Evening Star Newspaper, May 14, 1940, Page 3

British and French Flags Are Burned by Fascist Students in Rom Brifon Identified As Viscount Slapped At Night Club Demonstrators Carry Coffins Caricaturing Allied Nations By the Associated Press. ROME, May 14.—Shouting stu- dents burned a British and French flag on a simulated cofin before the British Embassy today in a new outburst of anti-allied dem- onstrations. Earlier they had demonstrated at the French Embassy and then marched across town to Porta Pia, the famous gaté in Roman wall adjacent to the embassy. Several thousand students were halted by a barrier of armed troops at the British Embassy. Massing a short distance away, however, they set fire to the “coffin” and threw their clubs on it to make & bonfire. Before they disbanded, a Fascist official in Blackshirt uniform con- gratulated them on a “magnificent demonstration”; told them their cry was “a war cry.” Mussolini Cheered. He declared France and Britain must understand that Italy would never remain a prisoner in the Mediterranean. Premier Mussolinl drove by the bonfire on his way home to lunch and was loudly cheered. In Milan, approximately 5,000 stu- dents paraded for more than an hour, cheering Mussolini and Hitler and shouting; “Down with England! “Down with France!” Armed troops stood guard before & huge throng in front of the French Embassy after about 5,000 others nad massed under Premier Mussolini’s balcony and clamored in vain for a speech. A column of several thousand schoolboys, ranging in age from 12 up, marched to the French Em- bassy through congested down- town- streets. Coffin Wrapped in Flag. They carried a coffin wrapped in the French flag with an umbrella on top, a caricature of France la- beled “Poor Chamberlain’s fisher- woman” and another of England with the title, “Her boy friend.” Besides Italian flags the students had one big swastika banner and another with the legend, “Down with the French republic.” Most of the boys carried clubs but apparently only for appear- ances. There was no effort to wield them. Interspersed in the crowd were several hundred schoolgirls. striving to keep up under the bur- den of their school bags and books. The British were expected to pro- test to Italian authorities over the slapping of a Briton identifidl as Lord Philip Hardwicke, Viscount Royston, at a fashionable night- club last night by an Italian distributing anti-British leaflets. The incident was said to have occurred when the earl, a personal friend of Bruno Mussolini, refused to read a leaflet laid on his table by the Italian. Brussels Street “Erased.” Paper was pasted over signs mark- ing Brussels street. This, however, appeared to be the work of irrespon- sible persons, since the organized demonstrations have been directed chiefly at England, and some at France. More responsible actions appeared to be the distribution of anti-British folders among bus passengers and & handbill campaign. The patrons of one popular Eng- lish tearoom said they were pre- vented from taking their customary tea yesterday afternoon by anti- British groups which effectively routed traffic away from the en- trance. Everywhere stories were circulated of street incidents and molestations of English people and their Italian sympathizers. Most of these reports could not be checked, but various persons re- ported seeing gangs of young Ital- {ans making the rounds of the city on the lookout for persons at- tempting to tear down anti-British posters. Demonstrations Widespread. Reports of organized student and young Fascist demonstrations came from virtually every city. (Informed quarters in London asserted that British consuls in Italy were advising British citi- zens who have no good reasons for remaining to leave. Such ad- vice is given only upon inquiry, these quarters said, and there is no general recommendation. It was asserted, however, that a condition of “uncertainty” still exists regarding British-Italian relations.) Just as large numbers of Scan- dinavians left Italy at the time of Germany’s invasion of Denmark and Norway, many Dutch citizens are reported to be leaving Italy now, some after consulting the Nether- lands Legation. A number of them were bound for France. Various explanations were offered by diplomats to explain these out- bursts coming at this time. Pro-Nazi Feeling Believed Sought. Some thought it might be an effort to divert British and Frencn THE G BRITISH RAID NAZI BASE—This picture, sent by radio from Berlin to New York yesterday, was sald by the German caption - to show a