. xAY 3. x94u. GOOE EVEKIHG EVEBYBODY: Tonight T.e have Act T tto of that imperial drama under tne snado^ of Bit Ben. It was, if anything, more arresting, more absorbing, than the first act. Yesterday we had the unexpected sensation of an Admiral of the fleet rising in full uniform, all nis medals blazing, to accuse the war cabinet of ineptitude, telling the Government- that what Nelson ssid a hundred and forty years ago is still true today — that the boldest course is the safest. Today, the scene was heightened by a speech from the Bx-Premier who led Britain through the last war, the Right Honorable David Lloyd George. And he was at the top of his old form. Not in fifteen years had the members and spectators at Westminster heard tne leonine Welch orator at such a pitch of eloquence and xury. Prime Minister Chamberlain sat tnere with nis face changing color LEAD - 2 oht-re is nothing that would more contribute to victory in this »\ar tnan tnat Chamberlain give up his seals of* office• Tne old lion of Wales left nothing unsaid. He asked in these words:- "Is there any man in this House who will say he is satisfied with the speed and efficiency of our preparations in any respect for the air, for the army, yea, even for the navy? And he answered his own question - "everybody is dissatisfied." Then he added:- "The whole world Knows we are in a worse position i strategically than this country ever was placed in." That stab drew groans from the benches of the government supporters. Lloyd George then referred to his own conduct of the Y.'orld War, and said:- "it would be a fatal error on our part not to ac/mowledge that the situation is a grave one. In such ex­ perience as I have had in war directions I never tried to minimize the extent of disaster." He then moderated his tone somewhat, saying that in his judgment there was no cause for panic out there is grave cause for, as he put it, "pulling ourselves together." But, he added, "for three or four years everything that has been done nas been half-hearted and ineffective, without drive or LEAD - 3 intelligence. And then he pitched on the Norway expedition with the words:- nThe first instalment of our forces to Norway should have been picked men. The Germans had picked men,1’ he said, and went on:- nWe are all proud to read of the gallantry of our men but it is all the more shame that we should make fools of them.” Then he named a long list of what he called the governments failures - "Czechoslovakia, the Russo-German Alliance." And he added:- "Then tnerefs Roumania, Germany practically has Roumania in her hands. By this policy in Norway we have handed her Roumania." And he addedj- "I hope that my fears regarding Spain won't prove true." At one point he crossed swords verbally with Chamberlain himself. That was when Lloyd George said:- "I agree with the Prime Minister that we must face our decision not as a personal issue." In the House of Lords at that moment, Foreign Minister Viscount Halifax was talking and telling the Lords that Prime Minister Cnamberlain should not be singled out for criticism IikAD — 4 oecause, as Halil ax said, nWe were all in agreement v.ith him.n Getting back to Lloyd George, the aged ex-Prime Minister declared that Chamberlain tTis not in a position to make his personality in this respect inseparable from the interest of the country.n That brought Chamberlain to his feet, his face white and his eyes blazing. He demanded to know, "What’s the meaning of that observation?" Then there arose a hubbub in the House, which made both speakers inaudible. As it subsided, Chamberlain said:- nI took pains to say that personalities ought to have no place in our considerations." And Chamberlain added that neither he nor his colleagues would be slow to accept their responsibility. At this moment. First Lord Winston Churchill jumped up and said that so far as he himself was concerned, he would assume full responsibility xor all the acts and policies of the Admiralty. To which Lloyd George retorted with the most cutting remark:- "I hope tne First Lord will not allow himself to be converted into an air-shelter for his colleages." And the opposition benches rocked with laughter. At one point Lloyd George aroused the tempers of all LEAD 5 the enamberlain partisans when he cried out:- ftBritish promissory notes have become rubbish on the market Cries of n shame I shame l11 echoed through the House from the benches where the Government supporters sit. Before Lloyd George had begun to speak the Gov eminent had already heard