Evening Star Newspaper, May 9, 1940, Page 4

‘Regarded Valuable To Offset Debacle Could Be Used as Base to Combat Nazi Raids Against British Isles By MAJ. GEORGE FIELDING ELIOT. The Narvik campaign is still in progress. Since mid-April, when the ! British fleet wiped out the German , destroyers in Narvik Harber, a small German has been holding ‘out in this region without the naval ‘support which proved §o useful to .the garrison of Trondheim, and with air support which the factor of distance tended greatly.fo circum- scribe. It is 621 miles from Oslo, the main German air base in Nor- way, to Narvik, and thisis extreme radius for bombers and not too easy for transports. The German air situation is made easier by the undisturbed possession of Trondheim, only 406 miles from Narvik, but the capacity of the Trondheim airports is not great. Knowing the Germans, one can imagine how assiduously and effi- ciently they have set to work to increase the air base-capacity at Trondheim; they have made it the basis of all their strategy, that not only speed, but what Mahan calls “the unremitting energy Wwhich wastes no time,” is the chief ingred- jent of victory in modern war. As Narvik is 784 miles from the nearest British base, the Shetland Islands, the advantage thus ob- tained by the Germans will be con- siderable, unless it has been possible, weather and terrain considered, for the allies to establish bases of their own in the Lofoten Islands or other locations close to the theater of operations. There has been time enough, certainly; about three weeks. Nazi Relief of Narvik Doubted. Meanwhile the Germans are re- ported as advancing northward from Namsos with orders to proceed over- land to the relief of Narvik. This last is improbable. About 100 miles from Narvik, north-south road com- munication ends at the port of Bodo. From there or, there is noth- ing but a mountainous glacier- capped country, deeply indented by fjords, devoid of even goat-tracks as a means of passage. Certainly, ' given any energy on the part of the attackers, the fate of Narvik would be decided by the time even expert ski-troops could hope to get through. The attempt may, of course, be made. The Germans have a right to regard themselves as miracle- workers. The relief of Narvik by such means would set a final crown to their operations in Norway, would deprive the allies of their last re- maining chance of even a small offset to the debacle farther south. But it is much more likely that Bodo itself is the objective of this new German rnove northward. Bodo, as pointed out in a previous article, is a better port than Namsos or Andalsnes; it has a dock where ships of medium tonnage can come along- side, a good harbor.and some other resources. The app: es from sea- ward are easier, with the exception of strong tidal currents, than in most other Norwegian Atlantic ports. Bodo is so situated as to command the mouth of the great Vestfjord, the chief approach to Narvik, Ger- man submarines based here could assuredly cause great concern as to communications to any allied com- mander at Narvik; German airplanes at Bodo, once base facilities were established for them, could gravely interfere with an allied besieging force at Narvik. Terrain Aids Defenders. Thus it may be assumed that any German advance to the northward of Namsos has Bodo as its primary objective. But it was reported weeks ago that the allies were landing at Bodo, as it is indeed open to them to do at any time until the Germans reach the place. The road from Trondheim to Bodo has two points where it is interrupted by waterways, requiring ferry transport—these are at Elsfjord, about 20 kilameters north of Mosjoen (reported reached by the Germans) and at Saltdal, at the head of the Saltfjord—a deeply penetrating inlet, at the mouth of which Bodo itself is located. Surely it is not too much to expect that some effort will be made to prevent the Germans from occupying Bodo ¢ and using it as a base to harass the allied besiegers of Narvik. Of course energetic action, even the taking of certain risks, is needful, bu. the lessons the Germans have taught us all in these matters are plainly to be read. As to the operations against Nar- vik itself, these are apparently being considerably impeded by the weath- er. In this area the strength of the allied forces is not known; they will have the assistance of the only Norwegian troops who have not been handicapped by the loss ot their military center; that of the northern command, the 