- '-VEDI.SaDAY. AUGUST SI, 1935 GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY: I just rail across a curious historic fact. There hasn’t teen a war oetween Britain an<i Italy since the invasion of the g Roman Emperor Claudius in forty-three A. D. - when the Romsns conquered Britain. But today, nineteen centuries later, a con­ flict Between modern Great Britain and modern Italy is considered By many to Be a possiBility. I’m not one of the many, but the events of this afternoon have a formidable look. There was an informal meeting of His Majesty’s Cabinet officers at Number Ten Downing Street. Those present were the holders of the most important portfolios, among them Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, Ex-Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, now Lord President of the Council, and Sir Samuel Hoare, Foreign Secretary. The seven statesmen who were present came to the most momentous decision that has been made on Downing Street since Nineteen Fourteen, If Italy attacks Ethiopia, John Bull will try to apply what is called "financial and economic pressure." That means virtually a Blockade. It won’t Be a blockade of Battleships — not yet. But it will be almost as menacing - it it happens. His Maj esty's LEAD - 2 government made no bones about this afternoons proceedings, ctMi They were announced in stilted __ n A but no less deadly terms, i'r'inii 1 ^| fhnt -^rn iimnnt nr? afclie Ggr/foinoiW Ca irt ^wweiwai When the full formal Cabinet meeting is held tomorrow, the government will recommend // jp that the League of Nations authorize these sanctions, as they are called, against Italy. This measure, of course, is one of the of the covenant of the League. A" * What is more, it looks as though Stanley Baldwin and his colleagues had the behind them. The decision was made after the Prime Minister, had received visits from leaders of the opposition,from Representatives of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and all the dominions. But there is one fly in the British ointment. Can John Bull get anybody to back him up? What will France do? The swarthy Monsieur Laval is taking a leaf from England s boo,,. He is making a secret bargain with the Duce. The grapevine telegraph says that all Laval hopes is to i^eep the t> confined to Africa. LEAD - 3 The next big question is, "What will be Mussolini retort?” That’s one thing that will make us wait eagerly for every next edition of the papers. This action in London may be decidedly construed in diplomatic terms as ”an unfriendly act”. Not a cause for war, not yet. —irtirh^lrtinxm /7 was~L. to^gjnry; Tl±T2SS=t±oiac> No wonder that Lord PresidentyRamsey MacDonald, echoing Premier Stanley Baldwin, said:- "I regard the present at situation the most serious we’ve had to face since 1914*** Another thing that means a good deal is the order from the War Office xkw sending' troops from the Punjab to the Sudan* The Punjabis are notoriously among the best and fiercest fighters that John Bull has in his Indian Army* Th^ climate of Africa will mean nothing to them* They will be right at home. And now, what of Uncle Sam? Downing Street tells us that England has requested our embassy in London to find out what the attitude of Washington could be towards this problem. But evidently the news hasn’t reached Washington* This was the day for President Roosevelt’s press conference at the White House Tile President declined to loeke any comment He said lie was unaware that Great Britain had addressed any such, question to the United States* Of course, we must remember that it is the rule for a statesman to decline to recognize^ anything he reads in the newspapera.«s=d3ntama4±nnv Members of the government don’t know anything until they have been But the dtiteminatlon of4 Congress to keep Uncle Sam out of this African mess became .concrete this afternoon* With out a record vote and with almost no debate the Senate adopted the neutrality joint resolution proposed by Senator Nye^and rushed it over to the House* The President declined to say whether he wanted it or wh~eth«r--he--dld not* Speaker Byrns, however, said the Administration was anxious to have it adopted* As the cards lie now it's that r^sub jeot> the House will say "yes” as LEAP - 5 "’here is one significant thing in that neutrality resolution: It would forbid "the export of arms, ammunition and implements of tar* belligerant countries. And, we must observe that it does ngt use the terra "munitions of war." There’s a vast difference between munition and ammunition. The World War showed that munitions in a modern war can mean anything from a sack of potatoes to a spark plug. The phrasing of that resolution seems to me exceeding­ ly important. What it means is that American manufacturers can­ not export guns, cartridges, shells, aircraft, tanks, poison gas or battleships. But there is nothing to prevent the shipping of grain — and cotton, which is vital to a country at war, - also motor cars, or any other of a long list of materials, raw and manufactured, which any fighting country needs. Perhaps that’s one reason why the resolution