L.T. SUNOCO. ItiOI^DAY « JUNE 24. 1940 GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY: I am in Philadelphia tonight. In a ringside seat at the O.O.P. convention. Never were issues of such world shattering importance hanging upon even a Republican convention. And that?s reflected everywhere you go in the City of Brotherly Love. There1s a different spirit in the air from Cleveland, four years ago. An electric feeling of tension, anxiety, in the atmosphere. The grapeveine report tonight is that there111 be unanimous agreement in the Resolutions Committee on that zi ticklish and vital plank -- foreign policy. The plank is not yet finally drafted, the final job has to be done tomorrow. Sub-committees LEAD 3 have been at wor^c today^ As a result of their work, it*s a-ppa-reat-ty safe to say that the foreign policy plank will pledge the Republicans to peace preparedness The capitulation of France threw the Committee on the horns of a ticklish dilemma, the dilemma about giving aid to the Allies. There are Republicans who have expressed themselves as in favor of helping the Allies. But after the surrender of France there are no Allies. That problem will be got around by putting the oppressed party onVecord as promising aid to all^^smnkxj peoples. There never was a more difficult job for platform writers. For that particular plank had to reconcile Republicans whose opinions about the war in Europe and our relation to it, seemed ^ apart, the hundred per cent isolationists and xBEm to be oce- A those who wanted to give aid to the Allis-* The sub-committee that wrote this compromise was headed by the man whom the Republicans nominated last year, former Governor Alf Landon of Kansas. It included men as isolationist as the late Senator Borah as well as those who LEAD - 4 wanted to throw in every possible aid short of war to beat Hitler and Mussolini. The plank also pledges the Republicans to increase the national defenses, planes, ships and guns and trained men, 30 as to protect the entire Western Hemisphere and enforce the Monroe Doctrine. It also levels the criticism at President Roosevelt that his provocative notes to Europe threaten to involve the United States in war. v <'- WAR Six weeks ago, Adolf Hitler, the Nazi Fuehrer, started his blitzkrieg. Tonight, at the end of those six weeks, the Republic of France is no longer at war. There have been other periods in history that were full of drama and yet surprisingly short. For instance, those meteoric hundred days which followed Napoleon’s Escape from Elba. Butjnever was there a series of events so catastrophic, swift and so brief as the six weeks that it took the Nazis so to knock out Holland, Belgium and all the once mighty power of France. In less than a hour from now, the generals of Nazi Hitler and Fascist Mussolini will sound the or.ei cease firing 1 Every fighting man in France will lay down his arms, a coura •eous but hopelessly *x*x*fx* beatenarmy. The end ea® in sight at one thirty-five this thirty-five Eastern Daylight time in Rome. It was at that moment afternoon, that is, one America, seven thirty-five in + bps ied by General Huntziger, signed that the French delegates, neaue y ________ J the -terms ' * Mussolinifpil hostilities were to cease WA£ - 2 after six hours from that minute. ^ ^ , , _ ^ 7/^. ^ All Frenchmen, thougji at peace, will he virtually prisoners. Oh, they will have their own civil government, hut with Nazi and Fascist commissars looking over their shoulders. Even a certain number of French troops will t» stiiy®________ y^^aTLi intents and MohittBatioi*) enou^i to preserve order. Buty ioges, France, so long one of the great strongholds of liberty,, purp< will be Virtually one huge prison camp. Of course all this has appeared inevitable from that tragic moment one week ago, whef the world heard Henri Petain, Premier and Marshal of France, jannounce that his country could fi6ht no more. Actually, as oL hindsight tells us now, it had been inevitable from the Ament war was declared. inevitable from the time the Ulies permitted Germany to ream under the frenetic spell^ Hi tie r and the Nazi idea. Military experts over here are claxming tout the imposed on France are moderate from a if the rest of us, Nazi and Fascist terns tandpoint. From the standpoint o: devastating. For the time being, military s they are pitiful, crushing, WAR - 3 Fr&ncefs entire serboard on the English Channel, on the Atlantic Coast and along the Mediterranean will be in the hands of foreign soldiers. | The