column of smoke rising from Maastricht, Holland, Defense (Continued From First Page.) Paris (Continued From First Page.) porters yesterday that neither he nor any one else at the Treasury was thinking or doing anything about proposals to modify the John- son Act. He added that he could not recall the allied purchasing com- mission, with which he has had fre- quent contact, ever suggesting loans. C. C. C. Military Training Proposed. Calls for a defense survey were ac- companied by suggestions that plans be made to integrate jobless men in the preparedness scheme. Chairman May told the House yesterday that he favored giving the 250,000 C..C. C. youths military training and Rep- resentative Ditter, Republican, of Pennsylvania advanced the possi- bility of using W. P. A. workers in constructing military installations. Among the Republicans backing more defense funds was Senator Lodge of Massachusetts, who said that the Nation should have an army able to defend the East Coast even if the fleet was occupied in the Pacific. He advocated a congres- sional study of defense progress. Seconding the study suggestion, Senator Vandenberg, Republican, of Michigan said the idea should be broadened and a “Committee on the Conduct of National Defense” cre- ated for a continuing investigation as long as Europe'’s war lasts. The committee should ascertain, Senator Vandenberg added, whether the United States today possesses the effective defense “which we have been promised annually.” Clark Assails Departments. Senator Clark, Democrat, of Mis- souri struck a similar note, saying: “I don't want to turn over any more rhoney to the bunglers unless I know what they are going to do with it. I am willing to vote an ade- quate sum for defense, but it seems to me that both the Navy and War Departments have proved themselves absolutely incompetent.” The cost of bringing the United States Army to full peacetime strength and equipping it with mod- ern weapons was estimated at $1,- 125,000,000 today by Representative Smith, Democrat, a member of the Military Affairs Committee. He estimated the Army needed $625,000,000 to increase its training of airplane pilots, to provide 63 ad- ditional mobile anti-aircraft units and to fill the entire nine infantry divisions called for a full peacetime strength. Of this amount, at least $375,000,- 000 was necessary, he told the Asso- ciated Press, to equip the existing Regular Army and National Guard and $50,000,000 for seacoast defenses. An additional $500,000,000 was need- ed, Mr. Smith said, for industrial preparedness. Other developments of the past 24 hours related to defense or war repercussions were: A presidential request to Congress for an immediate $2,900,000 ‘for coastal defenses in Puerto Rico, and $12,500,000 for the purchase of stra- tegic raw materials during the next fiscal year; A War Department announcement that 310,000 men, representing the Regular Army, National Guard and Reserve Corps, would participate in maneuvers during August; Disclosure by the allied purchas- ing mission that orders for $350,000,- 000 in aircraft and motors were placed here in the last month. attention to the Mediterranean while Germany smashed into Hol- land and Belgium. Another sugges- tion was that it might be a clever effort to whip up Italian feeling by shifting stress from the pro-German to the anti-British angle. The pro-German feeling desired by some leaders has been slow to catch on among the people. That the government wanted the demonstrations aj this time was likely, since it was widespread pub- lication of Luca Pietromarchi’s re- port to Mussolini on the allied con- traband control and its effect on Ir:llnn shipping which touched them off. Protests Ignored, Barlow Bomb To Be Demonstrated Thursday A large group of members of Con- gress, Army officers and ordnance experts are expected to be on hand ‘Thursday when Lester P. Barlow tests his gimite bomb on goats at the Aberdeen (Md) Proving Ground. , Senator Sheppard of Texas, chairman of the Senate Military Affairs Committee, has cleared the ‘way for the tests despite numerous protests from humane societies and animal lovers. To circumvent court suits and injunctions, Mr. Barlow was designated a special agent of the Government. Members of the Senate and House Military and Naval Affairs Com- mittees as well as members of the Appropriations Subcommittees for the Army and Navy are included in the congressional delegation invited to witness the demonstrations. A , Those expecting to motor to. Aber- deen plan to leave Washington at 6 am. Thursday