6th Di- vision, at Harstad alone escaped the early German attacks. The terrain is very difficult and gives great ad- vantages to the defenders, who are being supplied to some extent by air, but it does not seem impossible that here, at least, some energetic steps could be taken to halt the flow of supplies and reinforcements by this means. Narvik is of importance to the sllies at the moment because its fall would give them a victory— something they badly need, even though not a very great one. But its possession by the allies, or loss to the Germans, might have far- reaching consequences. Narvik Valuable to-Allies. If Narvik, with perhaps Bodo as an advance post, could be held by the allies, they would at least have preserved a position on the Nor- wegian coast from which they could harass and check German air and submarine operations from the Southern Norwegian ports directed against the British Isles and Brit- ish shipping. They might not be able to put a stop to such opera- tions, but at any rate the Germans could never feel secure and com- fortable, There would be a con- stant drain on German power and resources in the difficult region be- tween the northernmost posts and those held by the allies and offshore. Moreover, Sweden would have at least one outlet to the world not under German control; a factor which might make a good deal of difference in the Swedish attitude toward present and future German demands on that country; and to- ward present and future allied de- mands, too. ¥ Also, if the sllies eyacuaté or are} driven from the Narvik area, prob- ably all northern Norway, with the X THE Consulate Refuses Nijinsky - Visa for Treatment in U. S. Wife Weeps at Setback in Fight For Husband’s Sanity By the Associated Press. ZURICH, May 9.—Vaslav Nijinsky, Tenowned dancer who knew the heights of world acclaim before mental disorders blighted- his ca- reer two decades ago, was blocked by the United States consulate today from visiting the United States. Despite a Labor Department rul- ing that the dancer should not be barred because of insanity—a state from which he is emerging grad- ually—the consulate refused Nijin- 8Ky a six-month visitor's visa on the grounds that spread of the war might prevent his return to Europe. To his wife, Mme. Romola Nijin- sky, it was a bitter setback in a two- year fight to take the great dancer to the United States for further,| treatment from a Viennese physi- cian. Weeping in her hotel room, Mme. Nijinsky cried “Vaslav’s life depends on America! “Why does America give me hope and then dash it? The Labor De- partment cabled April 22 that my husband should not be refused on grounds of insanity, but now—" Dancer Seems Bewildered. Nijidsky himself, a sunburned healthy looking middle-aged man, sat beside his weeping wife with a bewildered expression. Insulin shock treatments admin- istered by the Viennese physician, Dr. Manfred Sakel, already have brought Nijinsky back from the twi- light of schizophrenia, enabling him to leave the sanitarium where he had been confined since 1919. Sakel has gone to the United States and the Nijinskys wish to follow for more treatments. Consulate officials declined to dis- cuss the case but Mme. Nijinsky said she had been told the visa was re- fused on the grounds that although Nijinsky has both Swiss and Hun- garian return permits, the war might spread to those countries and pre- vent his coming back. Offered Other Visas. “T offered to get Cuban and Mex- ican visas” as further assurance he would not be without some place to 80, Mme. Nijinsky said, “but consular officers told me they would issue the visa only if Washington ordered it.” Immediately after the refusal, Mme. Nijinsky cabled President Roosevelt, Secretary Hull and several American women’s organizations hoping to change the ruling. VASLAV NIJINSKY. Nijinsky’s flawless ballet tech- nique and amazing leaps already had won him acclaim in Europe as the world’s greatest male dancer before he made his first appearance in the United States in 1916, an ap- pearance that repeated his conti- netal successes. But already the shadow of mental disorder was beginning to fall. As a Pole, Nijinsky had been imprisoned in Hungary in the early days of the World War. The experience caused him profound suffering and periods of deep depression—brooding over a warring world that had turned to slaughter—occurred with increasing frequency. Condition Is Improved. Finally he was placed in a sani- tarium, and he danced no more. Friends reported