Petain Government can goverh. from anywhere it pleases^ It can even return to Paris, under Nazi supervision, The military soothsayers point to an interesting fact about the French fleet. Hitler does not propose to try to use it to fight France^ former allies, the British. But the experts declare that he makes this conditions because he can’t do anything else. It means, they say, that he realizes he get surrendered French warships through the British blockade into German waters. Moreover, it is believed that even if he could get theainto German »ters, he wouldn’t have the ^ \ officers and men to operate them. ... \$L , f As a matter of fact.j^te business of^surrender ^ of the Trench fleet leaves a great many people ^ndering. Will | the French officers and their crews obey the co -ana , . ir-ronGe and surrender their Pwtain Government to come be > - 6 Hpraulle. the Ex-Minister 5*4^3 to the Nazis? General Char A WAR - 4 who took refuge in London, announced that he had reason to believe that the men of the French navy would not give up their ships if , Again, if the commanding officers of the fleet were inclined to obey, would the British admirals permit it? _____ _ There is another significant point in those terms. m / The Nazis and Fascists allow the French to retain part of their fleet to protect the colonial interests vOf France, ihc t is taken to mean that the Rome-Berlin;Axis now looks upon France as a virtual ally, though an unwilling one. And that*s the attitude taken in no uncertain phrase ___ by the gritiii. London declares unequivocably thnt the terns i accepted by the Petain government makes France a virtual ally of Hitler and Mussolini. In feet, the Churchill government goes within an ace of declaring war on the Petain gpvemment. It has withdrawn its recognition of Petain and his colleagues and announces that from now on, the British government will leal with the committee in London, headed hy General jleGauUeJfe-Premier Paul Raynaud probably will be on that committee to carry on the war outside of France. f *11 this now is a tragic succession The outcome of all tn^.s 1 11 1 r,nn+ recriminations between the former of recriminations and counter x WAR - 5 allies* The Petain govermaent replies to Londdm with^ complaiit that the British war efforts were insufficient, that tte OLfadf*- , .^.v, 4 . 1 . „ %V*> government tried to wage war in accordance with tne A hn?t£. traditions and compromises. There is vehement criticism in A Bordeaux of the former French ministers now in London, especially George Handel and General deGaulle. j Incidentally, General deGaulle has been officially rebuked, reduced in rank to a colonel, and will he court-martialled in his absence for his ailure to obey orders and come home. ------------------- ^ '— Lon6 after cablei had flashed us the news of the A ’Inal isaing of Aml.tl... 1* .1=" offer bulletin of fnrtber disastera to french eras. Nani communiques continued flash out cries of trlumrt. ««■* ln the heart of the Vosges «o«.t.l»a. edv.ncl.g »•» a~i.s thev had taken twenty Maginot Line. The Nazis announced that th y • r.iurtin,- the comiiianiiing general, three thousand prisoners, including the dleisionel eo„„d.re. on. «ho«s-d officer, .d t.elS. artillery d,t.m,-.«.^.c. aged. hW com-.d is orovdng about the booty captured from the French. On the Italian front, the Fascists also announce that they ha' e penetrated the French line. In some places they were attacking the French from the rear while the Nazis were crushing them from the front. \ ' ~ /fo <£y But all that slaughter is over now, or at least will / be within the hour. And now the French are sitting down once more to the humiliation they suffered sixty-nine years age, Is&Gt-. tfr® military occupation by enemy troops. A DIES A Trojan Horse in the Middle West: That's the sensation offered today hy Congressman Jies, Chairman of the Un-Ameri can Activities Committee. A good many people have been given to understand that the so-called Fifth-Column business was confined mostly to the eastern seaboard. Pursuing the work of his Committee, Chairman Dies has been traveling. He was in Chicago today, and declared that his Committee's investigators had found the Middle West a regular hotbed of Fifth Column conspiracy. Therefore, he has issued subpoenas for forty or fifty peoole, members of three German organizations and two Italian societies. And Dies added that his agents have been watching Communist, Nazi and Fascist outfits in the prairie states for six months. I.