is slipping through Congress so easily. If it forbade the shipping of munitions, in the modern sense, it would mean, in case the con­ flict spread to a general European war, that the foreign trade of the United States would shrink to practically nothing. SCOUT 5 Visitors to Rockefeller Center the last couple of days must have thought the place had been stormed and captured by an Army - an army of Boy Scouts, Lads in their khaki uniforms everywhere -- in the Gardens of the Ifations, on the cloud-touch­ ing roof, through the marble halls. Thereby hangs a tale. Most of those lads are from the West. They came East to Attend the conclave of Scouts in Washington, L. C. When the Jamboree was called off,, most of them were on their way. So they decided to take in New York. A census was taken among them to discover which xg sights they most wanted to see. And here was their choice: the first three:- Jack Dempsey, Radio City, and the Empire State Building NOISE It will be interesting to see how the campaign against unnecessary noises thrives in America. It is going to be tried out first in New Y otk City, of all places! Mayor LaGuardia has decreed a ,TDon»t make a noise month” in October. No blowing of automobile horns am at night or any other racket that can be avoided. Over in Europe this campaign is becoming more and more popular. The Prefect of Police of Paris has extended the silent hours of the night, hours during which it is illegal to blow the horn of your motor car. The silent hours in the City of Light are now from nine in the evening to, eight in the morning. In other parts of Europe, the authorities have discovered that the ban on blowing horns has decreased instead of increased automobile accidents. classmate of Captain Anthony Eden and sits beside him in the Cabinet. Major Leslie Hore-Belisha is Minister of Transportation in England. He found he couldn’t sleep a-nights, because of the racket of tooting horns. That is how he came to start his campaign, and By George!, he won it. It’s now illegal to do any The man who started all this is formidable moniker is Major Leslie Hore-Belisha. He is a NOISE - 2 tooting in England between half past eleven P,M. and seven A.M. But niijactivities went fui'ther than that. He installed beacons at all the crossroads in the Kingdom, He put over a campaign urging every woman to say to her husband and son when starting out. for a ride: "Be careful and come home alive." ^ I» opdrsi1 t-o—oo—g^och""weplfcy fa** got the moto^ car A manufacturers to build a place in .the dash-board for a picture of the little woman. There the .driver could see a photograph of wife, mother or sweetheart with an inscription underneath, "Please be careful for my sake.” He didn1! provide for any picture of papa for the occasions when mama is driving the care— The latest activity of King Georgefs Minister of "3 Transportation is still more interesting. He has been making an investigation of fifteen hundred fatal motor car accidents in England and this is what he found:- It isn’t speed that causes accidents, itfs congestion. Out of fifteen hundred of those fatal accidents, only twenty-three people died in cases where the car was traveling more than forty miles an hour. But five hundred perished in cars traveling less than ten miles an hour. From this Major Leslie Hore-Belisha makes the deduction that a NOISE - 5 man driving fairly fast is more alert,while the slow driver lets his mind and his eyes wander. He also found that most accidents occur between five and six in the evening, when people are rushing home. But here's a still more interesting fact he discovered, and 1*11 wager you it applies to America too. The majority of the accidents is caused by the indifference of pedestrians to traffic rules. The next most dangerous person on the road is the maniac who shdbt tries to pass another car when the road is not clear ahead. And-feh-atf^ oofflotbring to—I FLOOD I wonder if there has ever been such a year as this for deadly floods in all parts of the world. Again the hapless land of the Celestials is the victim. Again the Yellow River is rising. Again those angry waters threaten to overwhelm xxxxxxxx X& k millions of rich acres. The authorities have more than a hundred thousand coolies and peasants sweating day and night as they pile up sand bags, hoping to hold back that dirty rushing torrent. It’s the northern part of the Province of Kitngsu that is threatened now^ I'ty*-* one of the most fertile parts of China. If the levees break, more than a million long suffering farmers will lose their homes and their crops. dimitroff Two years ago the Nazi government was trying to chop off the head of Georgi Dimitroff. Not only because he was a Communist but oecause they sa„id he was one of the gang who set fire to tne Reichstag. Though all the cards were stacked against him, Dimitroff escaped. And today that same Dimitroff, in Russia lies in the hospital, wounded by the bullet of an officer of the Red army. There*s a curious twist of fate for you. Whether you approve of him or not, this former Bulgarian peasant boy is a colorful fellow. They say that