he had no desire to go on with his art and responded |. only fleetingly to the music for his most famous dances. In the last year, however, insulin- shock treatments have brought striking improvement in his condi- tion. Nijinsky and his wife left an Al- pine resort and came to Zurich when they were informed the Labor De- partment had said he would not be barred from visiting the United States for his third insulin treat- ment, Then came the consulate’s refusal of a visa. “I have been working for Vaslav for 20 years hoping he would re- cover,” said Mme. Nijinsky. “I can- not surrencer now that recovery is within sight.” ports of Tromso, Hammerfest and Vardo will fall to Germany as well. She will be left in undisturbed pos- session of the whole of the mineral and other resources of the Scandi- navian peninsula. She will have a serfes of ports in the north which wiil be difficult to blockade, and through which, once good communi- cations with the interior can be established, & considerable amount of foreign shipments may flow into Germany. She will join hands with Russis in the Arctic (save for the tiny \ strip of intervening Finnish territory), and this fact may weigh in future German-Russian relatidhs, Altogether, the preservation “of the remaining free part of Norway. and of the port of Narvik in particu- lar is weil worth & serious allied: effort, despite the obstacles .and dangers, despite the fact that sacri- fices will be demanded before well- armed German troops isolated though they may be, can be driven from strongly fortified positions. (Copyrisht, 1940, New York Tribune, Inc.) Mussolini (Continued From F!g_t‘ga.ge) general uneasiness,” said I1 Popolo di Roma. “Churchill also acted similarly to save himself when he ended up by uncovering the Ad- miralty.” e During Mussolini’s address sec- tions of the crowd interrupted his words .with shouts of “Tunis!” and “Malta!” . Tunis is the capital- of France's North African possession, Tunisia. Malta is Great Britain's island naval base off Sicily in the Mediterranean. An indication of what new devel- opments could change Italy’s atti- tude appeared in a warning to Yugoslavia against accepting Brit- ish-French guarantees of protection which was sounded in the Bologna newspaper Resto del Carlino. Yugoslavs in Ne Danger. Resto del Carlino said that Yugo- slavia was in no danger from Italy and Germany now, but it would be impossible for Belgrade to “betray” them by taking a “new political line.” Warning that “storms in the Med- iterranean are short and violent,” it told Yugoslavia her future “and per- haps very existence” would be in danger if she “tried to delay by a few weeks the inevitable defeat” of the allies. D Meantime Genoa shipbuilders an- nounced that Italy’s fourth new 35,000-ton battleship Roma, described as the world’s finest superbattleship, was ready for launching. Two old battleships, the Andrea Doria and the Duilio, which have been modernized, also are ready to resume active service along with the previously modernized battleships Guilio Cesare and the Cavour. “Perfect War Machine.” The Roma was described as “a most perfect and powerful war ma- chine, unequaled in any other navy,” Cut Fuel Costs to the DELCO all the latest naval inventions and designs having been employed in its construction. Two sister ships, the Littorio and the Vittorio Veneto, already are in service, while a third, the Impero, are under construction. Italy celebrated her fourth Empire Day and her second Army Day with a military review here and the open- ing in Naples of a vast overseas ex- position. Five thousand troops were ordered out to march past Premier Mussolini. . Hotels in Naples were filled with thousands of persons who came from Ialy and abroad to hear King Victor Emmanual open the exposi- jtion emphasizing Italy’s aspirations to colonial power. S.P.C. A. Fights Barlow Bomb Demonstration By the Associated Press. BALTIMORE, May 9.—Another injunction suit today was aimed at Inventor Lester Barlow’s plan to demonstrate his “super explosive” with live goats the intended victims. The Maryland Society for the Pre- vention of Cruelty to Animals ap- plied for a Circuit Court injunction to prevent the demonstration at the Aberdeen, Md., proving ground of the War Department. Mr. Barlow was given until May 22 to show why the injunction should not be granted. Mr. Barlow, whose description of his liquid oxygen-carbon bomb’s powers startled a recent hearing at- tended by members of Congress and representatives of the War and Navy Departments, had planned to dem- onstrate the explosive May 16 for ‘War and Navy experts. The S. P. C. A. sult was filed two days after a similar one, instituted by an Illinois pet magazine, was dismissed when the plaintiff failed to post a necessary bond. ) * Mother’s Day Cards $ . 