Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 11, Number 7, DeMotte, Jasper County, 2 January 1941 — WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Halifax Named British Envoy to U. S. As Eden Gets Foreign Minister Post; U. S. Defense Set-Up Revised in Effort To Speed Up Industrial Production [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Halifax Named British Envoy to U. S. As Eden Gets Foreign Minister Post; U. S. Defense Set-Up Revised in Effort To Speed Up Industrial Production

By Edward C. Wayne

SOMEWHERE IN ENGLAND—A “Pioneer” squad is shown marching to work after a night raid on a Midlands town. The duty of these men is to clean up the debris and make roads passable. They also demolish parts of buildings left standing by the bombs but which might constitute a hazard. Often they work right through the raid while bombs dropj

(EDITOR’S NOTE—When opinions are expressed in these eolnmns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) i. M , (Released by Western Newspaper TT«<nn \

BOSS: Becomes Servant Selection of Viscount Halifax as British ambassador to the United States was a case of the boss becoming the servant and vice versa, for Anthony Eden was named as most likely candidate for succession to Halifax's post as foreign secretary. j Halifax left the cabinet, the last of the Chamberlain appeasement

crew, a man ' for whose scalp the BriL ish anti - Chamberlainites had howled for months withou l success. Washington con ceded the great ability of the new arn bassador, and predicted success for him here, while admitting that American public opinion at the outset might

recall his appeasement tactics before Munich. It was announced that Britain might add the post of minister to its staff in Washington. Both ambassador and minister had been the custom in Britain’s Paris office, but hitherto Washington has had only an ambassador.

Just what Eden has been up to in Egypt and the near East has never been made clear, but it must have been successful, because lobservers pointed to the fact that B. E. (before Eden) things had been at a standstill in the eastern Mediterranean sector, and after Anthony arrived on the scene, of a sudden the British rose up, pelted the Fascists, and sailed them Way hack into Libya. - effort against the Dodecanese islands also.was crowned with a great deal of success, and Eden is, believed to have had a finger in that pie as well, ISo now he is to be Drought back as foreign minister frofiri his present p’bst as secretary for (var, rand this will be odd, for he will go"f)ack into a job he held under Chamberlain, and which he vacated because he openly expressed himsjelf as- out of sympathy with the then premier’s appeasement policy. SECONDS: In the Ring Italy was not, perhaps, knocked out of the war by but her seconds, at any Irate, jumped into the ring. Presence of- large numbers of German troops was confirmed in many quarters. Purpose of these was a bit dubious, but consensus was that some would be used in actual fighting in the Battle of Greece and the Battle of Africa, and that others would be employed to bolster home morale. Germany, in admitting official aid to Italy, let it be known that Axis partners must stand together, and that in sending aid to II Duce’s tottering armies Germany was but repaying aid sent to her by Italy in the form of “hundreds of pilots and planes for cross-Channel bombing.” It was too early for the general effect of these reinforcements to be noted in the war reports. British mechanized forces, backed by naval guns from the Mediterranean and by naval and army planes from overhead, pushed on rapidly into Libya.

The fall of Salum forced an entry into Italian territory, and the British, using the German tactics of the fight through Flanders, shot ahead down the coastal roads 175 miles within 'the border, completely Surrounding and cutting off some 20,000 troops in Bardia, principal port. Bardia was placed in a state of seige, and the British main forces after leaving sufficient men to prosecute the f-eduction of Bdrcfia, later to be reinforced from , the rear, pushed on toward Tcjbruk and Derna. Marshal Graziam and his main forces were still able to keep ahead of the British, but the latter claimed enormous numbers of prisoners, killed and wounded Italians, totaling around 30,000, great booty, all accomplished with a British loss of only 1,000. Just where the Germans w’ould enter the picture in the Battle of Africa was not clear, with the British naval forces apparently in charge of the coastline and unmolested, and the better ports either in British hands or under siege. CLAUSE SIX: , And National Defense When President Roosevelt wants to do something drastic and final and something that has not been done before, he has'a system all his own. - He calls his legal advisers in, tells them what he wants to do, and then has them find a law for it. He has created a new job, called the Office for Emergency Production Management, and put into it William S. Knudsen, wizard automobile production man, with instructions that he is to be the “czar” for U. S. defense, and all lights extending before him will be green lights. Knudsen took the job (which he almost had before the new order) grabbed his new authority, and told America to “roll up its sleeves go to work’’ building planes and munitions.

“There must be no appeasement,” he said, and he called the war in Europe “irreconcilable” in character, and asked the nation to “recognize the full gravity of the crisis” which resulted in additional power being given to his organization. One writer said that, seven months ago, when Knudsen was given the defense chairmanship, he gave that funny half-smile of his and asked President Roosevelt “who’s the boss?” The President said “I am.” And Knudsen took the job, it was said with misgivings. These misgivings have been more than justified in the defense industry lag. Now, it is held, Mr. Roosevelt has said to Mr! Knudsen, in effect, “I was wrong before. Now you are the boss!” And now Knudsen will go ahead with full authority. As to Clause Six, and the part it played, some of the Washingtonians questioned the President’s authority to give Knudsen supreme power. He pointed to the Second Reorganization act. Now, that act did not give the President this power specifically, but acting under its authority the President issued an executive order ((which he WAS empowered to do). Clause Six of this order read: “(6) In the event of a national emergency, or threat of a national emergency, (the President may create) such office for emergency management as the President shall determine.”

Viscount Halifax