plenty. Labor leader Herbert Morrison had been equally scathing in his attack on the Chamberlain Government. But he was eclipsed by the fiery Welshman. Morrison wanted to know what the British Intelligence was about, not finding out that Germany had planned the invasion of Norway. And he too accused Chamberlain and his colleagues of using Winston Churchill as a shield. As Morrison concluded, he threw down the gauntlet to the Government, said the Labor party was going to insist on a vote of no confidence, tonight. At that Chamberlain bounded from his seat vigorously and in heated tones cried: "I accept the challenge. I welcome it indeed. For at least we shall see who is with us and who is against us.n And then he charged that Morrison was making a personal attack upon him just at a time when, as he put it, we LEAD ** 6 are facing a relentless enemy who must be fought by the united action of this country. The final phase of the drama began at ten o*clock London time. Then started the scene for which members of the House, for which the whole world had been waiting — the speech of Winston Churchill, the First Lord, the Senior Minister of Defense, the strong man upon whom the British Empire rests its hopes. What he had to say at first was not particularly news, though it was news when he admitted that the principal cause of the failure in Norway was the inferiority of the Allies in the air. In spite of this admission, Churchill earnestly defended the Chamberlain Government. And this naturally was a disappointment to the opposition. There had been a rumor that Churchill might be about to turn upon his chief and his colleagues. It has been said by his critics that Winston has always been an unpredictable fellow'. And, there has oeen w:ord of a whispering campaign against him, a campaign which was reporteo to have gotten under the skin of the First Lord. Hence the rumor that he was about to give another version of the campaign in Norway, to declare overruled by his colleagues. tnat he had been and tnerefore the LLAD . 7 failure. Churchill ditt-irsthihg "o! ^jt'Tjervwg r_ tonight defied Lloyd George and said he had accepted full responsibility for everything at the Admiralty. On the question of British inferiority in the lair, he declared:- nWe must endure this witjn firmness until more favorable conditions can be established, as assuredly tlhey will be established.” He answered the attack by his friend. Admiral Sir Roger Keyes. Churchill said that any such attempt as mentioned yesterday by Keyes would have meant a naval disaster/ Any British fleet attacking in the Skagerrak would have been blasted by German bombing planes before they could reach Oslofjord.j He added the informatl on that a prodigious number of German ships had been sunk along the Norwegian coast, and that some seven or eight thousand Germans had been drowned. Thousands of bodies had been washed up, he said. He denied vigorously that he and the Admiralty had been overruled by his colleagues in the War Cab^iieThe chiefs of staff had advised against a direct naval attack on Trondheim LEAD - 8 and he agreed with them. As for their withdrawing from Norway, he said:- ’’There were other waters we had to think of.” And now, here’s the vote in the House of Commons on that motion by the Labor Party, a motion of ”No Confidence” in the war policy of the Chamberlain Government. It just came in over the wire, and the vote is — T^o hundred and eighty-one to two hundred — in favor of the Government. Chamberlain and his colleagues win and thus ends one of the biggest parliamentary dramas of our time. HOL-uAriD Today’s scare about the invasion of Holland apparently has petered out like previous alarms, I say TTapparentlyn because we can’t, be sure in this war. At any rate, cold water was thrown on the sensation in Paris where the military authorities declared that so far as their observation went, there had been no recent shift or fresh concentrations of German troops on the Dutch border. The French reminded the whal world that this is the sixth time that the imminent invasion of Holl&nd had been rumored. Then there came more positive news from Washington. It was given out by Dp. Loudon, Queen Wilhelmina’s envoy to the United States. He talked over the Trans-Atlantic telephone to officials of his government at the Hague. And, says Dr. Loudon, "reports tnat two German columns are movxng toward the Dutch border for an invasion are absolutely incorrect." This again was corroborated at the State Department, where / Secretary Hull announced