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C, THUBSDAY, MAY 9, 1940, Disputes Trade Board On McGehee Plan Jobless Benefit Act ‘Compromise’ Inadequate, Spokesman Insists As members of the Judiciary Sub- committee of the House District Committee met again today to seek an agreement on controversial fea- tures of the McGehee “compromise” plan for amendment of the District Unemployment Compensation Act, spokesnien for the Central Labor Union challenged figures issued by the Board of Trade in support of the plan. Speaking for the A, F. of L, body, Arthur L. Schoenthal favored adop- tion of the earlier bill sponsored by Mr. McGehee which calls for an increase in the maximum weekly benefits from $15 to $20 a week and to extend the basic duration of ben- efit payments from 16 to 20 weeks. Under the latest McGehee bill, which was offered by the Judiciary Subcommittee as a compromise, after opposition developed to either of two plans for granting pay roll tax rates of less than 2.7 per cent, the maximum were placed at $16 for a basic duration of 18 weeks, A min- imum benefit payment of $6 was provided and other “liberalization” features added along with reduction of the tax rate from 3 per cent to 2.7 and limitation of the tax to the first $3,000 of the salary of any covered employe. Statement Quoted. While granting that the latest McGehee bill is more liberal in some respects than the present law, the statement of the Central Labor Union declared: “It is not sufficlent to adopt a benefit schedule which is only in some respects more liberal than the present law. It is generally recog- nized by both labor, employers and impartial students of the problems that the benefit structure of the District and of every State is com= pletely inadequate to provide reason- ably for the needs of the unemployed workers. “When the District has built up— as it has—so large a reserve fund, there is no excuse for measuring the adequacy of revision in the benefit structure by the old law. Thus the degree to which the proposed bill H. R. 9619 is called more liberal would be inadequate to meet the situation even if it were true that it were liberalizing in every partic- ular, “Since it is clear, from a com- parison of the benefits it received at present and those which would be received under this proposal, that in a number of cases workers would be injured rather than benefited by the change, the proposed bill cannot in any particular be con- sidered a fair standard to adopt. Living Costs Cited. “The District is the most expen- sive city in the country in which to live. Benefits, therefore, should be above those in any other jurisdic- tion. The fact that there are ample funds to0 make them. $0 is an extra reason for true liberalization.” District now exceeds $17,500,000. Last year benefit. payments amounted to less than $1500,000, whereas - the year's pay roll taxes totaled some $6,700,000. The proposed $6 minimum pay- ment—there is no minimum under the 'present law—will result in an increase in benefit checks to some unemployed workers, the Schoenthal group said. However, it declared DOBBS C.L.U's J&b(ess Act Table The following table was prepared by a committes of the Central Labor Unlon to pw what it regards as a proper between the present District loyment Compensation Act, the and the latest bills offered by Representative McGehee, Democrat, Mississippl, chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee of the House District Committee: Highest Base .. hest Wal We wopks QUiE, DS B o kA - ; us—“m‘"fi“’f?" o450 EE 0io1e ‘35 sfriosiz B 20 o % 1 ) 8.00 160 18 6.00 108 $20—“A" e 10to18 $10.00 $100 to $160 “B” 30 10 20 “wgn 10 1000 200 18 82447 8.00 14 101016 $1200 $120to$192 ine 20 20 Pl 12.00 18 1000 $30—“A" 10to16 $15.00 “gn 20 “gn 15.00 18 1200 $40—" 10t016 $15.00 «p» 2 “gr 20.00 : 18 Ted $150 150 10 30 30 30 3 10 180 $150 to $240 300 216 $150 to $240 400 %0 EEzsBsuissis; X 1,200 16.00 weeks a fair average time worked in high quarter. tDuration under present law figured as one-third week for each un- charged .week of employment in previous 104, plus extensions for five years’ employment. * iPigured at 50 per cent weekly wage. Present law allowsed0 per