in order to be on hand for the first test at 9 am. Others will leave later from Bolling Field by Army plane for the 70-mile trip. The tests are expected to be concluded by noon, it was said today. After the Barlow bomb, & mixture to spread havoc behind the lines, were dropped in increasing num- bers. % “Mere preliminaries,” is the way a French spokesman described yester- day'’s air battles, infantry drives and a gigantic mechanized engagement in which the French assertedly dis- persed between 1,500 and 2,000 Ger- man tanks in the Belgian Ardennes Mountains, north of France. The “real” struggle for possession of the Netherlands and Belgium, he iald. will come on the new allled ne. Military commentators said the Ardennes fight yesterday was the first in history in which two such fleets of “Lang battleships” had matched tactics and guns. Sketchy dispatches told how the tank battle was fought in bright sunlight on a flat terrain between Tirelmont and Tongres where the machines were able to maneuver freely. The French corps, en route to the battle line since the invasion Fri- day, rushed into engagement at full speed, it was said. The dust raised by the encounter could be seen from afar. The roar of the tanks' guns could be heard for miles. Offensive Reported General. A French staff officer said a battle between “the full weight of the allied mechanized army and the full weight of German armored divisions may come now within a few days.” Two French divisions, reinforced by some reconnaissance elements, were reported to have been pitted against .two German divisions in the Arden- nes battle. The French reported Nazi losses in men and material there were heavy. Advices from the front said the German - offensive appeared to be general north of the Moselle. Ob- servers cited three objectives which the German general staff might have immediately in mind: 1. To divide the liaisoned fronts of the Netherlands and Belgium in a drive to the coast. 2. To win the left bank of the Meuse River and drive on Brussels, 3. To force the French defenses along the Luxembourg border, where the German army corps got a run- ning start through the defenseless grand duchy. It was emphasized by a spokesman of the French. War Ministry that slow withdrawals by British, French, Dutch and Belgian troops could not be considered a retreat, because that action merely was the following out of a pre-arranged plan of strategy. Carleton W. Cameron Funeral Rites Held Funeral services were held yester- day at the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament for Carleton W. Camer- on, 62, who died Priday at his home, 6117 Brookeville road, Chevy Chase, Md. Mr. Cameron, & native of Hyde Park, Mass., retired in 1936 after 10 years as superintendent of & paper mill in Pittsfield, Mass. Mr. Cameron was active in af- fairs of the Knights of Columbus. During the World War he served. with the K. of C. as secretary in charge of distributing all articles in France. After the war he was dec- orated by the King of Belgium for his work in establishing social serv- ice schools in Italy. Surviving are his widow, Mrs. Anna McDonald Cameron; two sis- ters, Mrs. Henry Boucher of Wash- ington and Miss Mary Cameron of Hyde Park, and a brother, Ewen Cameron of Boston. 'STAR, WASHINGTON, D. Ay e e ¢, TUESD after a British Royal Air Force raid. Maastricht is in German hands. Roosevelt Will —A. P. Wirephoto. Run Again, Senator Herring Declares “It i3 my firm belief President Roosevelt will be the candidate of the Democratic party for renomination and re-election, whether he wishes to or not, and that he will run,” Senator Her- ring of Iowa said today. The Senator denied a published report that the President had told a group of Towans—of whom he was one—last week that he was not a candidate or had given them to understand he would not run. Senator Herring is chairman of the Iowa delega- tion to the Democratic National Convention. At the Democratic State Con- vention in Iowa Saturday the delegates were instructed to vote for Mr. Roosevelt and, if he was not for any reason available, to vote for Secretary of Agriculture Berlin (Continued From First Page.) landed from the air about Rotter- dam have been followed by German nfantry forces, widening the breach between Belgium and Holland and cutting off their communications. French claims of armored-car superiority were flatly denied here. It was stated the French were re- | pulsed with heavy losses. DNB boasts that the enemy air forces have been so badly demol- ished that along the entire front from the