even as n r a youngster he v/as a rebel. He was hardly in his teens when he first became a Communist. For ten years he was a deputy in the Bulgarian Parliament. He-v/as mixed up in no less than three uprisings and convicted each time. He always escaped Scot free. When the Nazis got him, he had been exile ten years. At the time the Reichstag was burned, he was in a train ; I I s on his way to Berlin. Nevertheless, he was arrested and charged I I with having instigated the arson. | I suppose in the years to come, that affair at i Leipsig will be considered one of the famous trials in history. PIMITRQFF - 2 like that of Dreyfuss, or Mng Charles the First of England, or the impeach-lent of President Andrew Johnson. When the curtain rang up there seemed to be no hope, for Dimitroff. It was obvious that the trial had been organised -to convict and condemn all the prisoners. But Dimitroff stood up and never gave ground for an inch. His courage and his quick.wits baffled not only the prosecutor but the hostile court. Soon the public opinion of the world was so much on his side, even though he was aCommunist, that it was impossible in all decency not to acquit him. But of course he was expelled from Germany and was welcomed with open arms by the Soviet. We don’t know whether the bullet that laid him low was fired in a duel or just fired. A At any rate, the man who wounded Georgi Dimitroff is a Red army officer and he has been arrested. OLYMPIC There's always a bit of sadness In the announcement that great steart. vy one that used to he called the greyhound of the Atlantic, passes into the discard. In nineteen twenty-two, the White Star liner "Olympic" astounded the world by setting a new : record across the ocean, averaging twenty-seven, point eight-one j ! ■ knots for several hours. That isn't so bad even compared with the "Normandie's" average of. twenty—nine point sixty-four knots. Today the great triple-screw ship "Olympic" is on the market.on i! the way to the %oney-ard;/. In case anybody wants to buy her before she Is scrapped, she’ll be-open for inspection at Southampton, I During the War, the "Olympic" did noble service. She carried three hundred thousand passengers through submarine Infested waters. She had some exciting moments in those days. One foggy morning in Mav 9* Nineteen eighteen, the "Olympic" was entering the, English Channel, when a U-boat appealed *j on the surface. The Germans challenged. The reply of the 1 iVl "Olympic's" crew was to fire the forward gun. Before the U-boat could maneuver, the "Olympic" sp*ri around, and rammed. She sheared ;; ' . r*pndering her helpless. fhereupon off the nose of the submarine, rendeiug - t OLYMPIC - 2 the gun crews of the liner finished the job. All fffrTmnijJ? summer she was ferrying American troops to France. She was s119.c tC 0(1 fey ines qq 1*sw 0 x* tticiji s©v©n tiiiios in, fclTi*©© roonths By skillful use of her guns and steering gear, and by showing a xsrtf; swift pair of heels? she finished every voyage without losing a man. r Another heroic achievement in the life of that gallant ship was a rescue off the Irish coast. That was when she saved 1 the crew of the mysteriously crippled British battleship "Audaciousi1! i In her latter davs, the T!01ympic,, was not so fortunate. 1 Little more than a year ago, on a foggy day, she rammed the Hantucket lightship. It was.the first and only fatal accident in her career. As you rnay femember, the lightship sank and seven of the crew perished. And now the good old "Olympic" is on her way to the if ff boneyard. Itfs rather shocking to think that the lifetime of such a great, costly and speedy vessel should be little more than j - fourteen years. PRINCESS Over m uermany there»s a young man who is learning that it’s bad luck to become enamored o£ a Princess. A few days ago § I mentioned the rocks that had been strewn in the path of the true I love of Princess Carmo and her mother’s secretary. Those rocks * have now become holders. Last week it was announced that the A royal damsel,whose full name is Princess Caroline von Schoenaieh- Caroiath, ran away from her mother, the wife of the Ex- Kaiser, to follow hej* fiance. Today it appears that mother has won out. First'2tta*/said a w^, then she said siig'-wrrmid Lit: She thought that if she permitted the marriage of her daughter to a commoner, it would make the Hohenzollerns strong with the Nazis. V/hen she discovered that the Nazis didn't care a hoot whom their ex-royalty married, the Kaiser's-strong willed spouse had a change of heart. She even followed her run—away daughter from Holland Into Germany, and tiiy-T"0(t the royal riot act. A* A The young Princess has now issued a statement, saying: ’’The news of my engagement to Herr Vi/underlicn’1, Ui* "is inaccurate." a And she added, "No such engagement is planned.” That leaves the would-be bridegroom ; PRI j ICESS - 2 stunned and disconsolate. Perhaps he can find solace in the words of Owen Meredith: ’•Man can live without love, - what is passion but pining? But where is the man that can live without dining?” Herefs Kfc one who ca^t, so — SO LONG UNTIL TOMORROW.