- ©rs ' im what G d Italian organizations he . Frive. i eating* T / b byf, .rv bl d t'' t th< 3 1 and }-/ added t t the. Unit ec / - os rig t n a greater system of foreign espiona e vitin its borders than ranee or England ever had. Dies has begun to spread his investigation to cover the Mexican borderf£it*;-lii Texas. He declared today that he has hig surprises in store for us regarding tfoe Nazi propaganda ^Fifth Column plots that ai*e being fomented south of the Rio Grande. A CONVENTION - PERSONAL - 2 I suppose all observers feel just about the same at the end ol tie iirst day at a national political convention -- in a somewhat hopeles daze. I wish I could give you the real inside dope, tipp33fe$ you of! tonight^to who is going to be the G.O.P. c 01 iidate. But, I ia c^inTt do it. tNor do I think any one else can One of the wisest and most experienced of all the political experts here in Philadelphia remarked to me this afternoon that he had never seen such a wide open convention, a convention where anything coultl happen. As you no doubt have heard fcfc there is a lot of 11th hour talk about Wendel Willkie. His boosters are raising a terrific hullabaloo. They are pointing out that they have the man who can stand toe to toe with Mr. Roosevelt and get the better of him in any kind of a bout. But, the — KVfptr , western delegates shake their heads^ Dewey and Taft are both going strong. We hear a lot about Senator Vanderbe rg and Governor James. They are aH saying that the Pennsylvania delegation is the one to be reckoned with, the largest single block of strength in the convention. And over tne whole scene looms the figure of a man who hasn’t yet arrived in Philadelphia, the man who is to speak tomorrow night, the man CONVENTION - PERSQUAL - 3 whom so many are looking toward in this time of world crisis, If De: ey and Taft c m get together,xxEijck well, it i easy to see what would happen. But the political wise men are saying that unless they do their getting together "before the balloting it will be too latejand then, the others — Vandenberg, Willkie, and Hoover will be in the running. in a stand with me for a in the lobby of the BeLlevue- Stratford. Although sane of the candidates have their main headquarters in other hotels they nearly all have,--al-SQjp rooms at the Bellevue. The National Coramittee offices are there. The broadcasting chains have their headquarters in the Bellevue. Also, the press;-the U.P., A.P., tax&. inx I.N.S. and the telegraph companies. seems to be milling around in the lobby of the Bellevue. If you stand trite re long enough yov will meet every person CONVENTION - PEKoONAL - 4 connected with this convention. As Alice Longworth and Siaxmiar Eleanor Roosevelt, Colonel Theodorefs wife.said to me a few moments ago "Vvhy, it ts more exciting here than it is at the Convention Hall”. there is a double thrill to a national Eaxxsnitixm convention for many of us: The thrill of watching the greatest American show; and, the thrill sx of seeing so many j f pwt * old friends. As you stand in the lobby of the hotel, you get a slap on the back and when you turn around It Is an old pal from Texas* eone grabs you by the elbow and it turns out to be Bert Mattel from Honolulu. You put your frg.TT head in a room where you hear clicking typewriters and there Damon Runyon and Bugs Baer, in their shirt sleeves, ripping out their stories, lou con'e around a marble column and bump into Boake Carter and arou d the next one into Wythe Williams. You get into an elevator and encounter Congressmen and Senators. Y01 get off fc -t a floor upstairs and tat in the crowd trying to jam into the Kisfc elevator for tne trip dcwn you see George Sokolsky CONVKNTION - PER: .QNAL - 5 f nous writer and. speaker has lost thirty or forty pounds during this first day of the Convention. k moment later y u bump into the head of one of the largest corporations in Americayask hi wno helfs for and he pul! s his button out ol his pocket saying that he is not wearing it - < 2-0 's called an ,reconoinic royalist", perhaps /v /\ it wouldn't do his favorite any good if he wore the button. And one lovely gray-haired -OOT^pe^womah, Grace Rennolds i/tCH £ir*> £ tr^VV ' n d . ito th-were i] from In iana cane up to remind iro lhot=^were in school together thirty years ago. I could go on inddufinately telling of Mt-t-la incidents, and people met. But in trus hour of world crisis all seems too uni portant. You are A anxious to know who the candidate will be. And, right now Lv