that he had diplomatic dispatches from the Netherlands. These show that there's plenty of tension, but no positive movements of soldiers. Nevertheless, the military establishmei t of the HOLLAND - 2 Netherlands is standing at attention, on its toes, with government restrictions on all communications except tnose of diplomats. Incidentally, Queen Wilhelmina has just established a record. She has ruled over her country longer than any other sovereign of the House of Nassau. Her father reigned for forty-one years and eight months, and this year Queen Wilhelmina passed the mark. And - though sheTs only fifty-nine, she has occupied her throne longer than any living ruler. AjiLnl CAMS UnLlfc ^amfs consuls in Hungary put our another warning 7 to Americans today. The ist of if io 4.. , / t-ist ol it is, "Better go home wnile / the going is good." ___ _ / And Secretai> Hull backed this up. He said this was the second warning issued by Uncle Sam^s diplomats to American citizens in tne Balkans and the countries along the Danube. And, added the Secretary of State, to make the warning more emphatic, if they iind themselves suddenly trapped in the war zone, they'll have no excuse and no one but themselves to blame. y.IuLER A newspaper reporter has died and the news came as a shock to people in many lands. In London, New York, Cape Town, V.ashi^gton, Addis Ababa, Rio de Janeiro, Stockholm, Bombay, Buenos Aires, even Berlin, the fatal accident to Webb Miller, General European News Manager of the United Press, was page one news. I can well imagine how he himself would have felt the irony of his death. In pursuit of page one news about other people, he had travelled by airplane more than four hundred thousand miles. He had covered no fewer than seven wars and a couple of big scale riots. He had been under fire from machine guns, heavy artillery and air bombardments. Through all such adventures he came unscathed. And he died alone, in tne night, beside a railroad track. Webb Miller had been covering that historic debate in the British House of Commons yesterday, reporting the proceedings of Parliament — a particularly difficult and exhausting job. But, Webb loved it. He agreed with me that it *s tne most dramatic show on earth — wnen it is good, ^rom St» Stephens he went to tne United Press office and announced in high spirits that he was off to the country for a good night’s sleep so as to be fresh and tit MILLER - 2 for today’s excitement in the House. To hear Winston Churchill. v'aat actua-L-Ly happened to him nobody knows. But they found his uody cuter the ail night blackout, found it this morning by the side of a railway track, at a junction outside London. tp ebb filler was a Twentieth Century Richard Harding Davxs: with a difference. That is, he made Davis look like an amateur botn in the importance of the historic events he described and in the scope of his accomplishments. I had Known him intimately for a quarter of a century. We started out together as cub reporters in Chicago. And Webb was my particular pal among all the newspaper men I ever knew. In 1916 we went different ways, I to Alaska, Webb to Mexico. And his assignments over the following period of twenty-four years ranged from the Pershing expedition in Mexico, cr.asing Pancho Villa, to the Russo-Finnish V\ar, with our trails frequently crossing —- at Chateau—Thierry anc. in the argOii^ie, at the Peace Conference at Versailles, in tne Riff War in Morocco, and in India during those wild early Ghandi days. Alter that he scooped the world v.ith the nev,s of Mussolini's invasion MILLrK - 3 Oi EtiJ-opia, Then the war in Spain, And recently — Finland, His ia est assign;.ent in London was only temporary. His bag was packed. Webb Miller was ready to start off again. He told us about many of his adventures in his autobiography, which he called "I Found No Peace.” You may recall he was with me on the air several years ago from mid-Atlantic and again a few months ago when he was in New £ork. Webb MillerTs career was a fantastic paradox. He always said the thing he most wanted to do was to go off in the country, live quietly after the manner of his hero, the philosopher, Henry Thoreau and write in leisurely fashion on philosophic subjects. He thought he resented the strenuous life, always plunging into the thick of the world*s latest excitement. But, I believe that in spite of all he said that he loved it. At any rate one of the world*s star observers of the human shadow show came to his end in a London blackout. And nowr Hugh James.