Palatinate Forest via Lux- embourg and Belgium to Holland, no indications are discernible of an enemy air initiative. Steady Advance Claimed. Nazi military leaders, claiming a steady advance along the entire front, declared that the fighting thus far, in Holland and Belgium, fierce as it has been, is but a pre- lude to a gigantic struggle which may dwarf the World War's first battle of the Marne. ‘This conflict is expected to take place somewhere in Southern Bel- gium, where the allies are reported massing their combined armies for & stand. German commentators pinned their confidence in the outcome of the impending head-on collision on the fighting qualities of the Nazi soldiers and the asserted superiority of the German air force to which they gave credit for the victories already won in the Low Countries. Thus far, German military men said, even the most modern forti- fications in Belgium and Holland have, proved no real obstacle. This, they said, was proved by the capture yesterday of the citadel of Liege and the penetration of Bel- gium’s Albert Canal defenses at sev- eral points in the vicinity of Hasselt and Maastricht. Action Near Zweibrucken. Continued action on the west wall front was reported in the sector southeast of Zweibrucken, opposite the PFrench Province of Lorraine, where the high command said the Germans had advanced. Concerning developments in Nor- way, DNB said German mountain troops had taken 300 prisoners, mostly British, in a fight at Mo, north of Trondheim. No definite information was avail- able here concerning the where- abouts of former Kaiser Wilhelm, who has been exiled in Holland since the end of the World War. Adolf Hitler has made no state- ment of his attitude toward the Kaiser. The view of the Foreign Office appeared to be that the for- mer monarch must express some wish regarding his future before any pronouncement is made here. Spring Is I: the Air HAVE expert Call Carl painters ive your car that new, spring- like glook A better, longer-lasting paint job than the original factory Complete for $17.50 Up Use Oxr Budpet Plan to Pay BRIGHTWOOD * DOWNTOWN * NORTHEAST Phone District 27175 ‘Wallace for nomination. Senator Herring said he had been convinced for months that Mr. Roosevelt would be the party nominee again. He said he had heard nothing from the President to change his opinion. The Chief Executive, in his talk with Towans last week, he insisted, was en- tirely “non-committal.” Senator Gillette of Iowa, who also was a member of the party of Iowans who called at the White House, declined to com- ment on the report the President had said he was not a candidate. Mr. Roosevelt is reported to have told a number of visitors in the past that he was “not a can- didate” for renomination. It has never been reported, however, that the President said categori- cally, “I will not run.” Sedan Battlefield Scene of French Defeat in 1870 By the Associated Press. Ancient Sedan, 146 miles north- east of Paris, was the scene of the climactic fight of the Franco-Prus- sian War in 1870, in which the French troops of Napoleon III were crushed. It brought about the fall of the Second Empire. And then, in the World War, the Germans advancing toward Paris entered Sedan August 25, 1914, and held it four years. It fell into the hands of the allies November 6, 1918, after a joint attack by the American Rainbow Division and the French. Strategically, the capture of the city by Germans would not mean the breaking of a French line along the Meuse River because the town is on the right, or east bank. ‘The old city probably gave fits name to the Sedan automobile. Sedan chairs, easy riding convey- ances which carried the gentry on peasant shoulders in the 18th cen- tury, first were made in Sedan, legend has it. The town has a population of around 18,000. Major industries are cotton mills, coal and iron mines. the presidential Haitl estimates that its present coffee crop will weigh over 50,000,000 pounds. Your < Medical Bills or Dental Bills Paid by Medical-Dental Exchange «+ + « without interest or extra charge. For full information call REpublic 2126 or visit 728 Albee Building, 15th and G Sts. N.W. AY, MAY 14, Mexican Official Sure U. S. Will Be In War Soon Says Republic Would Qbserve ‘Beneyolent "Neutrality’ By the Associated Press. " A t! 14—A high ' Ministry sald today the Mexican government is convinced that the United States will enter the European war on the side of the allies in the near future and that Mexico should begin pre- paring for that eventuality. If and when America enters the