Fleeing Raids
Wireless to The New York Times.
BERLIN, Oct. 8—Yesterday and today the first trainloads of children who are being voluntarily evacuated from Berlin left the capital. More than 1,000 are believed to have been shipped off in the first two days, and the movement to localities less frequently bombed will continue for the next few weeks.
More than 550,000 German children have been evacuated from cities within the Reich since the outbreak of the war, to get them out of reach of British bombers. More than 350,000 of them have been sent to private families in smaller communities, in the country or in cities like Dresden, that are rarely attacked. The 200,000 others have been sent to camps, hostels and similar refuges.
Children up to the age of 3 are sent with their mothers. Those from 3 to 10 go to private families. The Hitler Youth Organization cares for those between 10 and 14.
OCTOBER 16, 1940
NEGRO AIR FORCE PLANNED
Special to The New York Times.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 15—Negro aviation units will be established, in the program of Army expansion, as soon as trained personnel can be obtained, it was said at the War Department today.
Training of flying personnel already is under way, with the assistance of the Civil Aeronautics Board, using government equipment. Negro pilots now are training at the Glenville Flying School in Chicago.
The National Youth Administration also is training mechanics and other ground crew personnel.
The decision is to establish Negro aviation units as part of a recently announced policy providing for Negro officers and enlisted men in proportion to their fraction of the country’s population—about 9 per cent.
Negro reserve officers will be assig
ned to colored units officered by Negroes, and when officer candidate schools are opened Negroes will be admitted to them. Regular Army units now officered by whites will receive no Negro officers, however, except medical officers and chaplains.
OCTOBER 28, 1940
DE GAULLE FORMING FREE ‘GOVERNMENT’
Proclaims Authority over All Territory in Revolt, Calls Frenchmen to Arms
By JAMES B. RESTON
Special Cable to The New York Times.
LONDON, Oct. 27—In a broadcast proclamation from Leopoldville, in the Belgian Congo, General Charles de Gaulle announced his decision today to appoint a Council of Defense for the French Empire.
With a declaration that “a few infamous politicians were delivering up the Empire of France,” General de Gaulle, who is visiting in the Congo, issued an order stating:
“As long as the French Government and the representation of the French people do not exist normally and independently of the enemy, the powers formally performed by the Chief of State and by the Council of Ministers will be exercised by the leader of the Free French forces assisted by a Council of Defense.”
These new powers, General de Gaulle said, would be enforced in accordance with the laws existing in France on June 23, 1940.
This declaration is of especial interest here because of its manifest assumption that Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain is ready to sell out to Chancellor Hitler. This is an assumption that is not yet accepted by the British Foreign Office.