cent and 65 pcreent; average 50 per cent, ° “A”—»Under present law. “B”—Under earlier McGehee bill (H. R. 9218). “C"~=McGehee compromise bill (H, R. 9619). Canadian Cruiser Alds In Capture of Nazi Ship By the Associated Press, OTTAWA, May 9—The new Ca- nadian flotilla leader, the destroyer Assiniboine, shared honors with a Royal Navy cruiser in the capture of the German merchantman Han- nover, in the Caribbean Sea, the mfl Canadian Navy made known Y. The 5,600-ton Nazi vessel, attempt- ing to run the allied blockade with 6,000 tons of ore and lumber from the Netherlands West Indles, was overhauled in the early morning darkness of March 8 off the Domin- ican coast. Despite high seas and attempts of the German crew to burn their ship, the allied vessels towed her to Kingston, Jamaica, a8 a prize of war, Both ships were on patrol, operat- ing apart and meeting at intervals to exchange news and views when the Hannover was mtercepted. The German saflors showed no force, but in the darkness some escaped in & boat while the cruiser crew battled flames started by the fleeing seamen fore and aft on the Hannover's decks, " PERMANENTS LILLIAS iptown Sals WO. 2500 = 3416 CONN. AVE. other’s Hay Specials! q AT THE REGULAR 59¢ VALUE PEANUT STORE HOT FRESH ROASTED that otherg “undoubtedly” would be cut off from receiving any benefits at all, under the eligibility provis- fons. It added that the statement that the bill would make the District as liberal as most of the States was correct only in part. The Schoenthal group declared that the Legislatures of “a number” of States at their sessions adopted formulas for determining the weekly| benefit amount equivalent to one- twentieth of the earnings in the “highest” quarter year. Such pro- visions, the group said, would mean larger benefit checks for the average earner than the McGehee plan would pérmit. Statement Answered. The Schoenthal group also' de- clared the bill would result in pay- ments for the average worker of less than a duration of 18 weeks. This is true also of the present. law. The Board of Trade statement, re- leased to the press Saturday night, Army Planes to Make 1,000-Mile Flight BY the Associated Press, GREAT FALLS, Mont.,, May 9.— Carrying 25 officers and men, three four-motored Boeing Army planes will make a 1000-mile non-stop flight here tomorrow from Hamil- ton Field, Calif. The planes, which have a wing- spread of 105 feet, will fly different routes, meeting near Great Falls for a formation flight over the city before they land. The return trip is scheduled Sunday. Stamps Advertised To boost its sale of special postage stamps to commemorate the anni- versary of the founding of the Pan American Union Cuba printed and distributed leaflets advertising them, —eeee AT THE PEANUT STORES 70515th St. N.W. 1010 F St. N.W. (Betw. Peoples Drug and Postal Tele.) LOOK FOR THE STRUNG PEANUT DISPLAY (Opposite Woodward & Lothrop) The benefit reserve fund of lhe!Assfl“men Reported asserted fhat under some conditions the di n of benefits could be as much of 36 weeks. The Central Labor Ufion spokesmen argued this could be possible only if the worker should serve his waiting period at the beginning of one benefit year and, before he received any com- pensation he should receive other employment, remaining employed until 18 weeks before the end of his benefit year. Other rules would operate, §t added, so that the 36- week would be his complete benefit rights for two years. In an analysis of the comparative statement of benefits under the present law and under the new Mc- Gehee plan, as outlined by the| Board of Trade, it was asserted by the Schoenthal group, the trade group used the maximums possible under the McGehee plan and the minimum payable under the present law. for LATEST NEWS The Night Final Star, containing the latest news of the day during these dramatic times, is de- livered every evening throughout the city and suburbs between 6 P.M. and 7 P.M. Telephone National 5000 for immediate delivery. specialty. for low pr GUARANTY ROOFING CO. 927 —15th St N W REpublic 3422 MEXICO CITY; May ¥ (P —The | assassination' of Ruben: Figueros, candidate of the official government party for federal deputy, was re- ported today ih a telephone mes- sage to the Mexican Senate from Igcala, Guerrero state. An imme- diate investigation was ordered by the Senate. 3 Whenever you paint, whatever you int, use Devee' rZIdeett COCONUT The greatest style hit in years! 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