conflict, this oficial said, Mexico— despite a fundamental desire for peace—will observe a ‘“benevolent neutrality” and will collaborate with the United States as fully as pos- sible without involving- herself. & He said he believed the other na- tions of the Western Hemisphere would adopt & similar aftitude. Advance in Date Seen. Recent developments ‘in Europe, the spokesman added, have ad- vanced by imany months the date of possible American entry into the war. President Roosevelt’s frequent ap- \peals to Germany and Italy, and his recent warning to the Americas that they no longer enjoy a “magic immunity,” have sown the seeds whose harvest will be military aid to Britain and France, the of- cial declared. He said that without exception Mexican officialdlom and the bulk of the Mexican people believe the United States not only should but would assist the allies. Possible Ald From Mexice. Positive aid that Mexico might lend the United States, the official said, would include vigilance against Nazi spies or saboteurs and action to prevent establishment of sub- marine bases for attacks on Ameri- can shipping. An _influential body of Senators and Deputies, however, is at work organizing a “committee for neu- trality” to prevent Mexico from extending any aid which might drag her into the conflict. Council of A. F. L. Considers Routine Business in Secret Group to Be Named At Two-Week Session To Decide Labor Plank ‘With routine business holding the right of way, the executive council of the American Federation of Labor met again todsy closed doors at the Washington L. Although national issues are scheduled for discussion later, the council, during the first part of its two-week meet- ing, is expected to confine itself largely to organization matters. * Before the end of its meeting, the executive council will appoint a committee to present the A. F. of L. labor piank to the Resolutions Com- mittees of the Democratic and Re- publican National Conventions. This committee probably will consist of five members. The plank to be pre- sented will not be made public until placed before the Resolutions Com- mittee of the Republican convention, which meets in Philadelphia June 24. The question of taking a stand on & third term for President Roose- velt may come before the council. It appears unlikely, however, that the council will take a definite stand, either for or against a third term. At a press conference. yes- terday, President Willlam Green of the A. P. of L. said there was no occasion at this time for him to make a statement on the third term issue. Although the A. F. of L. ordi- narily meets in annual convention early in thte fall, this year the con- vention will not be held until after the November eleetions. The execu- tive council, therefore, will chart the course of the A. F. of L. in the ANAMAS CLEANED—BLEACHED BLOCKED BACHRACH 733 11th St. N.W. 19 Nazi Ships Seized In Dutch East Indies By the Associated Press. merchant ships were seized by au- thorities in the Netherlands East Indies. man ships were mined and sunk afire by their crews between May 6 and May 11. He placed the total { tonnage lost to the enemy between those dates at 171,049, The Nordnorge, a Norwegian ship of 1991 tons used as a troop-trans- sunk by a_mine off Norway. ly one British - ship of 'atout 6,000 tons was sunk by the enemy in the week ended May 5, he said, while there were no allied or neutral losses in the same period. See the Dogwood in SPRING VALLEY and the Silver Star Home W. C. & A. N. MILLER DEVELOPMENT CO. 1119 17th St. N.W. DI. 4464 COAL PRICES ADVANCE MAY 15th! Buy now and take advantage of low- est spring prices. 37 N St N.W. Indies and seven in the Dutch West | This source said five other Ger- | by the Norwegians or scuttled or set | port by the Germans, was reported | Quality Since ART MUTH MATERIALS 0.5, . 6386 LONDON, May 14.—A British | naval source said today 19 German | e 4 coming nationsl campaign. The council will meet again in August. Although it appears unlikely the counci! will indorse any presiden= tial candidate, the A. P. of L. will oppose the election of members of e Two Persons Injured | In Traffic Accidents ' ‘Two persons were injured in autos. mebile accidents here late yesterday* and last night. ' William Jose, jr., 33, of 1728 Park road N.W.,, received a brain concus-> sion when the car in which he was riding was involved in a collision on Massachusetts avenue near Nebraska/ avenue NW. He was admitted to> Georgetown Hospital for treatment. 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